Denver, Colo., Mar 29, 2020 / 05:00 am (CNA).- Sarah Sefranek, a Catholic wife and mother living in Parker, Colorado, is 37 weeks pregnant with her fourth child.
While she normally homeschools her other children even when there’s not a global pandemic on, coronavirus restrictions have changed what normal life looks like for everyone.
“It’s not regular homeschooling” right now, she said. “Regular homeschooling means you go out, you see your friends, you do exciting things.”
Sefranek and her family have been doing their best to stay home and maintain social distancing in order to avoid getting the coronavirus, especially so close to her due date. They’ve stopped going to the library, they’ve stopped playdates and book club meetings. Sefranek told CNA her husband leaves the house only to get groceries or other essentials.
But, like most pregnant women, even if Sefranek remains healthy, labor, delivery and postpartum recovery will likely look very different for her than they would have without pandemic restrictions.
“I know the things that were helpful to me when my (other babies) came, like having a meal train and having my mom come over. Now I can’t have playdates for my big kids while I’m recovering. I don’t even know where people are going to get the meat to make me meal for a meal train. So it is strange,” Sefranek said.
Things “suddenly felt a lot more serious” for Sefranek when her doctor offered to do a telemedicine visit for her 38 week appointment instead of an in-clinic appointment. Normally, at this point in pregnancy, Sefranek would be going in for weekly visits until she delivers. But her doctor told her this time, unless she had serious concerns that something was wrong, it would be best to do the visit over a video call.
Looming large among Sefranek’s worries – what happens if she, or her baby, get coronavirus?
“Recommendations are changing all the time, but right now, if I tested positive, they would want to separate the baby from me at birth, which is pretty scary to me,” she said.
There is also a shortage of coronavirus tests in most places in the U.S. Sefranek wonders what would happen if she showed up to the hospital to deliver, and had a cough or a fever, but could not get tested.
“I feel a little bit like I have to hide in even more of a bubble, because I feel I can’t catch anything at all. In a way, I feel I’m more scared of being separated from baby than I am of the virus itself,” Sefranek added, which she admits is “maybe not rational.”
A dearth of research on coronavirus and pregnancy
Information about pregnancy and coronavirus is scant, as the disease is so new and there has not been enough time for extensive research.
While pregnant women are not considered immunocompromised in the classic sense of the term, their immune systems are considered “suppressed,” meaning they are more susceptible to illnesses like the flu or coronavirus, and may suffer more severe symptoms and complications than they normally would have, were they not pregnant.
“With viruses from the same family as COVID-19, and other viral respiratory infections, such as influenza, women have had a higher risk of developing severe illness. It is always important for pregnant women to protect themselves from illnesses,” the CDC website states.
The CDC notes that it is still unknown whether mothers infected with coronavirus could pass the illness on to their babies, though it says that so far, no infants born to COVID-19 positive mothers have also tested positive for COVID-19. The virus has also thus far not been found in the amniotic fluid or breast milk of mothers who have tested positive.
There have been a small number of reported complications in pregnancy or delivery in mothers who are COVID-19 positive, though the CDC notes that it is unclear if the complications were related to the infection. Women of childbearing age are also in age categories where coronavirus death rates are not as high as older populations.
Jennifer Murphy is the medical director of the Pregnancy Support Center of Carroll County in Maryland. The pregnancy center helps women in crisis pregnancies or with low incomes with material assistance such as diapers, with medical care such as pregnancy tests or sonograms, and by connecting them with additional resources.
Murphy told CNA that so far, her center has not had any of their clients test positive for coronavirus. As a precaution, they have moved most of their operations to the parking lot, and only bring women into their facility if necessary, and once they have been screened for symptoms.
“You always worry that pregnant women are more susceptible to things than other people. So far, the data doesn’t seem to show that,” Murphy said.
“I’m not making light of it, but there’s so much in the news that’s horrifying, but most people will actually come through this just fine, and there’s not so far any evidence that pregnant women do worse than anyone else,” she added.
Murphy said she has been telling her clients to remain calm, to practice good hygiene and quarantine protocols, and to be in close contact with their doctors if they do suspect symptoms of coronavirus.
“It’s a lot of quelling of anxiety, a lot of folks who are just very afraid, and understandably,” Murphy said. “But anxiety isn’t good for you when you’re pregnant either, so we’re trying to emphasize positive things they can do quarantine-wise, and keeping their environment clean and calm as much as possible, and trying not to think too far ahead about bad things.”
“Pregnancy is a time of anxiety anyway, especially first time moms,” Murphy added. “And it’s hard not to have this add a great burden, but just to try to stay focused on a few good things and taking care of your baby. So just (focus on) keeping yourself safe, and probably not even overexposing yourself to media, because I think that just makes it worse,” she said.
“Be informed, but don’t make yourself crazy.”
Disrupting birth plans
The lack of information on pregnancy and coronavirus worries Anna H., a Catholic in Long Island, New York, where the pandemic has hit the hardest in the U.S. thus far. She is 22 weeks pregnant with her first child.
“It’s just the unknown,” Anna told CNA.
“There isn’t enough research on how it affects pregnant women, how it affects babies. I know there’s a lot of research that says that it probably isn’t too bad for the babies, but I also have asthma,” she adds, an underlying condition that could worsen the effects of coronavirus, a respiratory disease.
Anna, who teaches high school theology, said her school has been closed since March 12. She’s been teaching online, which is easier on her body, and she’s less worried about exposure now that she and her husband are working from home. She said she’s also grateful for the stay-at-home order in her state, and hopes the aggressive approach will slow the spread of the virus and relieve some of the pressure on hospitals and doctors.
Already in New York, some overwhelmed hospitals are not allowing pregnant women to bring any support people with them – no spouses, parents, children, friends or doulas.
“I’m pretty nervous about that,” Anna said. She and her husband joke that they would schedule a home birth with a midwife if it came down to him not being allowed at the birth – and Anna knows a Catholic mom in the area who has delivered all five of her children at home.
But she’s hoping it doesn’t have to come to that, and that things will calm down by the time she needs to deliver.
“Right now I feel like we don’t need to worry about that too much. We can put it in God’s hands for now,” she said.
Baylyn Wagner, who is 28 weeks along and due on June 19th with her third child, has already decided to change her labor and delivery plans in light of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Initially I thought, ‘Oh, it’ll for sure be over and done with by June and we won’t have to worry about delivery,’” Wagner, who lives in Minnesota, told CNA.
But then she started hearing reports of hospitals restricting support people for pregnant women to one person, or to no one. Her own hospital emailed her and told her that they would only allow one support person, even though Wagner had been planning on her husband, doula, and birth photographer attending her labor and delivery.
Wagner said her doctor tried to reassure her. Wagner had a late loss in her second pregnancy – she miscarried a little after 21 weeks – and in light of that, Wagner’s doctor said she would do her best to advocate for the hospital to make an exception for Wagner’s husband to be present for the birth of their third child.
“But she said if it gets to ‘full crisis mode,’ those were her words, they absolutely could limit it down because their priority is keeping their staff healthy. I know hospitals are doing what they can, but for us…with the anxiety we already had with this pregnancy, we chose to look into midwives to do a home birth option,” she said.
After talking with four different midwives, Wagner said it sounded to her like a lot of couples were making the same changes.
Wagner said they’ve also changed their contract with their birth photographer to a more tentative plan, that accounts for whether the photographer is sick and cannot come to the birth.
Wagner lives with her grandparents, so she said they will watch her son while she gives birth at home. Her grandfather is also a Catholic deacon, and she said she is considering asking him to baptize her child soon after the birth, in the event that churches are not yet open.
“There’s really no way to know right now what things will look like by June, if things will be better, if we’ll able to have Masses again by that point, or what the world will look like,” Wagner said.
Keeping calm, trusting God
Claire Le, who lives in Littleton, Colorado, is expecting her first child with her husband Huy. The Le’s said they stocked up on food as they saw the pandemic worsening, and since then they have been staying home as much as possible to avoid any exposure.
“My main fear is if I contract the virus, then I would have been in ICU and then my husband can’t be there during the delivery,” Claire said. “And then also, if hospital protocols get even worse, there may even be a chance he may not be there. So, right now we’re trying to control what we can, and trying to both stay healthy.”
“I think we just constantly remind ourselves that this is not in our control,” Huy added. “I mean, we can pray for a good May 1st due date where everything’s just back to normal, but things like that are not really under our control.”
Thinking about postpartum recovery is what makes Claire a little sad, she said. Her family is out in California, and they were planning to come see the baby and help out after the birth. But now, they’re not sure when a visit will be possible.
Huy and Claire are also wondering about the baptism, and if it will be performed privately.
Claire said she has found peace in prayer and offering up the situation to God.
“I know God’s been with us from the very beginning, from conception, and he’s been with us the whole way. I know we’ll be okay,” she said.
Huy said staying connected with loved ones, watching daily Mass on YouTube, and praying together as a couple has been helping them stay calm at this time.
“We went to a chapel which was relatively quiet, that gives us a little bit of a release where we can just go there and with God for a while,” he said.
Anna said she has been trying to balance her worries and anxieties by also counting her blessings.
“I always try to think about what blessings I have at this time: more time with my husband, more time prepare for the baby, more time to rest,” she said. “The fact that I’m not on my feet all the time is really helpful…teaching is physically demanding because you’re on your feet so much.”
The time at home has also afforded her more time to pray, Anna said.
“I did a novena to St. Gerard (a patron saint of pregnancy) when we first got pregnant and I just started the other day to do another novena to St. Gerard,” Anna said. “(I’m also) able to live stream daily mass, where normally when I’m a teaching I don’t have time for that.”
Wagner said she and her husband have been trying to say a daily rosary in order to stay calm at this time.
“(We’re) especially meditating on what Mary and Joseph went through and their pregnancy and their birth with Jesus, and uniting our own uncertainty to what they experienced,” she said.
She’s also been using Hallow, a Catholic prayer app that leads users through guided meditations similar to the popular Calm app, but based on Scripture readings.
“They’ve had a whole series of little guided meditations on different ways to cope with isolation and stress through all of this, so that’s been a nice tool and prayer as well,” she said.
Sefranek said the pandemic has made her identify more closely with women experiencing unplanned pregnancies, and helped her realize how much of life is out of her control.
“I planned this pregnancy nine months ago,” Sefranek said. “I didn’t plan to have a baby in the middle of pandemic…maybe every pregnancy, every birth, in a way, is unplanned.”
“I don’t want to diminish the pain and the difficulty of a real crisis pregnancy,” she added. “It just is reminding me of that…(because) so much of this outside of my control.”
Sefranek said she’s been saying a lot of “midnight rosaries” when she wakes up from pregnancy discomfort, and that’s been helping her to feel at peace, though she deeply misses the sacraments. She said she’s also been connecting with loved ones virtually to help ease her anxieties.
She is also paying attention to the small blessings in her life. For example, she said, the other day she found out that she had two extra boxes of sticks for her fertility monitor that she will need to track her cycle once the baby is born. She had previously been worried – panic buying has caused the sticks to be scarce online.
“(It was) a small thing, but maybe God had a plan for me and he used my absent mindedness to give me this small thing right now that could increase my peace,” she said.
“So that was a nice reminder that God can work through the things that feel really frustrating in the moment.”
[…]
Let the teachers, parents, and students who do not like the policies go, and stop worrying about how to please them.
It’s not like dissenting parents & teachers don’t have other choices in educational opportunities. Especially in the Portland area for goodness sakes.
Absolutely, they don’t like or agree with Catholic teaching then the question is “how will evangelization help those who don’t agree with it, who believe the secular definitions of gender out weighs that which was deemed by God our Creator as Truth, that is man and woman, boy and girl.
I agree, you either conform or go to the public school. Christianity is not always an easy road to follow, or pave for our youth.
We don’t have to participate in directly or indirectly, the slice and dice of our youth, especially when they are under the influence of growth hormones.
Some of these ‘parents’ likely do not have children in Catholic schools and are attempting to transform the Catholic Church into a materialistic/’diverse’ church which is clearly visible in some of the non-Catholic churches. Satan comes in all shapes and sizes and the church as resisted this many times over. Hold tight and protect God’s Kingdom and the teachings of the Savior.
For years now, homosexuals have purposely tried to get hired in Catholic schools, precisely so they could object to Catholic teaching, then get news media to pressure the bishop. This is an old game by now. Archbishop Sample simply forced their hand. They have exposed themselves and now we know who the really really bad teachers are who should never have been teaching in a Catholic school anyway.
Genesis 1:27
We read: “More than 1,000 people in the archdiocese’s Catholic community signed statements opposing the guidelines…”
With 15,000 students, and assuming two school students per family and, possibly, 1.5 parents per family, and assuming that all of those signing the statement of concern are parents directly involved in the schools (e.g., are not contracted teachers, or enlisted bystanders), then even this means that at least 80% of the parents did NOT sign the statement.
A strong mandate to stay the course! Bishop Sample’s document was overdue but still came in time.
As for Fr. Biewend and, yes, the “preciousness of every child,” perhaps he can reconsider protecting each child long term from short-term socio-chemical experimentation–as if they were lab specimens for the business-as-usual pharmaceutical/medical industrial complex.
1000 signatures but have they actually been verified to be the parents of enrolled students?
Good point
“…1,000 people in the archdiocese’s Catholic community…” It doesn’t say they were in any way connected to the schools, i.e., parents, students, teachers etc. There are over 400,000 Catholics in the Diocese of Portland so less than 0.25% signed the statement.
Oh! And…where those 1,000 people who signed actually Catholic? Were any Jewish or Hindu or Atheist or Protestant or anything else? If a Catholic school has good test scores, that draws all sorts of folks who are not necessarily Catholic.
People are quick to comment but this isn’t the full story. Sample has removed women from the alter. He’s suggesting that Spanish no longer be taught in schools, only Latin. As for the gender identity, I wonder how many of you have young kids in today’s society? They are exposed to everything whether they have a social account or not. Many are biological girls who are going through the awkward stage and trying to figure things out. They are not seeking suppress hormones or surgery. It would be nice if the church would allow them time to get comfortable in their skin while teaching them about a loving God instead of turning them off of religion. How many of us knew who we were in middle school? Where is the grace? To my knowledge, the group hasn’t even made any requests beyond a meeting.
Why is being a “biological girl” different now than when it was when I was a teenager 40 years ago? Back then, you didn’t have people on social media telling girls they were boys, or telling boys they were girls.
The issue is more that kids are more aware than 40 years ago. They are aware of various issues ranging from fashion to environmental to gender identities. My daughter told me in 7th grade that it was rape awareness day. I’m not even sure I knew what rape was at that age. She went through a baggy clothes stage because it removed her shape. She was tired of males of varying ages look at her chest. She’s not showy, quite the opposite actually. She felt that women are sexual targets so she wanted to reject that what made her feel weak – the female gender. What is the Church doing to encourage this thought or the opposite and prove that because she is female it does not make her weak? For her, she has gotten more comfortable in her skin.
I’m not saying that’s everyone’s journey but I do think if people just let these kids breathe a little, the child can figure themselves out in an age where they are exposed too much. Kids’ minds are black and white at this stage and there are many gender identity options that didn’t exist even 15 years ago let alone 40. They have a rigid definition of girl or boy and find they don’t fit so they look for another category. Some folks may continue that identity throughout their lives, but for some they find out that they can be a female who likes to play in a creek with frogs and then later may want to embrace a more stereotypical feminine side or be the entire sliding scale of female in one day! Same for males.
My other child was born a girl and currently identifies as a boy. I asked why does “he/him” feel more comfortable and he doesn’t know. He’s 12. Who knows if it will stay. (Again, that is my kid’s experience only.) I do know that my child is a loyal friend. If he sees a child walking around on the playground who looked lonely, he would see if they are okay. He made PB&J sandwiches during COVID and handed them out to homeless and saved some tadpoles today from a puddle that was soon to dry up because he doesn’t want any living thing to hurt. Some may say we should mandate that he use the correct pronouns because his age. He also became very depressed before the pronoun switch to a point that right now, the most important thing he know is that his parents love him whoever he is. And while we are struggling through this, instead of feeling like we can go to the Church for support, we feel abandoned and pushed aside.
It seems like portions of the Church are ready to “throw the baby out with the bath water”. He hasn’t asked for gender suppression hormones or surgery. He just wants people to be nice to him. Because he is struggling to get through this middle school phase of maturing, are you suggesting we boot him from the church because only the pure can stay in the faith? Who is pure enough? I don’t remember Jesus saying, “Bring me only the pure!” The world could stand to learn to be more compassionate. Ask why and what can I do to help others. I think we’re more alike than we are different. Like the family we are, there’s a place for us all.
Why are you allowing your daughter to pretend she’s a boy? You are reinforcing her spiritual illness by going along with this fallacy. She needs to hear the truth, especially from the one person in her life who can give her security and confidence. God created her a female. That is the truth. The culture that teaches otherwise is to be rejected. That’s the most loving thing a parent can do. Of course you love your DAUGHTER for who SHE is. Walk in truth and encourage her to love herself the way God sees her, not the way the evil culture wants her to see herself.
My other child was born a girl and currently identifies as a boy. . . He . . .saved some tadpoles today from a puddle that was soon to dry up . . ”
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So what I am getting is that your daughter is a tomboy. Guess what, it is perfectly okay for a girl to want to dig around in the mud. She is a she. Not a he.
Although Blaire White, a “trans-woman,” is dressed rather, um, provocatively, s/he has just dropped a video about a de-transitioned high school “biological girl” who was put on testosterone, and then decided she really was a girl.
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Much food for thought here. There are several de-transition videos on YouTube actually. Some are just heartbreaking.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCSXVA9RZ-I
I’m very sorry to hear about your family situation. Truly. But you are the parent. Children can pretend to be anything they want to during play time but a parent’s role is not to enable delusions.
And for goodness sakes playing in a creek with frogs is neither a masculine nor feminine pastime. It’s just being a child.
Yes, biologically being a girl doesn’t differ much from 40 years ago but the easy availability of hardcore, violent porn to young people has changed since then.
It affects young men and boys, their expectations of women, and how they approach relationships. It’s not a pleasant scene and some girls just want to check out of it.
I think getting women off the altar is a good thing. If we could remove laypeople from the altars period that would be even better. It’s a huge distraction during Mass.
Well, lay people gone? Then you could not have an altar boy. My husband is an “altar boy”—Eastern Churches often have men in that role as well as boys/teens.
But, I think women can find other ways to be helpful. No need for altar girls.
Yes, sorry. Altar *boys* are a different matter. I think the older notion of minor orders for boys & young men was a good thing. Once it became “ministries” instead of minor orders we got the distracting crowds of people on the altar we see now.
I’m not a liturgical expert but I think minor orders is what I’m thinking of. Correct me if I’m wrong.
Good for your husband & God bless him.
Spanish should be an option, but so should Latin.
Yup & foreign languages should be taught ASAP. The younger the student, the better they are at picking those up.
We read: “People are quick to comment but this isn’t the full story. Sample has removed women from the alter.”
At first we might have thought “alter” was a misspelling. But this wonderfully encapsulates the mixed ecclesial and cultural meltdown–the “full story”–of our sexually confused and even transgender predickament…from altar girls to alter girls.
No such thing a a “biological girl” (as if implied in this left open the possibility of a “non-biological girl). It’s apparent where you’re coming from and so little gravitas accrues to your opinions.
I applaud Archbishop Sample for his principled stand. In this he is adhering to church teaching. The priest who had the temerity to speak in contradiction to both Church teaching and his bishop’s guidance, in of all places a Catholic school’s graduation, should be admonished, at the least. Cafeteria Catholics are severely weakening and hurting our Lord’s church, but when His priests are picking and choosing what doctrine to preach …. tough times. The diocese, it’s children, laity and clergy are in my prayers. St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle!
The Archbishop would be well advised to understand that the 1,000 people who signed this document do not want compromise. They want the large majority to capitulate.
#1. Priests who support unnatural gender ideology are more than likely sympathetic to sinful homosexual lifestyles. Don’t doubt me on this.
#2. My unwavering support goes out to Archbishop Sample. I am reminded about certain churchmen who were unhappy with the content of Mother Angelica’s EWTN. Her response to those who wanted to exert influence over it like Mahoney of Los Angeles was that she’d blow up the whole damn thing before she’d let Mahoney get his dirty little hands on it.
My diocese has the same guidelines and nobody here has raised a fuss. If a few parents, teachers, and administrators cannot support these reasonable guidelines because of their ideology, they are better off elsewhere.
Archbishop Sample is not stupid so he must have foreseen this reaction.
May he stay the course and may his tribe increase.
Amen.
The Lord is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph…Lord of hosts, you who test the just, who probe mind and heart…you have entrusted my cause. Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord for he has rescued the poor from the power of the wicked – Jer. 10:13. Holy Spirit I pray that you continue to strengthen the likes of Archbishop Sample, Archbishop Corddileone, Bishop Strickland, Bishop Barron, and all our holy Shepards as they battle the old demons of Sodom and Gommorah.
Don’t give in to the progressives. They will not stop until they have absolutely eradicated Catholicism and Christianity. And Catholic parents who are siding with them don’t want a Catholic education for their children. Go elsewhere to mess up your children’s lives.
What we need: https://www.google.com/search?si=AMnBZoEofOODruSEFWFjdccePwMH96ZlZt3bOiKSR9t4pqlu2Mng6I0BqKeYFhgC_v71I9gC1j41jLZx6YaDvlKvsmHzedCbQytXt_oaGXfib8KLAisn4dZsDkDqfc674ESkIpf-4i2cvCxsr1luVGfJzzuniz_ds_Qd417LrZGhYGl9T5GTgujdiEOSxYTMv1slN5xZu1FQaMNz0kP_lehhQkLvyO0j3s9vAOhiMGX7wtJrHaBvPOSnCzFAp2436QsuUzX3vTALyAAaTMiWlBKhXqyuxoK1A4lCftVOm0mEx3mN2Nr7s-M%3D&q=Mark+Trammell&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjgrMLcneX_AhWQBUQIHTtFDwsQs9oBKAB6BAgdEAI&biw=1536&bih=714&dpr=1.25#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:7c3eb0ae,vid:Dmf7HB02yi0
Thank you Bishop Sample and may God be behind you always. The frightening prospect is that once the cowardly Francis puts his imprimatur on the the Synod of sexual deviancy, it is those parents and teachers who will be running the Diocese. Time to start building Priest holes and planting hedges.
Ironically (?), this battle may play out in the public school, where Muslims are starting to make their presence felt (at least here in Ontario).
God bless Muslim families who resist this sort of thing. That’s very encouraging to see & especially so when Muslims & Christians unite together to protest.
Be very, very careful here. Nice to have some allies, but Islam qua Islam is still a most significant threat to Catholicism, all of Christianity, Judaism, and the world in general, and it’s not simply a case of what some wrongly maintain is just a “radical” form of Islam. The basic doctrines adopted by all of Islam are flat out barbaric in many respects, even if many Muslims do not, thankfully, adhere to many of these beliefs and practices. There is no such thing as a “radical Islam” or a “moderate Islam” even though many misguided people believe and promote this absurdity in order to wrongly defend Islam.
Ironically, those Muslims wrongly identified as “radical” by misguided apologists are simply those who most fervently and more completely adhere to the doctrines and practices of Islam that include at times implementing most egregious forms of violence, including murder, in violation of basic human rights that are to be enjoyed by all.
William Kilpatrick has been featured from time-to-time in CWR, and he has written some very insightful articles and a few books that expose what continues to be one of the greatest and most destructive ideologies that has spread its evil for some 1400 years and counting. One insightful book in particular to get a good handle on the danger of Islam qua Islam that cuts through the absurd defense of Islam is Kilpatrick’s “What Catholics Need to Know About Islam.”
By the bye, since I know you also like to increase your knowledge of history from time-to-time (I hope you have already enjoyed the series of Thomas Sowell’s videos I previously recommended.), in the past few years, more and more historians are becoming a bit braver in exposing some serious flaws and major league holes in the mainstream narrative regarding the origins of Islam. Of particular note is the discovery of some 30-plus versions of the Quran (not just different languages; instead, different versions with different passages) that one prominent Muslim leader admitted was a serious problem because of the claim/belief of there being only one version of the Quran. Also noteworthy is the lack of any evidence of the existence of the city of Mecca until some 200-plus years after the alleged time of Muhammad (Oops), and perhaps greatest of all is the lack of any supporting evidence that Muhammad himself actually existed as the narrative portrays him. At best, evidence that has emerged strongly suggests that Muhammad was the creation primarily of one Muslim writer along with a few other lesser writers based on the extreme embellishment of one small tribal leader named Muhammad during the very early years of Islam into the “super prophet” some 250 to 300 years after he lived. Also quite amazing is the fact that much of what is written about Muhammad’s alleged life just happens to coincide with what was experienced by another individual who lived around the time of the aforementioned writings some 250-300 years after Muhammad’s supposed lifetime. Yowza!
Food for thought: If more and more people of the non-Muslim world would give up the PC approach to Islam (alas, Pope Francis has been seriously buffaloed by mainstream claims and propaganda on behalf of Islam), and embrace the findings of recent history in support of objective truth, Islam would rightly collapse in due course, and this great heresy would no longer be able to spread its evil in its continuing mission to eventually have a worldwide barbaric caliphate ruling all….If only…..
Thank you for sharing those thoughts, Doc. I actually watched a YouTube video that questioned & explored the origins of Islam, maybe a BBC produced program. The conclusion of was that Islam’s origins were obscured by time & at the end of the day it really matters more about belief & practice. To be fair, historians featured on the BBC also have similar doubts about the historical Christ.
I think we need to find common ground where we can whether amongst Jews, Muslims, Mormons, or whoever still upholds traditional views on marriage & family. People of faith are not the enemy here. Radical secularism is.
We part company here a bit, mrscracker. Islam is a very serious enemy of the Church and Western Culture, and it is not even close to being a trustworthy ally in the fight against radical secularism. Moreover, secular humanism is fed by evil from the spiritual world: “For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12).
Moreover, recent ecumenical efforts always prove to be virtually one-sided to the point of doing despicable things like removing or covering crucifixes in Catholic Churches and other Catholic buildings so as to “not offend” Muslims when they visit certain locations. This simple denial of the great symbol of what our Lord did for the world just scratches the surface of the many kinds of shameful kowtowing that has been done with nothing to show for it in terms of curtailing any of the unjustified and ongoing violence authored by Muslims in fulfillment of Islamic mandates to engage in such violence. Islam is most definitely Not a religion of peace.
Moreover, Islam does not have legitimately traditional views on marriage. In fact, Islam’s official treatment of women is absolutely appalling, and in marriage the woman has very little rights. Sharia law actually permits and advocates using physical force that includes striking disobedient wives. And on and on and on it goes.
In your kind heart, I know you hope the best for all, but despite there indeed being some fine individuals who happen to be Muslim, the objective reality is that Islam in and of itself has been and remains significantly barbaric, and this has not changed via any ecumenical efforts, especially when it is part of the Islamic creed that all Muslims without exception must work toward achieving an imposed dictatorial caliphate that rules the entire world. In other words, absolutely no real and lasting peace unless under Islamic rule, and there is no convincing Muslim leaders and teachers of a better way because it’s part of unchangeable Islamic doctrine in existence for over a thousand years and continuing.
Do yourself a big favor and get a copy of Kilpatrick’s book to also learn how Islam often finds common cause with much of the secular world when it comes to attacking Western Civilization.
In addition, check out the following website (many articles and pieces of encyclopedic-type information) that has opened many eyes to the sad but real reality of what Islam really is, and its ongoing belligerent jihad against everyone else:
https://thereligionofpeace.com/
What does that mean,”a conscience that’s informed with the preciousness of every child.” Sounds like dribble to me. How can you support Fr. Biewind with a statement like that. We know how a Catholic conscience is formed, through instruction on the Church’s Doctrines. And no watering them down.
Re Muslim parents raising their voices – See The Daily Signal on Interfaith parents speaking out in Maryland.
DocVerit above – Thanks for your entry. I agree with your caution that we not be naive about Islam.
I agree. I’m a Catholic school teacher who often times feels like the Lone Ranger when it comes to wanting to be Catholic. We had employees of the archdiocesan education department quit as well when our archbishop upheld Church teaching on gender ideology.
Any priest or principal that truly cares about the preciousness of each child would also uphold Church teaching that male and female He made them, each in their precious likeness to God, who knows who He made each to be.