Abortion-Tainted Vaccines & The “Classic Sidetrack”… The Fallacy of Moral Equivalence
Extracts below from the Tradidi Quod et Accepi blog…
One of the favorite tactics used by many people, including those who are trained in moral theology, is the fallacy of moral equivalence, or attempting to convince their interlocutor that there is a close moral comparison between two evils… This is what happened when we first raised our concerns with a traditional priest regarding his order’s early qualified acceptance of the COVID19 vaccine.
[This priest] attempted the classic sidetrack by pointing out that if we pay taxes, we are certainly contributing to government-funded abortions. “How is that really any different?” he asked. Ah, there it is — the faulty appeal to moral equivalence.
Well, it is different — vastly different! And we can easily show this by starting with the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ from the Gospel of St. Matthew. It is where Fr. Dominic Prümmer, O.P. starts in his Handbook of Moral Theology. The specific episode (Matt. 22:16-21) begins with St. Matthew relating that the Pharisees and Herodians plotted together to trap Our Lord. They approach Christ, patronizing Him with fake sycophantic accolades, then attempt to move in for the kill: “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?” Our Lord calls them hypocrites and then demands to see “the coin of the tribute”. He then responds with His own question: “Whose image and inscription is this?” When, with some surprise (as Monsignor Giuseppe Ricciotti surmises in his book, The Life of Christ, regarding this incident), Our Lord’s opponents reply that the denarius is “Caesar’s”. Then, to their wonderment, Christ provides us with those famous words that we all know by heart: “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.”
As various Doctors and Fathers of the Church (as well as countless moral theologians) have pointed out regarding this passage, Our Lord did not say, “Well, first, determine to what use the tribute (tax funds) will be put, then if you deem it immoral, don’t pay it.” The Jews knew well that Rome was using the tribute collected in Palestine and other far-flung provinces of the Empire for the funding of many immoral activities, including the building of temples to the Roman “gods” and the striking of idolatrous images. As Monsignor Ricciotti explained, “. . . let them render it to Caesar, for the simple fact that they accepted and used the coin showed that they also accepted the sovereignty of the one who had issued it. . . Jesus adds the injunction to render also to God, not only to make his answer complete but also to emphasize the first injunction to render to Caesar.” Read entire article here
Comments (37)
Excellent, clear and helpful, particularly the guidance from St Thomas Aquinas on correction.
I agree. That’s a fantastic article at Tradidi Quod et Accepi. It’s very clear and yet avoids too much unnecessary information. An extremely helpful article.
Dr William Philip of the Tron Church in Glasgow, has emailed the link to an article he has had published in The Critic. https://thecritic.co.uk/sweetening-covid-kool-aid/
The editor changed his chosen title (editors DO that quite often – I’m even guilty of it myself) and omitted his closing paragraph, including a quote from Scripture, which reads…
“Medical professionals, and scientists in all spheres today, would do well to remember history, and remember the words of the wise:
Ponder the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.
Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.
Proverbs 4: 26-27 16
Editor,
Here is a letter sent to Sydney’s Archbishop Fisher. I hope he responds because for years I’ve written to him and other bishops re tainted vaccines but the letter gets sent to the diocesan BioEthics Commitees and much to my frustration (and anger!) they always followed the path of “Remote Cooperation” (yes, like some SSPX priests do which also makes me angry!) so in the end I gave up writing.
So I hope the letter will put some sense into His Grace’s woke head! And please do send on to others.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Salve Maria!
Through a friend I have received an email relaying a letter sent this very morning to Archbishop Fisher; it is attached below.
Read it, savour it, rejoice! It’s a long overdue frustrated shellacking of our pitiful Catholic leadership during this whole sorry crisis. Copy the letter and send it on to your near and dear.
God bless,
M……….
FYI – permission granted to share . . .
———-
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 2021 at 9:09 am
Subject: My response to Archbishop Fishers pastoral letter
Attention: Archbishop Fisher
Your Grace
A lack of leadership in secular society can be difficult, and indeed has been for some decades in Australia and around the world. Yet a lack of leadership within the one true church of Christ the King, is a singular disaster.
Your recent pastoral letter to clergy, dated 10 August 2021, is truly a sad testament as to the state of the Church’s leadership, or absence of it, within Australia. One of necessity need object to the ignorance, arrogance and gross imprudence of its content.
Given the length of the document I shan’t waste either of our time with all of it, but will restrain myself to two points.
You rightly point out that clergy should give good example, however, you seem to imply ignorance and imprudence are good example.
Ignorance of the official figures that are freely available to any individual genuinely seeking the truth with regard the tally of deaths, attributable to the very vaccines you are recommending be encouraged to the faithful, and taken by the clergy, is appalling in this case. The fact that any drug trial is automatically terminated immediately if there are multiple deaths, twenty five globally will do it. It makes one wonder why you would place yourself in the position of counselling people to enter a drug trial, when we now officially have in excess of fifty thousand deaths, and none are allowed to even ask a question. You don’t think that is strange? And when exactly did Christ commission clergy to become hawkers of pharmaceutical products? Or give health advice? Or act as government agents? Or be coercive to seek to manipulate the consciences of the faithful?
The fact that you perceive an obligation to give health advice is extraordinary when you seem unable, and indeed unwilling, to carry out your actual directive from Christ the King. At the very time when the sacramental need was most urgent, you and your brother priests were hiding under your beds, taking unlawful and illegitimate orders not from Christ the King, but from the government whom you have decided to serve instead. There will be no hiding at your personal judgement, though looking around the Catholic clergy it is clear to the casual observer, that many have lost their faith long ago. More concerned with their skin than their souls.
Imprudence on so many levels it is embarrassing. You are obviously listening to government and the media. Health advice from a government who has legislated the murder for unborn children right up to the day of birth. The same government who even protect the murderers from any scrutiny. Euthanasia. Sodomy. I could go on, but you get the idea. I’m sure we can trust them. And the mainstream media ever baying for the same agenda. They have been panicking the population for eighteen months with horror stories a plenty. Where is the evidence? Where are the autopsies? Australia had less deaths last year than any previous year. We normally have three hundred thousand cases of flu each year in Australia. Last year we had twenty one thousand. WHY? Strangely enough everyone had Covid, a disease that has as yet not been isolated, and therefore is not ‘scientifically’ demonstrated to even exist. That’s empirical science. Emotion has replaced science, even within the Church. The average age of death for Australians is 81. The average age of presumed covid death is 85. Perhaps we should all get covid and live four years longer.
While you are listening to the government and the media, some of us are listening to Nobel prize winning leaders in their fields, who are screaming from the rooftops the alarm. You on the other hand are apparently listening to the fact checkers who are silencing them. Those faceless untouchable individuals sitting in their facebook or Google cubicle ‘fact checking’ information they know so little about, it borders on criminal that they can censure those who are in fact leaders in their fields. And still the bell is apparently silent within you.
It is abundantly clear for anyone with the slightest degree of common sense, that none of this unscientific emotional nonsense has anything to do with a virus. Every human being is apparently safe at Bunnings and the football, but not in church? There are many people around the world currently gathering evidence for the next Nuremberg trial. The premier of NSW and some of her ministers are guilty of crimes against humanity. She is well outside of many federal laws, Bio security act 2015 section 60 & 61, Australian Privacy Amendment act 2020 section H94, not to mention the Australian Constitution. Many NSW police, and other states, are well outside the 1914 crimes act, and are themselves criminals. The suicide rate is culpable in and of itself.
If the states have the right to override federal legislation, the Australian Constitution and indeed high court precedent, then Australia is open to every tyranny by any individual who happens to ascend to the position of state premier and decides to exercise dictatorial rule. I don’t think our forefathers were that stupid. I’m pretty sure they didn’t expect their offspring would be either.
We have Australian troops at check points on Australian roads policing Australians, and people required to obtain a permit to leave Sydney. What’s next if people refuse to comply. Do we shoot them? Do they have to start loading people into railway cars before you get with the program? Wake up! The culpable ignorance that has been on display from the Australian clergy, and the bishops in particular, is frankly disgraceful.
And just for the record, Pope Francis does not have his own magisterium. Nor is every thought bubble he has a part of the magisterium. When I am looking for guidance, it is unlikely I will look to the sodomy-ridden, scandal-plagued group of hand-picked heretics side-tracked worshiping their pagan pachamama, that currently infest the Vatican. As a Catholic, that would be grossly imprudent. I have the Magisterium of the ages to inform me. It tells me that murder is murder no matter how remote. It also tells me that it is not just about the murder, and the appalling use of foetal tissues, but about the dignity of the temple of the Holy Spirit, that has not only been violated and desecrated, but tortured, as the organs were extracted while the baby was still living. There was no burial or any appropriate reverence for that temple, made for the glory of God by God’s own will. Seen in His eye before time began. I wonder if God thought the child remote in His mind’s eye, before He created the firmament?
So when I use the terms ignorant, arrogant and imprudent, I am being most gracious. When these protesters are marching for their freedom, EVERY catholic bishop should be at the front. Now if only we can find a Catholic Bishop in Australia.
I will seek your forgiveness if you consider me a little blunt, but I expect this kind of intellectual incompetence from uneducated rabble. I expect Christ’s Princes would at least exercise some level of conscientiousness when it comes to assisting their flocks, and their clergy. Your pastoral letter does not reflect Catholic teaching, and should be retracted immediately. It is a blight upon the Catholic historical landscape in this country. Given some of the other garbage that has come out of curia’s around this country, that is a pretty big call!
Yours in Christ, still my King
R…… Smith
Warydoom,
What a brilliant letter! That writer, R… Smith deserves an award!
This was bit was really good:
“Health advice from a government who has legislated the murder for unborn children right up to the day of birth.”
Also, he was clever to ask about the evidence, where are the autopsies? That is exactly right. Where are they? I remember one of the first things Sturgeon did was to stop autopsies. Nobody batted an eyelid.
This, especially, made me LOL!
“The average age of death for Australians is 81. The average age of presumed covid death is 85. Perhaps we should all get covid and live four years longer.” LOL!
I hope R… Smith will let us know if he gets any reply from the archbishop.
Warydoom,
What an outstanding letter. I bet that bishop was tearing his hair out, reading it!
Warydoom,
I can’t praise R Smith enough – that is a fabulous letter. I would love to have been a fly on the wall when the archbishop read it.
Editor,
Dr Philip’s article is stupendous. There is some much packed into it, brilliantly written and loads of information you won’t read anywhere else, I cannot praise it enough. I highlighted these two paragraphs to copy here and then the next paragraphs were even more important, in a way, so I recommend everyone to read it all.
The ethics of trying to pressurize people into vaccination through sweeteners (“Vaccines are the surest way to put Covid behind us and for students to reclaim the freedoms that enrich university life”) or threats (“you owe it to others to get the vaccine yourself”) reflect not the morality of personal responsibility, arising from our Judeo-Christian foundations, but the immoral bullying of a quasi-religious cult.
According to the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA), the hallmark of a cult is “unethical manipulative or coercive techniques of persuasion and control…. use of special methods to heighten suggestibility and subservience, powerful group pressures, information management, suspension of individuality or critical judgment…. designed to advance the goals of the group’s leaders, to the actual or possible detriment of members…” Considering the extraordinary pressure exerted from the top down by leaders and institutional authorities today, it is difficult not to feel we are in the grip of such cultic behavior.
I keep saying that if they have to offer bribes to get people to be vaccinated, there’s something very sinister going on. Also, why the anxiety about getting us all vaccinated when most who get infected, recover from the virus? None of it adds up.
Josephine,
(For some reason your comment to me doesn’t have a reply button there so am posting here.)
I will see if I can be informed of any further correspondence as I too am all agog to see what the response, if any, would be!
Here’s hoping!
Josephine,
I agree about Dr Philip’s The Critic article, it’s excellent.
How shameful to think that young people are being manipulated into taking the vaccine. If that’s not child abuse, what is?
Dr Philip’s article at The Critic is very useful indeed and I totally agree with him about the medical ethics. It’s definitely unethical to push any medical procedure using enticements, but especially unsavoury when the target is young people.
I do believe that there will be legal charges brought in the years to come against all those involved in this fabricated pandemic. We are witnessing shocking crimes against humanity. I hope all those involved are locked up in due course.
Michaela,
I was very impressed with that same article. It’s downright evil that the authorities are trying to coax young people into taking the vaccine by offering them what amount to bribes.
I hope you are right about the legal trials to come. I really do, because this whole pandemic has been a crime against humanity. There today, they’re talking about delaying schools yet again, disrupting the kids’ education. People need to be brought to account.
Bishop Athanasius Schneider in a recent interview similarly highlighted the error of Moral equivalence and threw this same argument under the bus! Deo Gratias
Patrick Langan,
I’d like to read Bishop Schneider’s interview – do you have a link you could post?
ED I didn’t read the Letter or anything Else from this Mealy Mouthed Priest as your first Paragraph was enough. Does He not Know that Christ said ” Let your No be No and Your Yes be Yes . For anything else comes From the Evil One .” Also these Injections are not Vaccines and We know no Matter what Garbage the Rotten BBC and the rest of the M.S.M. Including now on at least a Daily Tone The Equally Rotten Daily Mail, another so called News Outlet, that I and am sure Athanasius with His Comments ( or should I say Non Comments) has consigned to the Bin.
It’s all Lies ,and we know it’s all Lies ,because the Evil One is involved at the Highest Order with these Injections. As I said before. At least lots of Young Women aren’t taking these Injections as they see Friends of theirs Having Miscarriages .
On the Chinese Disease thing. Has ANYONE. ANYONE at all seen any words from Bergoglio to pray for Cardinal Burke ?.
FOOF,
I have to be frank with you, it doesn’t impress me at all when you (or anyone else) takes an imaginary high moral ground to refuse to read material. I’m assuming you mean the priest to whom the author (our very own blogger Marinaio, as it happens) of the Tradidi Quod et Accepi refers.
I have to read a lot of stuff that I don’t like but unless I want to be an imbecile (like Joe Biden – imagine that, I agree with Tony Blair at last!) – unless I want to be an imbecile and only half-informed, I read it.
Having said that, nobody is obliged to blog on any topic. Personally, I would just stay away if I felt unable to read the introduction to the thread. I would be afraid of making a fool of myself by, perhaps, misunderstanding the topic or not fully grasping it.
Just saying (more or less) I’m much more clever than the rest of you so I don’t need to read this, and then launching into the same old same old, isn’t really much help – to put it as gently as possible.
A MESSAGE FOR DEAF GUY
Your comment is in moderation and not being released because this is a discussion on the topic of vaccines. It should be submitted on this topic thread
https://catholictruthscotland.com/2021/08/18/wedding-of-the-year-former-pp-at-sacred-heart-vicar-general-of-glasgow-marries-housekeeper/
Editor,
I thought you may like to know there are some comments that don’t have a reply button.
A bit of a blip in the system, perhaps?
Warydoom,
It’s not a blip on the system – it’s the system! A reply button won’t be available after a certain number of comments (I forget how many, maybe three or five) but after that, if you scroll up to find the nearest reply button and use that, it will appear as close to the comment as possible. OR begin with username and time of comment. If you begin with the username of the blogger to whom you are replying, it is all clear and the conversation makes sense.
At one time there were more “replies” per comment but it was not good. It became unwieldy and so, whatever system we use, it’s not perfect. Once you get used to scrolling up to find the nearest button, it becomes second nature… like coffee and cake, or chocolate and crisps, or… you’ll get the idea 😀
Pope Francis does not see the 10 Commandments as absolutes, but says that taking the Covid-19 is an absolute. There is nothing about the morality of such a vaccine tainted by abortion.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/737102/
Theresa Rose,
Thank you for posting that – utterly shocking – news. I had meant to launch a thread on Francis’s claim that the Ten Commandments are not “absolutes” but I can’t keep up!
Theresa Rose,
Is there anything left to say about Francis? He is truly beyond the pale.
Theresa Rose,
If Francis did view (and obey) the 10 Commandments as absolutes, then he wouldn’t be a Modernist. In fact, he might actually be a Catholic…
RCA Victor,
Spot ON!
Warydoom
Well done to R. Smith for sending such an excellently written letter to Bishop Fisher. It will make absolutely no difference to this prelate, however, since most of the prelates have lost the faith and now serve “the Prince of this world”, as does our Pope. Still, duty has been done by this Catholic writer and Bishop Fisher is left without excuse when he stands before the divine judge to give account of his stewardship.
Editor
Great articles on both the Tradidi Quod et Accepi blog and at The Critic – no one could read those without recognising the evil of vaccine programme. I guarantee, though, that it will not force a re-think and retraction from the leaders of the SSPX, much less the diocesan bishops. Sadly, ecclesiastical pride reigns these days and error abounds, which is why the world has fallen so fully under the control of Lucifer and his servants. Still, we have hope in a few prelates who stand firm in the Church’s moral teaching and display the martyrs’ spirit. God bless that little handful and woe betide the rest in eternity!
Athanasius,
You want the SSPX to admit they may have gotten something wrong? You should be on the stage – they’re looking for more comedy shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, so head along asap 😀
Editor
I know it’s a forlorn task but as things stand we currently have SSPX priest superiors putting their souls in danger of Hell unless they publicly retract the immoral advice they are offering the faithful in respect to these abortion-tainted vaccines. It’s an enormous scandal for which they no longer have excuse before Our Lord. Personally, I don’t care what they think of me so long as they do what’s right before God and the souls under their care.
Right, I’m packed and ready for the next train to the Fringe!
News has it that the FDA fully authorizes the Pfizer Covid “vaccine”. The next question is will other countries follow suit? Quite a change from the emergency authorization.
https://videos.whatfinger.com/2021/08/23/pfizer-vaccine-receives-full-fda-approval/
Michaela,
I agree that Pope Francis is be yond the pale. I cannot think of anything to say, except praying for him.
That was a very helpful introduction – I have often thought about the problem of paying my taxes knowing they were funding the NHS and therefore abortions. That explanation of Our Lord’s words “Give unto Caesar” in the introduction is the very first time I’ve heard that. I am so glad to learn that because it has been like a “loose end” in my mind, feeling helpless because it’s not possible to hold back taxes. I wouldn’t have a clue how to do that!
Cardinal Bernardin’s “seamless garment” theory was a notorious example of moral equivalence. But the treachery of that homosexual Satanist didn’t die with him, it has been adopted by Cardinal Cupich. Here’s a 6-yr. old commentary on Cupich’s attempt to equate abortion with various social injustices:
https://onemadmom.foedus.co/cupichs-moral-equivalencies-are-not-so-equivalent/
RCA Victor,
Yes, that’s the classic type of “equivalence” – Cardinal KP O’Brien of extremely unhappy memory (RIP) did the same when he addressed a pro-life meeting in Glasgow. His opening words were that he wasn’t a “one-issue man”, that he was against the taking of all life, war, etc. The original “Justice & Peace” baloney. No distinction between the taking of innocent and guilty life. Not a brain in sight, so to speak…
The article from the Tradidi blog is excellent.
However, I can’t help wondering how far things will go with the vaccines before the medical establishment speak out. There must be plenty of doctors who know that these vaccines are not safe. What will it take for them to go public?
News just in – a retired Derry GP has been suspended for her YouTube video comments on the vaccine.
https://www.irishpost.com/news/derry-gp-suspended-from-practising-medicine-after-anti-vaccine-comments-in-youtube-video-218881?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=trending
I searched for that video but it’s obviously been removed; I’d actually seen a clip of her speaking on some kind of non-YouTube recording, saying that she was upset at hearing from patients who have been vaccinated and suffering problems. She is a retired GP but returned to service last year, at the start of the pandemic. While searching on YouTube I found this video where she addressed a meeting in Edinburgh in December, 2020. So, she has been alert from early in this scamdemic…
Please pray for her.
Editor
It’s actions like these on the part of the Social Media platforms that prove the very real evil behind this fake pandemic.
Athanasius,
“very real evil” is exactly right. And it is getting more and more evil with the news in the Telegraph today, quoted in The Daily Sceptic, that 12 year olds will be vaccinated first week back at school – no parental consent required.
From The Daily Sceptic…
“The NHS has drawn up plans to start vaccinating 12 year-olds from the first week schools go back. The Telegraph has more.
Health officials have said children would not need parental consent to be jabbed under the programme of vaccination in schools.
On Wednesday, NHS trusts were told to prepare for the “possible rollout of a 12 to 15 year-old healthy child vaccination programme commencing September 6th”. Emails sent by NHS England’s regional offices, seen by the Telegraph, say trusts should draw up plans by 4pm on Friday.
The timetable – with the first jabs administered in less than two weeks – comes despite the fact that the Government’s advisers on vaccination have not so far recommended such a roll-out. On Wednesday night, the Department of Health and Social Care insisted no decision to roll out jabs for 12 to 15 year-olds had been taken.
Until now, Government advisers have said there is insufficient data to support such a move, but further research on the safety of jabs in this age group is about to be published, feeding into their review of the evidence.
In June, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency approved the Pfizer jab for 12 to 15 year-olds in Britain. Last month, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) announced that youngsters between those ages would only receive vaccines if they suffered from particular health conditions.
Jabs are currently being offered to those aged 16 and 17 following a recommendation from the committee earlier this month. They are only being offered one dose, with the JCVI yet to make a decision on whether or when a second should be given.
The caution is linked to concerns over a rare side effect called myocarditis – a type of heart inflammation – which is more likely to be triggered by second doses, and the NHS plans for the rollout to younger children also suggest that only one Pfizer dose should be given.
The emails from one of NHS England and NHS Improvement’s regional offices, sent to trusts on Wednesday, say: “In preparation for the possible announcement of a 12 to 15 year-old healthy child vaccination programme commencing September 6th, we have been tasked by our national team to request some additional detailed planning information from all systems.”
Trusts are asked to provide details of how they could vaccinate at least 75% of children aged 12 to 15 by November 1st.” Ends.
It’s a mad rush – why?
Editor
Well, my letter to the Vaccines Minister, Nadhim Zahawi, which will be published in full in the CT newsletter, means that he and Javid have no excuse when children get sick and possibly die from these vaccines, which are completely unneccesary for children. They now know from that letter, if they didn’t know before, the dangers of the vaccines expressed by top doctors in the field of immunology and will therefore be criminally culpable for any harm or deaths their new mandate for children causes. Worse yet for them is their determined will to break the law by removing the legal right of parents to say no.
This is why Dr. McCullough says they are desperate to get a needle in every arm because the end game is mass global depopulation. If parents stand for this evil then upon their head be it if they lose their kids as a result. People really need to waken up now and rally against this wickedness. The entire business is a deadly scam!
https://www.facebook.com/CentreForBioEthicalReformUK/videos/4259280244150793
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