I'm so sorry for your loss. Many people die of Pneumonia every year and it is vicious. Sending prayers.
If you check the news it does seem there is more cause for concern. 1. Another person appears to have contracted the plague 2. The US Embassy in Moscow has urged its citizens to leave Russia 3. Mongolia has intitiated special controls at its borders. U.S. State Secretary Marco Rubio urged Russia to share more information, while President Donald Trump said he planned to address the matter in a call with President Vladimir Putin. “U.S. citizens in the area should follow the guidance of local health authorities, avoid affected facilities, and seek medical care promptly if they develop fever or respiratory symptoms,” the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said in a statement. It emphasized that the U.S. government has “limited ability to help U.S. citizens in Russia, especially outside of Moscow,” citing reports of hospital quarantines following the death. The embassy reiterated that U.S. citizens are advised to depart Russia and not travel due to security concerns. The U.S. State Department’s Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory for Russia has been in place since January 2022, on the eve of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2026...russia-over-siberian-plague-suspicions-a93899 https://www.democrata.es/en/interna...in-the-face-of-a-possible-outbreak-of-plague/ https://www.politico.eu/article/world-health-organization-who-information-pneumonia-russia-plague/
Traditional pneumonia in the elderly has been referred to as “the old person’s friend”. Not a prolonged agony and goes fast. Losing someone is a shock though under any circumstance.
This video made the point that I've been thinking, which is, if the young woman truly broke a vial of pneumonia plague, it is highly likely she would have immediately been treated and her death prevented. I suspect that she either died of something coincidental that had nothing to do with the lab, or she died of some other secret thing we don't know about. Perhaps Russia has designed something to use in war, and it is how they will quickly overrun Europe? Or perhaps this was just an unfortunate isolated event. Young people do suddenly die, especially after the Covid/vaccines era. There are a lot of rumors swirling around, but what we saw at the beginning of Covid doesn't seem particularly similar to what's happening with this. And the rumor that a second person died of pneumonia plague is unsubstantiated, as far as I've seen.
Please God it is nothing. We will see in a week or two. But my sense of things is we are being lied to. Once again.
Not that I would equate the laity with the population of hell. But I take your point. Logically, I see a reason why he couldn't hand the keys to the population of hell, because God and evil are incompatible and so can't be united in any way. But I think you are using this to illustrate that the rules of logic itself seem to breakdown if Peter, the Rock upon whom the Church is built, is able to give away his infallible authority - at all, at all. That would seem to be, if it were ever to come about, a renunciation of his authority. Indeed, the point has been made by others that the first step in the renunciation of Papal authority was already made by St. Pope Paul VI when he ceremoniously gave up the wearing of the Papal Tiara. One has to wonder too why Pope Francis renounced the title of 'Vicar of Christ on earth'. However, that opens up a whole can of worms, given the Saintly status of Pope Paul VI, so it is only a tentative statement, as I do not wish to go there. Perhaps these are only amateurish attempts by me to philosophise and theologise.
It might be true. It might be true, but exaggerated. It might be the West’s latest ruse to stir up fear and loathing against Russia. Who can one trust? From what I read, it is a bacterium, not a virus. Therefore, it should be treatable with antibiotics. There is a report of 90-100% mortality, but this might only refer to the mortality rate, if untreated. There’s a huge effort to spread fear through the population. A population of which large numbers have no belief or even concept of an after-life is a sitting duck for this propaganda.
That is exactly my point respecting the logic, or the lack of, with this proposal. I don’t know if Paul VI surrendered all papal authority, when he gave up wearing the papal tiara. It is arguable that he only abdicated any claim to political, worldly authority. That would still leave him with his spiritual authority. Of course, this might have left him in a weaker position when he pronounced Humanae vitae, but I don’t myself think it would have made any difference. The popes up to the time of Constantine were regarded as the enemies of the Roman State, never mind having no political influence whatsoever. Yet, this was the time when, proportionately, the Faith spread faster than at any time since. Did Peter have a tiara?
The idea of the the Popes being able to have temporal authority dates back to the Donation of Constantine which was a Fake cooked up document which modern scholarship has shown was a fake cooked up by clerics to allege that the Emperor Constantine had left the Western Roman Empire (including Rome and Italy) to the Popes. This great lie was perpetuated almost until the present day with Papal forces fighting and dying for the Papal saints. Ironically Irish men went out to die for the Papal States in the mid 1800's (the year of Revolutions) when the Secular modern Italian State was being born. I say ironic because Ireland was never part of the Roman Empire so all this great fraud and nonsense was none of Ireland's concern. The idea of Popes exercising temporal power gives me the Willies. It is just a Land Grab. Popes have no right to be trying to be Kings. Pope Julius, for instance, the Warrior Pope actually went out stiffed people for this greedy nonsense. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donation_of_Constantine
Traditionalists should take note of this, that not all Traditions are good. Popes for centuries went along with this Great Fraud and Land grab. All a murderous lie. May God forgive them. Terrible.
There was suffering, death, and curtailment of freedoms during the covid-19 tragedy. Yet, here we are: our God is faithful! If a similar scenario is about to present itself, avoid the hype, surrender everything to the Two Hearts, help one another, and be at peace. Jesus, I trust in Thee!
Yes, when I said others have said that I should have said "Traditionalists have said", not others on this forum. Good point. One would find it hard to even imagine Peter with a Tiara - the humble fisherman who denied Jesus 3 times and then had to face Jesus again. I think Traditionalists are not claiming that, but rather a first step on the pathway to renouncing Papal authority. I also would question whether wearing a papal tiara exclusively denotes a temporal authority of the Pope. Perhaps it came to be associated with that because of the temporal power of the Popes in history? Could it be just a symbol of the spiritual authority (not temporal) given to Peter by Jesus. We have the Feast of Christ the King and many depictions of Him wearing a Royal Crown. Could the Tiara be just a symbol, and a softened, lessened one at that, of that spiritual authority, befitting to the one who is the head of all those on earth who are acting in persona Christi. Given fallen human nature, might it be a symbol to facilitate the flock in recognising the spiritual authority of Peter in a post-biblical world. I am only asking questions. I agree that not all traditions are good and that on the surface the papal tiara does not seem to resonate with the Gospel, i e., "those of you who want to be the greatest among you should be the servant of the very least among you."
There is a story about Brother Roger, the saintly founder of Taize meeting Pope John xiii in the Vatican. He waved around him and said to the Pope, 'What has all this to do with Christ?' To which the saint replied, 'Lente, lente'. Slowly ,slowly, which meant it must be changed but that it could only be done slowly. I don't have a problem with wonderful churches and Cathedrals. To the Glory of God all this is fine. It the rich palaces for the Clerical elites that concerns me. When I see a Cardinal with a gold cross studded with jewels it makes me cringe. A Episcopal ring that could buy a car. Yuk. But new Popes, Cardinals and Bishops can find themselves kind of imprisoned by the past. If they sold off all the rich trappings they could be accused of selling off the Patrimony. So I can see how they might go along with it all. https://history.hanover.edu/texts/vallapart2.html I know that for a long time now men's ears are waiting to hear the offense with which I charge the Roman pontiffs. It is, indeed, an enormous one, due either to supine ignorance, or to gross avarice which is the slave of idols, or to pride of empire of which cruelty is ever the companion. For during some centuries now, either they have not known that the Donation of Constantine is spurious and forged, or else they themselves forged it, and their successors walking in the same way of deceit as their elders
What you say would depend on what were the intentions of Pope Paul when he made that gesture. I don’t know what he considered he was doing when he refused the tiara. Perhaps, there is a record to be found. I have read a little recently about Pope Paul. I have come to be more inclined to think that he was less liberal than I had previously thought. I doubt I’ll ever pray to him (lots of other saints, thank you very much), but I think he was more guilty of cocking up (and in a hugely spectacular way) than of any deliberate conspiracy against The Church.
