Gab brought this homily by Fr Marcus Goulding to my attention at the beginning of the week. I’ve included both the video and written version of the homily below.
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I look forward to the day I do not need to preach against the policies and decisions of our current state government. That day is not this day.
Summary of the Pandemic Management Amendment Bill
So far, the government has been managing the COVID pandemic using the powers granted to it under the State of Emergency. These powers expire in December and cannot be renewed. Consequently, if the government wants to continue to enforce the many COVID rules with which we have become so familiar (such as the wearing of masks, mandatory vaccination, density limits and attendance caps), it needs to create a new set of powers for itself with new legislation. So, this week, the state government announced that they were bringing just such a new bill to parliament called the Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Pandemic Management) Bill 2021.
- Section 165AB of the Bill enables the Premier of the day to declare a pandemic without reference to a vote in parliament. It allows the Premier to make a “pandemic declaration” even if a “pandemic disease is not present in Victoria”.
- Under section 165AI, once the Premier makes a “pandemic declaration”, the Health Minister will have the power to make what are called “pandemic orders”. The Bill defines a “pandemic order” as “any order that the Minister believes is reasonably necessary to protect public health.” In practice this means the Health Minister can do anything he personally deems necessary to protect public health. The Bill lists some of the orders a Health Minister might like to make: orders requiring the detention of persons, orders restricting movement, orders regulating public or private gatherings, orders requiring provision of personal information, and orders requiring testing and medical examination of persons.
- Section 165AK of the Bill enables the Health Minister to make orders that “differentiate or vary in application to persons or classes of persons as defined in the Equal Opportunity Act.” In other words, the Health Minister would have the power to make orders of unlimited scope for specific classes of people, such as the unvaccinated, the partially vaccinated, the chronically ill, religious or ethnic groups, people of certain sexualities, or people of certain political persuasions, if he, in his personal opinion, believed these groups to be a threat to public safety.
- Section 165BA of this Bill also gives the Health Minister the power to make orders requiring the detention of persons indefinitely without access to a court for reasons other than quarantine.
- Finally, the Bill imposes fines of up to $90,000 or two years imprisonment on individuals found breaching the Health Minister’s orders, as well as fines of up to $450,000 on businesses or organisations found breaching the Health Minister’s orders.
Twenty-five QCs have published an open letter in The Age expressing their grave concerns about the content of this Bill. In their letter, these Queens Council explain that the Bill will “allow the Victorian government effectively to rule the State of Victoria by decree for the foreseeable future, without Parliamentary oversight or the usual checks and balances on executive power.”
In summary, this Bill practically grants the Premier and Health Minister unlimited power over the State of Victoria for as long as they like, so long as they, in their personal opinions, decide that Victoria is merely at risk of experiencing a pandemic. If the government did not intend to use these powers, they would not have developed this Bill. Mark my words, if this Bill passes parliament, the Premier will mobilise these powers the moment the state of emergency ends.
Means of opposing the Pandemic Management Amendment Bill
This Bill passed the Legislative Assembly, Victoria’s lower house of parliament, on Thursday, with the support of your local member of Parliament Steve McGhie. It will now be considered by the Legislative Council (the upper house), who will vote on it in two to three weeks. The government requires the support of several cross-bench MPs to pass this Bill through the upper house. On Thursday, I wrote to every member of the upper house to express my serious concern about this Bill. In these letters, I remind our parliamentarians that:
The Australian Westminster system is designed so that no single person or party can exercise complete control over our society. No threat to our welfare, however grave, can justify the sort of powers that the Premier proposes to grant himself and his health minister. Not even in the world wars did our leaders deem it necessary to ascribe such powers to themselves. This proposed legislation is a threat to the very fabric of our free and democratic society.
On Friday, I wrote to our local MP Steve McGhie after he supported the Bill in the lower house. To Steve McGhie I wrote:
Your support for this legislation demonstrates that you are not fit for office. There are some matters that have a higher claim on members of parliament than party politics. The integrity of our free democracy is one such matter. You have no excuse for taking a party-political line on this legislation. Be advised that, on a regular basis from now until the election next year, I will be reminding our parishioners that you supported this legislation.
Brothers and sisters, you, too, must write to our parliamentarians. I have placed some preliminary resources on our website and will continue to update them over the next couple of days. All you need do is indicate your opposition to the new pandemic legislation. We must write to our parliamentarians; writing, alone, however, is not enough.
Yesterday I attended a protest against this Bill in the city along with two brother priests, a few parishioners, and thousands of other Victorians. It is important that people demonstrate their opposition to this Bill with their physical presence. The protest was passionate but peaceful. I am sure there will be more protests in the next week or two. I encourage you to consider attending one. Still, I do not believe that even public protest is enough to stop this Bill.
Wake up: we are in a spiritual war
Today, people speak a lot about being “woke”. Broadly speaking, being “woke” means that you are “awake” to injustice. It is time that we wake up! Open your eyes! We are in a spiritual war between God and Satan for every human soul. This war has been raging since the fall of Adam and Eve and continues to rage in different manifestations in every time and place. The war is raging particularly fiercely in Victoria at this time. From this spiritual perspective, we can see that this Bill is an instrument of Satan because of the sweeping powers it grants the Premier and Health Minister over every aspect of life.
Against Satan stands the Son of God, Jesus Christ. He has already won the decisive victory against the forces of Satan and He provides us with the tools and weapons we need to share in and extend His victory. As we heard in Psalm 17, “My God is… my shield, my mighty help, my stronghold.”
The first weapon Jesus gives us is His Law: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength… [and] You must love your neighbour as yourself.” If we live according to God’s Law, we know that Jesus is victorious in us. If we do not live according to God’s Law, Satan is victorious in us.
The second set of weapons Jesus gives are the sacraments. The sacraments provide us with the graces we need to live God’s Law. One sacrament, above all the others, is of critical importance in this spiritual war: the sacrament of confession. How many excuses we make to avoid going to confession: I don’t know what to say, I don’t have anything serious to say, I am too embarrassed, I don’t know what to do… These excuses will not cut the mustard at your judgment. We all sin every day in one way or another. Get over it. Jesus has gone to the trouble of suffering and dying to offer you mercy and forgiveness. If you don’t know what to say or do, pick up a book, search the internet, or ask the priest. Start going to confession regularly, once a month or more. For the Baptised, the sacrament of confession is our most potent weapon against Satan.
Our third weapon is prayer. We must pray, pray, pray that this Bill does not pass. In particular, let us pray the Rosary daily until this Bill is voted on in the upper house. Mary has promised us that her Immaculate Heart and the Sacred Heart of her Son will triumph.
This is a magnificent homily and an example of fearless pastoral leadership. You can find the information he referred to near the end here.
Well said.
He’s right about spiritual warfare, even if it is a rearguard action. A retreating enemy can still take hostages and burn down villages and do untold damage.
There is no doubt that this is a naked grab for untrammeled power by Dictator For Life Dan.
Any opposition or dissent to him whether inside Parliament or outside will not be tolerated, and could well be crushed with very punitive fines or lengthy jail sentences, just because he or his health minister calls “pandemic”.
And there will not be a thing that the courts or anyone else can do about it.
This is the gravest and most chilling threat to democracy and civil liberties in Australian history, and the greatest misuse of power.
I ask again, where is that spineless tosser of a PM when we need him?
“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” – Lord Acton
And to think that President Trump was the one accused of being “fascist.”
Even he never had (nor sought) these powers.
I’m old enough to remember real Catholic Priests giving similar homilies about the evils of communism and the sinfulness of voting communist or assisting the communist unions with their cause. Now most priests I’ve encountered lately are soy latte, gaia worshipping, social justice asses and socialists.
Section 165AK of the Bill enables the Health Minister to make orders that “differentiate or vary in application to persons or classes of persons as defined in the Equal Opportunity Act.” In other words, the Health Minister would have the power to make orders of unlimited scope for specific classes of people, such as the unvaccinated, the partially vaccinated, the chronically ill, religious or ethnic groups, people of certain sexualities, or people of certain political persuasions, if he, in his personal opinion, believed these groups to be a threat to public safety.
So effectively Maximum Dan thinks hes channeling Pink Floyd.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8urkDqSoc54
Are there any queers in the theater tonight?
Get them up against the wall!
There’s one in the spotlight, he don’t look right to me,
Get him up against the wall!
That one looks Jewish!
And that one’s a coon!
Who let all of this riff-raff into the room?
There’s one smoking a joint,
And another with spots!
If I had my way,
I’d have all of you shot!
So any Aboriginal groups expressed concern they can be singled out for ‘special treatment”
Gay groups?
etc..etc…etc.
The Bill is indeed disgusting and evil, as are those that created it, as are those that support it.
Lee says:
November 3, 2021 at 7:03 pm
This is the gravest and most chilling threat to democracy and civil liberties in Australian history, and the greatest misuse of power.
I ask again, where is that spineless tosser of a PM when we need him?
All indications are that this “spineless tosser of a PM” is the driving force behind all this.
This type of legislation will be passed federally in due time.
Just remember that all good Nazis only ever do “legal” things…..and their contract for the sale of Australia included the “vacant possession” clause.
The Dicktater of NaffDanistan and his deranged minions really should take a step back and contemplate a bit of old Latin “advice”
“Momento mori”..
It applies to ALL of us, always.
Anyone who claims otherwise, or acts as if it is not applicable, is criminally insane.
And here in what is left of the “Sunshine State”?
The “betters” have just elevated the talking chainsaw from CHO to State Governor and we have a Health Minister by the name of De’Ath; (a step up from the Mexican’s “Hazzard”); all you need to know, really.
The Victorian Health Minister needs to do something now – get this bat eared mong locked up in a padded cell.
Fr Francis Goulding is a man of God and recognizes evil when it threatens. I am not Catholic. Indeed, not very Christian, but I have learned that evil truly exists. Fr Francis’s call to arms to fight this evil is heartfelt, brave and necessary. Daniel Andrews is evil to the core. That Andrews, our head of state, when attending a public inquiry, even contemplated carrying a bible in his left hand as a prop to flag his supposed honesty when all along he intended to tell lies, testifies to his contempt for truth and morality. He spat in the face of God and Victorians. A nasty evil person.
“Have you ever noticed,” said Dimble,” that the universe, and every little bit of the universe, is always hardening and narrowing and coming to a point?”
His wife waited as those wait who know by long experience the mental processes of the person who is talking to them.
“I mean this,” said Dimble, answering the question she had not asked. “If you dip into any college, or school, or parish, or family—anything you like—at a given point in its history, you always find that there was a time before that point when there was more elbow room and contrasts weren’t quite so sharp; and that there’s going to be a time after that point when there is even less room for indecision and choices are even more momentous. Good is always getting better and bad is always getting worse: the possibilities of even apparent neutrality are always diminishing.”
? C.S. Lewis, quote from That Hideous Strength
(I’ve been thinking a lot about what Dimble said, lately. I think we’re at one of those particularly pointy bits of history and people will need to ‘choose this day, whom you will serve’.)
By the way, I’ve just been looking at photos of our 2 hour old grand daughter. Thanks be to God.
like my Nanna said it did.
like you mem, I’ve not been the most devout.
what I’ve come to understand is the utility of God, and therefore to understand that God does indeed exist.
… it’s an extension of what Descartes said
Hallelujah, Amen.
Does our Constitution mean anything anymore?
We’re all in this together?
During this pandemic and it’s aftermath I have railed & cried at the madness that has engulfed us. Upon reading this message of this fine priest I have cried once more.
But tears are not enough & are useless. We must all do whatever we can & use whatever means we have to resist the theft of all that we hold most dear.
Thank you Doverbeach for conveying this inspiration to us.
Bemused:
Yes.
It means that words on paper mean nothing against tyrants.
We’ll let this issue build a head of steam, then HoP time.
No, it doesn’t. It means that he can do whatever he damned well pleases as long as he says it’s for public health.
Forced blood donations. Forced sterilisation. Close down a rival food factory. Define the opposition leader of the day as a threat to public health. The only limitation is what they deem they could not get away with.
It is not inevitable at this point that it will be enacted. It appears that it may be, but depends on Ministers Andy Meddick (Andy.Meddick@parliament.vic.gov.au), Fiona Patten (fiona.patten@parliament.vic.gov.au) and Samantha Ratnam (samantha.ratnam@parliament.vic.gov.au) in the Legislative Council. The other cross benchers are against it.
If it is enacted, the legislation will be exercised as fascist power against any purported enemies of the worldview of the Labor Party of Victoria. I would like to see how that goes down with a tired and weary and multi-jabbed Melbourne and Victorian populace, who have just been released from the 200+ days of enforced lockdowns (everything closed, businesses bankrupted, suicides and the like) to be thrown into another lockdown on the basis of Delta+, Lambda, Mui or whatever strain. And then see people dragged out of their homes and frog-marched off by VicPol to the gulag for quarantine or imprisonment.
We do have an election in November 2023; the ALP obtained 43% of the primary vote last time. But prayer and action are called for. And Catherine Cumming, Tim Quilty and David Limbrick are trying to awaken opposition to this insidious piece of legislation.
Under these powers, even an election could potentially be cancelled, in the same way that parliament was suspended for so long. In fact, I suspect that this legislation has been brought about because the incidence of COVID positive cases in fully vaccinated people will start rising and another pandemic can then be be called. I received an email from the aged care centre where my mother lives and a staff member, who has been fully vaccinated, has been tested as COVID positive. This will only become the norm.
Now most priests I’ve encountered lately are soy latte, gaia worshipping, social justice asses and socialists.
The RC priest whose masses I’ve been following online is a good man, but even he felt the need to offer a prayer of intercession that COP26 would “succeed”.
The cross benchers might not fear an an election.
I wrote some time back to the Victorian Electoral Commission asking if an election would occur December 22 and whether the VEC had been consulted in the framing of the Emergency Bill.
The VEC replied promptly: that they were not consulted in the framing of the Bill.
The VEC then outlined the procedures that would occur at the 2022 election.
I wrote back to ask whether, proposed Bill would have capacity to influence the constitutional provisions in the VEC in ways that would mean the 2022 election could be deferred, cancelled.
There has been no reply from the VEC.
“If the ruler loves to use his knowledge to alter the laws, constantly manipulates public matters for his personal benefit, alters and changes the regulations and prohibitions, and frequently issues all sorts of directives, the state can be destroyed.”
HAN FEI-TZU, “PRECURSORS TO EXTINCTION”
Consider Yen-tzu’s observation that the ruler of a doomed state
“likes to boast; his wisdom is meager but he likes to rely on himself, he is estranged from the noble an lowly; the great ministers neglect the rites; he inclines to flatterers and sycophants while slighting worthy men, takes pleasure in being rude and uncouth and in manipulating the common people; the state lacks common laws; the people lack pattern and order; he takes those skilled in sophistry as wise, those harsh to the people as loyal … takes pleasure in other people”s grief and finds profit in their hardship; his virtue is insufficient to embrace the people and his government is inadequate to nourish them; [his] rewards [are] insufficient to stimulate them to goodness and [his] punishments inadequate to prevent evil — this is the behavior of a doomed state.”
http://www.colinturner.com/colin-turner-yen-tzu.php
From Wikipedia:
The Enabling Act (German: Ermächtigungsgesetz) of 1933, officially titled Gesetz zur Behebung der Not von Volk und Reich (“Law to Remedy the Distress of People and Reich”),[1] was a law that gave the German Cabinet—most importantly, the Chancellor—the powers to make and enforce laws without the involvement of the Reichstag and with no need to consult with Weimar President Paul von Hindenburg. Critically, the Enabling Act allowed the Chancellor to bypass the system of checks and balances in the government and these laws could explicitly violate individual rights prescribed in the Weimar Constitution.
This Victorian Bill is our very own Enabling Act.
If you ever wondered how Hitler could ever rise to power, why people apparently did nothing to stop him, but thought it could never happen here, think again.
I’m in WA so can actually attend Mass. We had Prayers of the Faithful for “the issue of climate change” about 2 months ago – mentioned pagan, animistic, gaia worship to the PP and we haven’t had that prayer since. Our PP is a simple man with a good heart and means well. But FMD, I was astounded that he really needed to be told. But I am grateful that I can attend.
If Vicpol wasn’t full of arseholes this could never happen.
On a side note,
The old Pig Latin phrase:
“Nil Illegitemii Carborundum”, (Don’t let the bastards grind you down”), applies here.
Probably make a good T-shirt until the slugs started busting heads for “obscene Latin in a public place.
I’d hazard that the suicide stats for these benighted times will be “massaged” to the point of oblivion. Like the published numbers for iatrogenic deaths and injuries and railway timetables; two other great works of Australian fiction.
The old Australian Military Law had a wonderful “catch-all” clause specifically designed to leave no turn unstoned:
“Conduct to the prejudice of good military order and discipline”. It was not actually used very often, because “charges” for anything were usually only laid when an individual was basically too thick or determined, to avoid doing or saying something stupid in front of witnesses.
Hence the indelicate “order”, “March in the guilty bastard”. Very similar to the Napoleonic Code. The old Mil. Law has long since been replaced by the more “civil” style Defence Forces Disciplinary Act, with all that such a change entails.
It is painfully obvious in which direction this country is being “nudged”.
I don’t think there’s much chance the Upper House is going to reject this simply appalling piece of legislation but if by some miracle it does, it will be thanks to the courage of Fr. Marcus Goulding and people like him.
As usual our worm of a PM is nowhere to be seen or heard.
The instruction to pray on “the issue of climate change” probably came from the bishop – they seem to obsess about such things, having long since lost their faith in the God who acts in space and time – and was likely in response to something the pope said in the lead up to Glasgow. Pity the poor priest at the bottom of the command chain, caught between the rock (get it?) of obedience to the hierarchy and the hard place of parish life where the long term weather and man’s influence over it is hardly a burning question, no matter what the pollsters say.
Fr Goulding will know of what he speaks. The restrictions on Victoria have disproportionately hit churches and synagogues, while knocking shops have stayed open as a sop to Fiona Patten. This new law will make such discrimination overtly legal. Foley is a Stalinst enforcer and was up to his neck in the corrupt and contemptible political conspiracy against Cardinal Pell.