Catholic Candle note:  In order to warn our readers about the prevalent errors of our times, we have included this article to contrast true meditation with eastern false meditation.

Just as the Mystics of the Catholic Church teach us about the three stages of the spiritual life, namely, the purgative, the illuminative, and the unitive; the devil tries to mock these stages.  So he uses false religions to mimic the mystical life and perfection of the soul.

In our modern times the devil uses the same old tricks and doesn’t have to come up with new ones.  Just as in the Old Testament there were many nations with false gods and false religious practices, so even now, there is still the worship of false gods and the use of religious practices.

One false religious practice prevalent today is Yoga.  In order to understand the evil and dangers of the practice of Yoga, it is crucial to understand some of its history.

Actually Yoga is a prayer method of meditation from Hinduism or Brahminism.  It is interesting to note that Buddhism, which also uses a method of meditation, also comes from Brahminism.[1]

The Catholic Encyclopedia explains how Brahminism is also called Vedism and dates back to 1500-400 B.C. The Vedas (veda means wisdom) are four primitive books: the Riga-Veda, the Sama-Veda, the Yajur-Veda, and the Atharva-Veda.  These books contain ancient hymns to many false gods, ritualistic prayers, exorcisms, and magical incantations largely inherited from primitive Aryan days.[2]

Next the Encyclopedia tells of the Brahmanas (dating back to 1000-600 B.C.) which are a series of explanations of the contents of the Vedas. These Brahmanas were composed for the priests, the Brahmins.  In addition, there were the Upanishads, a group of treatises, (dating back to 800-400 B.C.) which gave the pantheistic speculations on the nature of deity and the end of man.   Lastly, there were books called Sutras, to accompany the Vedas, to explain the proper observance of the rites and customs. These works and two epics (the “Ramayana”, written in 400-300 B.C. and “Mahabharata”, written about 500-400 B.C.), make up the most important Brahmin literature.

In the early period of Veda, the religion was based on many deities great and small which were the personified forces of nature.  The priests were called Brahmins. There were not temples at this time and the heads of the households would perform their oblations at their homes.  The priests would assist in the more complex offerings.[3]  These circumstances remind one of the Mosaic Law, and knowing that this religion is a false one, it is easy to see how the devil inspired this cheap mimicry of the Old Testament true religion.

Among the other pagan practices, the Hindus worshipped their dead relatives with the thinking that even though the relatives were in heaven, their happiness was determined by the devotion of those left behind.  In addition to this, they worshipped nature.  For example, the cow was reverenced, as well as trees and serpents.[4]

In general, Brahminism was constantly evolving which is another key sign that it is a religion inspired by the devil.  In the period in which the Sutras and Upanishads were formed, a two-fold change came about.  The Catholic Encyclopedia states,

On its practical side there was an exuberant growth of religious rites and of social restrictions and duties, while on the theoretical side Vedic belief in the efficacy of personal deities was subordinated to a pantheistic scheme of salvation.  Thus the earlier religion developed on the one hand into popular, exoteric Brahminism, and on the other hand into priestly, esoteric Brahminism.  The former is reflected in the Brahmanas and Sutras; the latter in the Upanishads.[5]

The Brahmins imposed a strict code for the people to follow, with many rites for purifying, with complicated liturgies and practices for both the priest and the laity.  Some of these were clearly diabolical, for example, smearing themselves with cow-dung, and strange things like the sipping of water and the suppressing of breaths.

The priests were very exacting and taught that punishments would be severe if the people didn’t do the most rigorous penances.  The priests taught a doctrine of karma (action) which was connected with the idea of rebirth (reincarnation).  The lasting bliss of heaven was held out to the just; the wicked were punished with different fates.  There might be long periods in hell or there might be a more or less extensive series of rebirths in the forms of plants, animals, and men.  A man may have to pass by slow transition through the rest of the ascending scale till his rebirth as a man of honorable estate was attained.[6]

This doctrine of rebirth gave rise to absurdities like, for instance, not being allowed to kill insects.  Water had to be strained so that minute life wouldn’t be destroyed.  Carpentry, basket-making, and leather-working could not be done because it would mean killing of a plant or animal.  Ironically, on the other hand, they had strict rules for being respectful to parents and superiors, being honest, being chaste (even though allowing polygamy), being temperate, and giving alms. They had a system of castes— warriors, priests, farmers, and servants.  Only the two upper castes (classes) were allowed to learn from the ‘sacred’ Vedas books.

The priests, the Brahmins, when their sons were grown up, abandoned their homes and spent the rest of their lives in retirement apart from the villages.  These were like begging monks and ate only the simplest of foods. They subjected themselves to extraordinary fasts and mortifications.[7] They were known as Sannyasis or Yogis and their penitential life was not to make up for past sins, but as a means of acquiring abundant religious merits and superhuman powers.

Coupled with these mortifications, was the practice of Yoga.  The Catholic Encyclopedia describes this practice as follows:

They would sit motionless with legs crossed and, fixing their gaze intently on an object before them, would concentrate their thought on some abstract subject till thy lapsed into a trance.  In this state they fancied they were united with the deity, and the fruit of these contemplations was the pantheistic view of religion which found expression in the Upanishads, and left a permanent impress on the Brahmin mind.[8]

Since there was a popular trend among the people to monotheism in their Vedic hymns, the Brahmins decided to make another adaptation to the religion.  The Brahmins invented Prajapati (later they changed his name to Brahmā), who was supposed to be a personal god who was the lord of creatures, omnipotent, supreme, and masculine.  He was considered to be the creator of all things.  For this reason the other gods of their pantheon were worshipped as manifestations of Brahmā. Because their religion held that it was impossible to create something out of nothing, all things visible and invisible were considered as emanations from Brahmā.  They also believed that every form of conscious individuality, whether human or divine, implies a union of spirit and matter.  Yet the Brahmins who studied the Upanishads, taught that the ultimate source of all things was not the personal deity, Brahmā, but was the formless, impersonal, characterless, unconscious, great, all-pervading spirit known as Brahmă.  Thus, they believed that the heavens, and the earth, men and gods, even the personal deity Brahmā, were destined in time to lose their individuality and be absorbed into the great all-pervading spirit.  The conclusion of this thinking is that the manifold external world had no real existence and that only Brahmă existed.[9]

This impersonal pantheism of the Brahmin ascetics led to a new conception of the end of man and of the way of salvation. The old way they had taught was to escape rebirths and to store up merits of good deeds so that they could earn an eternal bliss of which they could really be conscious.  But now, they taught that the only way to escape from constant ‘rebirths’ was through the saving recognition of one’s identity with Brahmă.  As soon as one could say with conviction, “I am Brahmă,” then the bonds that tied him to the illusion of personal immortality, and consequently to rebirth, were broken.  The Catholic Encyclopedia phrases it as follows:

Thus, cultivating, by a mortified life, freedom from all desires, man spent his years in peaceful contemplation till death put an end to the seeming duality and he was absorbed in Brahmă like a raindrop in the ocean.

The encyclopedia explains (in 1913) that this is still the teaching of the Brahmins up until the then present day.

However, human nature being what it is, it is understandable that the impersonal Brahmă was not a favorite with the majority of the people in India. This was the case not only because the impersonal Brahmă was incapable of hearing the prayers of the people, but because the people did not like the fact that their final end was one of losing any conscious existence.  The Brahmins still were concerned chiefly with meditating on their identity with Brahmă, and practicing mortification to secure their freedom from all desires. Yet, the common people were looking for a way to secure for themselves eternal conscious bliss. The result was the popular development of special cults to two of the old gods; each was now raised to the position of supreme deity, and credited with the power to secure a lasting life of happiness in heaven.

These two cults seem to have arisen in the fifth or fourth century B.C., and these cults were rival cults.  One cult was of the ancient storm-god, Rudra, who was destructive in tempest and lightning, and renewing life in the showers of rain. This god, better known under the name of Śiva, meaning ‘the blessed’, is popular because he was associated as the destroyer, the reproducer, and was the archetype of the lonely ascetic.

The other cult was of the god Vishnu, who was originally one of the forms of the sun-god.  He was seen as a mild, beneficent deity whose genial rays brought gladness and growth to living creatures.

Then the pantheism in the mind of a Hindu saw all things as emanations of the supreme deity Śiva or Vishnu.  Each cult worshipped one of these two and each of these gods was thought to have a special heaven, where his devotees would find after death an unending life of conscious happiness.[10]

Because the Brahmins saw that these two cults were becoming more and more popular and that their teachings about Brahmā were falling out of favor with the people, they once again saw that it was expedient to invent some concept to help the people keep an allegiance to Brahmā.  They now taught that the supreme god Brahmā was associated with Vishnu and Śiva as a triad of equal and more or less interchangeable deities. Brahmā held the office of creator, or rather evolver. Vishnu was the preserver, and Śiva was the dissolver. This so-called trinity was called Trimurti (meaning tri-form).

More astonishing still was that the common people created the belief that Śiva had two sons, named Ganesa (who was the lord of troops and of mischievous imps) and Scanda (the god of battle).

In addition to this, the common people took two of the legendary heroes of the remote past, Rama and Krishna, and raised them to the rank of gods. The people started to refer to them as incarnations of Vishnu.  Each incarnation was regarded as a sort of savior.  In fact, these two incarnate saviors became so popular that the people lost sight of Vishnu.  We Catholics can see a plain parallel to the concept of Our Lord being Our Savior and it doesn’t surprise us that the devil would mock Christ in this false religion.  The Vishnaites became divided into two rival schisms — those who worshipped Rama, the Ramaites, and those who worshipped Krishna, the Krishnaites.  There were two epic stories written about each of them.  The one about Krishna was written in the seventh century A.D.  It is not surprising that the epic about Krishna has many similarities with the life of Christ, which certainly shows that they copied parts of the life of Our Lord.

The Catholic Encyclopedia explains how the successive wave of foreign conquerors of India caused a steady weakening of the Brahmin influence.  As a consequence of these foreigners in India, the population became more heterogeneous.  Both Śivaism and Vishnuism departed more and more from traditional Brahminism.  Each cult had a decided dissenting attitude toward the older religion and toward each other.  This change brought about the people accepting immoral rites and base superstitions.  Although asceticism was pushed to a fanatical extreme, the religion’s false version of charity was used as an excuse for gross impurity.[11]  

The caste-distinctions were now broken down and the people asserted that men and women were equal, at least in public worship. The Brahmin rites were replaced, for the most part, with ones peculiar to the cults of Śiva and Vishnu and the two ‘incarnations’ of Vishnu.  These rites were held to be all-sufficient for salvation.  Hence, temples, idols, and impure symbols of these gods arose up everywhere.  Each rival cult held their cult to be supreme and tried to get others to submit to their cult while at the same time holding the other’s cult in contempt.   

The Catholic Encyclopedia further explains these sectarian degradations were caused by the latest innovation of worshipping the female side of these deities. The people insisted in having each of their gods have a wife.

Today the two main cults still exist, but have split into many schismatic divisions that are tolerant of each other.  Both lay an emphasis on frequently reciting the names of their gods.  Each person wears a string of beads around his neck to help him recite the names often.  (This is the devil’s insult of the rosary.)  Each person, when young, is initiated into one of these cults and given a ‘sacred’ motto called a mantra.  The daily recital of the mantra was required to serve as a profession of faith.  Another customary practice was to brand the body of the worshipper with the symbols of the sect.

One final point of importance regarding the particulars of this false religion is how the odd practices of this religion are a further proof of the devil’s influence to mock truth and to degrade man into not using reason.  This is, namely, the ridiculousness of their highest form of worship.  For the Śivaites, this rite would involve the Śivaite carrying a white pebble shaped into an impure symbol and he would mutter his mantra while sprinkling it with water and then applying cooling bilva leaves to it.

The Vishnuite rite was less degrading but more childish. This involved worshipping a statue of Vishnu, Rama, or Krishna.  The image is awakened daily, undressed, bathed, decked with rich robes, decorated with jewelry and a crown, fed with choice foods, honored with flowers, lights, and incense, and then entertained with vocal and instrumental music and dancing girls.

But why study the particulars of Hinduism?  Precisely to see how perverse and ridiculous this religion is, that is, how the devil inspires this sort of thing.  Furthermore, to be able to understand why the traditional Church’s condemnation of their false meditation (Yoga) should be remembered in our times of Apostasy when so many ignorant or naïve people get involved with Yoga.  But before addressing the modern trend to practice Yoga, let us first look at two associated errors.

The Church condemns Quietism and Theosophy.

There are two errors which are connected with Brahminism and have been condemned by the Church, namely quietism and theosophy.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia quietism is

The doctrine which declares that man’s highest perfection consists in a sort of psychical self-annihilation and a consequent absorption of the soul into the Divine Essence even during the present life.[12]

Quietism is not the same thing as (and should not be confused with) the prayer of quietude or the prayer of quiet.  The Catholic Encyclopedia makes the following distinction about “quietude”:

In the state of “quietude” the mind is wholly inactive; it no longer thinks or wills on its own account, but remains passive while God acts within it. Quietism is thus generally speaking a sort of false or exaggerated mysticism, which under the guise of the loftiest spirituality contains erroneous notions when, if consistently followed, would prove fatal to morality.[13]

Whereas the prayer of quiet is considered in Catholic mystical theology as one of the degrees of contemplation, quietism is not Catholic at all and is condemned as heretical.  In fact, in its essential features, Quietism is a characteristic of the religions of India — Brahminism and its derivative, Buddhism.  Brahminism aims at a sort of self-annihilation, and Buddhism aims at attaining a state of indifference in which the soul enjoys an imperturbable tranquility.  Other forms of quietism sprang up in history, e.g., in Spain a man named Michael de Molinos developed a strict quietism.  (He was condemned by Pope Innocent XI in 1687.)[14]

Man naturally desires to be united to God and to see the Beatific Vision.  God made us with this desire.  However, the heresy of quietism involves this union as a sort of forcing ourselves on God[15] and is a denial that God chooses His Elect.  As St. Thomas Aquinas teaches, first God chooses a soul, then He loves that soul, and then He makes that soul worthy of His Love.  Yet, the different forms of quietism perverted this order in some way, e.g., either by man somehow becoming absorbed in an impersonal “God”, or that man had as his supreme aim in life on earth, the contemplation of some kind of vague uncreated “light” whereby he was intimately united with “God”.  The means for attaining to such contemplation was prayer, complete repose of body and will, and a process of auto-suggestion.[16]

The Church condemned the errors that man in the present life can attain such a degree of perfection as to become utterly impeccable; that the “perfect” have not need to fast or pray, but can freely grant the body whatsoever it craves; that they are not subject to any human authority or bound by the precepts of the Church.  In other words, that a man can become so perfect in this life that he no longer has a need of external worship, of sacraments, or of prayer; they owe no obedience to any law, since their will is identical with God’s will; and they may indulge their carnal desires to any extent without staining the soul.[17]

The various forms of quietism insist that passivity, more or less, is the essential condition of perfection; and all of them have been condemned by the Church.  This also refutes the Protestant thinking of salvation by faith alone.  We know, as St. James tells us in his epistle, “Faith without works is dead.”  We also know, as St. Paul teaches us, “to work out our salvation in fear and trembling.” Therefore, we must be active in the work of our salvation and not have the attitude that no cooperation is expected from us.

Whereas, the error of quietism had to do with becoming one with God[18], not really out of love for God and with a true amendment of life.  An additional error of Theosophy shows confusion about what man can know about God and the manner in which he learns more about God.

The Catholic Encyclopedia clarifies this by the following:

Theosophy, knowledge of things Divine, is a term used in general to designate the knowledge of God supposed to be obtained by the direct intuition of the Divine essence.  In method it differs from theology, which is the knowledge of God obtained by revelation, and from philosophy, which is the knowledge of Divine things acquired by human reasoning.

It is often incorrectly confounded with mysticism, for the latter is properly the thirst for the Divine, the aspiration for the invisible, and hence a natural manifestation of the religious sentiment.

By intuition or illumination the initiated Theosophists are considered to be in harmony with the central principle of the universe. This knowledge of the secret forces of nature, of the true relation between the world and man, frees them from the ordinary limitations of human life, and gives them a peculiar power over the hidden forces of the macrocosm.[19]

There is a direct connection of this error with Hinduism of India as the birthplace of all theosophic speculation.  As covered above, the Hindu religion tries to get the soul to a state where it reunites with a universal soul.   Even though the Hindus teach reincarnation or rebirths, the end result is the final absorption into the universal spirit, thus the individual soul will not exist anymore.

The Catholic Encyclopedia explains this idea in a few more details about Yoga as follows:

Yoga, i.e. “one who fits himself, or exercises”, refers to exercises practiced to free the soul from the body, which to it is like a string to a bird.  Some of these exercises were: to rid one’s self of moral faults; to sit in certain painful postures, check the breath, and reduce thought to minimum by staring at the tip of the nose; to place the soul in a particular part of the body; to starve and learn to subsist on air, or even without it; to concentrate thought by meditation, i.e. to think about nothing, Thyana, the highest state of which is the cataleptic[20] trance samadyi, in which the mind is suppressed but the soul is in full activity.  In this state the person is mahatma, i.e. masterful and can enjoy a temporary release from the body which it leaves to go roaming about, performing wonderful feats on material nature and controlling other less powerful souls.  This latter was the secret of the Yoga’s real power and was supposed to be done by a transfer of soul.  When the soul re-enters the body, the Yoga wakes and is like other people.  By repeated exercises the soul can become so strong that it secures perpetual release from the body, thus, according to the older Yoga teaching, it flies to heaven where it enjoys great happiness, riding in a celestial car attended by lovely women and music; but with the latter Yogas, on breaking all bodily bonds it formed immediate absorption into the Supreme Soul.

Thus it is very clear to see just how diabolical this practice is.  One can easily see how the devil could take possession of the soul practicing such dangerous meditation. 

The Catholic Encyclopedia explains that theosophic teaching was also associated with the neo-Platonists.  In addition to this, it was associated with the Gnostic systems and that the Jewish Kabbala had a theosophy mixture of magic and occultism. This occurred especially during the Renaissance. 

In 1875, Madame Blavatsky started the foundation of the Theosophical Society in New York City.  In 1895 her frauds were exposed by St. John’s College, in Cambridge.  Despite this, the false teachings of Theosophy continued and were propagated by Blavatsky’s disciples.

The Catholic Encyclopedia explains and warns that Theosophy is not only a false religion, but also a philosophy of life.  Its basic teaching is the universal brotherhood of humanity.  Hence, it preaches toleration to all persons and to all varieties of belief.  They believe that the universal brotherhood rests on the “solidarity” of all living, of all that is, in the one life and one consciousness. For them all forces are external and there is no supernatural, except the superhuman and supersensuous, i.e. powers greater than those normally exercised by man, which, however, can be developed.  Because for them solidarity means the common life pervading all things and they use this as a basis for morality, hence a wrong done to one is done to all.[21]

We should shun Yoga, Quietism & Theosophy.

In our times it is easy to see the dangers of these false beliefs. Yoga is pushed as simply an innocuous method to relieve stress or as a relaxation technique. Unfortunately, even the Conciliar Church promotes it and so-called Catholic hospitals often offer Yoga classes.  All you need to know about the goals (and who controls) the anti-Catholic Conciliar Church is found in the fact that the Conciliar Church promotes Yoga.

Yet, one can see by the descriptions given above, that emptying oneself and letting down the guard over his mind is like giving Satan an invitation to enter.  Really, just knowing that this kind of meditation was condemned by the Church and that it is not Catholic, should be enough for sincere Catholics to avoid Yoga and shun it.  Likewise, one should warn his friends and associates about the moral dangers of practicing Yoga.

We saw above how Hinduism is the parent of quietism and that quietism has the same basic beliefs as modern day Hinduism, namely, reincarnation, trying to gain spiritual powers to control things outside oneself, and the non-immortality of the soul by the soul being absorbed into some great spirit.  Also, one can see the influence of theosophy in our modern politics, media, and academia.  With the great push for a one-world Marxist government, the worship of ecology, and the ‘political correctness’ of not condemning blatant immorality, is like the ‘solidarity’ the theosophists revere.  Plainly we can see that the dark forces of the demons are striving more than ever to influence humans away from trying to save their souls.  Let us be informed Catholics so we can recognize the perils around us and take appropriate action to avoid the dangers of false religions and warn our families, friends, and acquaintances about Yoga and these other evil practices.

Catholic Candle note: Recently, Catholic Candle examined the permission the Church traditionally gives to a person who is in danger of death, to confess to a priest whom an uncompromising Catholic could not otherwise support (or confess to) because that priest is a compromiser, an apostate, or someone whom it is otherwise impermissible to support.  Find the article here: https://catholiccandle.org/2020/01/01/using-a-compromised-priest-when-dying/

Catholic Candle also addressed how uncompromising laymen can bury their dead in these times of great apostasy when an uncompromising priest is not available.  Find the article here: https://catholiccandle.org/2020/04/02/a-traditional-catholic-funeral-and-burial-when-there-is-no-uncompromising-priest-available/

Between this last confession (discussed in the first of those articles) and the burial (discussed in the second article), is the crucial moment of death.  We gave recommendations how to assist at a person’s death, based on the experience of some of the Catholic Candle Team, who recently assisted at the deaths of two uncompromising Traditional Catholics.  Find the article here: https://catholiccandle.org/2020/06/01/how-to-assist-a-person-in-dying-a-holy-death/

Also, in our last days of life, we must continue to give sufficient care to sustain our life – even as it is waning – and must not yield to the culture of death, which promotes euthanasia.  Therefore, we examined the minimum care we are obliged to provide to sustain our life even when we are dying.  Find the article here: https://catholiccandle.org/2020/07/01/use-of-ordinary-care-even-as-we-are-dying/

Again, because we live in a culture of death, part of our using sufficient care to sustain our life – even as it is waning – we must never acquiesce in being murdered by having our vital organs removed to be “donated” to another person.  Further, we must never accept the “donation” of a vital organ from someone else, as we would then become complicit in his murder.  Below, we examine the evil of such murder by the “donation” of a vital organ.

We recommend that you save these articles for future reference and use.

 

 

What is death?

Death is the separation of body and soul.[1]  Death occurs at an instant.  In other words, death is not something that occurs gradually over a period of time, although the subsequent corruption of the body does occur gradually. 

A dying person is a person who is still alive.  A deeply comatose person is still alive; (a corpse cannot be comatose).

Although we know that death is the separation of body and soul, we usually do not know exactly when this separation (viz., death) occurs.  We usually can only know with certitude afterwards, that a person has already died.

 

Corruption of the body – gangrene contrasted to a person’s death

Our soul is what makes our body to be what it is, viz., a human body.  Without our soul, our body becomes merely a decaying lump of organic matter which is on its way to becoming dirt, dust or ashes.[2] 

It can happen that the soul ceases to be present in a bodily part of a person who is still alive.  In other words, that part of a person’s body is no longer vivified by his soul.  This can happen, e.g., in the limb of a diabetic person who is still very much alive.  When the soul ceases to vivify part of the body, that part of the body dies and rots.  This is called “gangrene”.[3] 

If some parts, e.g., the person’s feet, are dead and begin rotting (i.e., have gangrene), but other parts, e.g., his heart and other internal organs, remain uncorrupted, this lack of corruption is a sign that the person is not yet dead – because those internal organs do not yet exhibit the corruption which would tell us that his soul is no longer vivifying any parts of his body (i.e., preserving them from corruption). 

Just as gangrene shows a part of a body is no longer vivified by the soul, likewise general corruption throughout the whole body shows the entire body is no longer vivified by the soul.  This tells us that the person is certainly dead.[4]

Although the Catholic Church uses the safer and more reasonable standard requiring general corruption of the body as a condition for certainty that a person is really dead, people sometimes use the “cold, blue, and stiff” standard to determine death.

This “cold, blue, and stiff” standard for determining death could leave room for different interpretations in some circumstances, e.g., how cold is the body and for how long?  Where, and in how many places, is the body’s temperature measured?  Moreover, particular circumstances can add uncertainty of whether a person is really dead, e.g., when a cold, non-responsive swimmer is pulled out of cold water.

 

What are “vital organs”?

A “vital organ” is an organ (i.e., a part of the body) the loss of which results in death.  If a person consents to the removal of one of his vital organs while he is alive, he would be consenting to his own death.

Even if a person were unavoidably near to death, he still must not consent to having his life shortened by having a bodily organ removed which brings about his death.  This is like the fact that a person’s nearness to death does not permit him to jump off of a cliff or do anything else which would cause his death to come sooner.

Therefore, because a person must not consent to his own murder, a person cannot agree to “donate” one of his vital organs (such as his heart) until his body (including his heart) has begun corrupting (showing us that he has truly, already died).  Once he has truly died and his body has begun a general corruption, then his body can be donated to help others, e.g., in medical research.

 

The multi-billion-dollar industry of transplanting vital human organs

In 1967, a cardiac surgeon, Christiaan Bernard, performed the first human-to-human heart surgery.[5]  This landmark surgery opened up whole new possibilities for patients, but such organ transplant surgeries obviously require a supply of “donated” hearts and/or other vital organs.

Today, the transplantation of vital organs is a many-billion-dollar industry.[6]

 

The organ transplant industry gets vital organs by murdering living people who are labeled as dead.

Although the organ “donor” and his family cannot receive any payment, there are many billions of dollars made collectively, by many persons and organizations involved in this industry, e.g., the hospitals, the pharmaceutical companies, and the surgeons.[7]

The organ transplant industry’s problem is a shortage of high-quality human organs.[8]  If the “donor’s” organs are not cut out of his body until after he is really dead and has begun corrupting, then his organs are worthless for transplantation into another person.  Even under the alternate standard for determining death – the “cold, blue, and stiff” standard – all vital organs are useless for transplanting into another human.[9]

Thus, the organ transplant industry saw that it needed to remove the “donor’s” vital organs while he was still alive.  But the transplant industry needed to label him as dead and pretend he was dead so that surgeons would be legally permitted to extract the organs and also in order that the public would accept this practice.[10]

The result was a legal and medical fiction[11] beginning with a Harvard Medical School proposal in 1968.  Under this proposal a person who is in a so-called “irreversible coma” would be relabeled as “brain dead” and then the medical establishment would pretend this so-called “brain death” was the person’s real death.[12] 

Obviously, when a person is in a supposed “irreversible coma”, he is still alive.  No cadaver could ever be in an “irreversible coma”.

Those “brain dead” persons are often euphemistically called “beating heart cadavers”, tacitly showing that everyone knows those “brain dead” persons are really alive.[13] 

The authors of the New England Journal of Medicine article quoted and cited above, promotes organ “donations” from so-called “brain dead” persons.  The authors do not dispute that “brain death” is not real death.  However, they advocate that the medical profession should stop pretending that the “brain dead” person who is “donating” his organs is not being killed by having his vital organs “harvested”.[14]

 

The evidence shows conclusively that “brain death” is not real death

Whereas a body’s general corruption tells us that the person has died, likewise while a body’s vital functions continue, they tell us that the person is alive.  This is true even if the person receives assistance from medical machines, such as a respirator.  Here is how Pope Pius XII taught this truth:

Human life continues for as long as its vital functions – distinguished from the simple life of organs – manifest themselves spontaneously or even with the help of artificial processes.[15]

So-called “brain dead” persons are really helpless living persons whose vital organs are “harvested” by murdering them.  These persons are often warm and pink, with a normal pulse and blood pressure.[16]

The bodies of so-called “brain dead” persons are able to heal wounds, fight infections, respond to stimuli, and retain their spinal reflexes.[17]  A “brain dead” person can survive for months on life support equipment.[18]

When a “brain dead” person is cut open to extract one of his vital organs, he moves in reaction to the pain, unless he is paralyzed by drugs”.[19]  Obviously, such a “donor” is not really dead because a corpse does not need anesthesia or react to pain.  When a “brain dead” person is cut open, his pulse rate and blood pressure rise[20] just as any other person during surgery.[21]

A so-called “brain dead” expectant mother can be kept alive for months, for the sake of her baby.[22]

 

There have been many examples of so-called “irreversible comas” being reversed

Because of advancements in medical treatments since 1968, there have been very many persons whose supposedly “irreversible coma” was reversed and the person made a full or substantial recovery to an independent life.

For example:

❖  Trenton McKinley, a 13-year old Alabama boy, was declared brain dead after suffering skull fractures and a traumatic brain injury in March 2018.  All the usual tests showed he was “brain dead”.  His mother signed papers to donate his organs.  Fortunately, he regained consciousness before his vital organs were removed.  Trenton was taken off the ventilator and eventually went home.  He is now conscious, walking and talking.[23]

❖  In 2007, Zach Dunlap, a 21-year-old Oklahoma man, flipped over on his 4-wheeler and suffered catastrophic brain injuries.  A day and a half after his accident, doctors at United Regional Healthcare System in Wichita Falls, Texas determined he was "brain dead.”  They had subjected Zach to a battery of tests including a scan that showed a complete absence of blood flow to the brain.  Preparations to harvest his organs were underway when a relative scraped the bottom of his foot with a pocket knife and he jerked his foot away.  Just months later, Zack was walking and talking.  He recalled hearing a doctor say he was dead and being “mad inside” but unable to move.[24]

❖  Kate Allat suffered a stroke at the age of 39 and spent the next ten days in a coma.  Allat later revealed that she heard everything going on around her in her hospital room and she was fearful her life support would be turned off.  Her mind was functioning normally during her coma but everyone around her thought she was “brain dead” as she laid in her hospital bed paralyzed and unable to speak or breathe on her own.  She listened in fright as medical staff discussed switching off her life support with her family.  …  “They thought I was in a vegetative state.  I couldn’t move a muscle.  There was no signal I was in there,” she said.  “I was on life support and they might have turned it off.”  “I couldn’t breathe for myself but I could hear conversations that I didn’t want to hear.”  Kate made a full recovery.[25]

❖  Steven Thorpe suffered devastating injuries in a car crash.  His parents were told there was no chance of their son surviving.  But they refused to give up hope – despite four specialists declaring that the 17-year-old was “brain dead”.  Steven’s parents were convinced they saw a “flicker” of life as Steven lay in a coma.  They refused to allow the hospital to switch off his life support machine.  Two weeks later, Steven woke from his coma. Within seven weeks, he had left the hospital.  And four years later, Steven was working as a trainee accounts clerk.[26]

It might surprise readers that so-called “brain death” does not even require confirmation that the person has no measurable brain activity.  Some co-called “brain dead” persons can continue to have brain activity[27] (as well as many other bodily functions which prove they are still alive). 

Furthermore, a “brain dead” person’s brain can “fall silent” in response to a decreased blood flow, even if his brain remains uninjured.  This is called “ischemic penumbra”.[28]

 

Summary of “brain death” and deep coma

It is obvious that a “brain dead” or comatose person is alive.  Would anyone ever bury a person showing so many signs of life?  No!  Because he is alive!  Yet, he is labeled as “brain dead” and so he can be considered fit to be murdered by “harvesting” his vital organs.

 

Some countries have “laws”[29] which automatically designate everyone in the public as a “donor” of his vital organs unless he opts out.

In the transplant industry’s tireless pursuit of vital organs, some countries take advantage of most people’s inattention and inaction by passing “laws” which declare everyone as a consenting “donor” of his vital organs unless he opts-out of the country’s organ harvesting program.

For example, in 2020, England passed a “law” presuming people consent to “donate” their vital organs when they become “brain dead”, unless they register on a government website to opt out of being thus murdered.[30]

Other countries which have opt out “laws” are Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Spain, Austria, and Belgium.[31]  The state of California now has an opt out “law” too.[32]

Obviously, the Catholic Faith, the Natural Law, and sound thinking require a person to opt out of this type of murderous organ “donation” program.

 

Pressure and false compassion

Vital organ transplantation should be recognized for what it is – murder – and should be a felony.  But today, it is common for people to be pressured into agreeing ahead of time to “donate” their vital organs, often in the name of “charity” and “compassion”.  This pressure often occurs when they renew their driver’s license.

People are told that “donating” their vital organs is unselfish.  They are told that “your heart will continue living in someone else”, etc.  Ironically, people are told that donating their heart – which murders them – is “lifesaving and lifegiving”.[33]

Even if many people act in ignorance or with misplaced “charity” when they agree to “donate” their vital organs, they are nonetheless agreeing to be murdered.  But such organ “donation” is not real charity any more than it is charitable to commit suicide for ecological reasons such as to “reduce greenhouse gases” to “save the planet”.

Therefore, it is plain we must not agree to the “donation” of our vital organs.  But even if a person does not explicitly consent ahead of time, a person could still be murdered for his organs in the future, as he lies helpless and defenseless in a coma.

Therefore, no one should remain silent on this issue.  Everyone should explicitly reject the “donation” of his vital organs and reject receiving another person’s vital organs, using a declaration such as this:

I reject any treatment that uses an organ or tissue of another person obtained in a manner that causes, contributes to, or hastens that person’s death.  I reject any treatment that uses a vital organ “donated” by any other person who is declared “dead” (usually this declaration of “death” is made shortly before the organ is removed).  I also reject any treatments that use an organ or tissue of an unborn or newborn child who has been subject to an induced abortion.  I do not want any of my organs to be donated.[34]

 

Donating non-vital organs

Although it is a mortal sin to consent to murder by “donation” of a vital organ, it is a good and generous work for us to donate even an important bodily organ which does not cause our death.  For example, we can donate one of our two kidneys, a lobe of our liver, or a lobe of a lung, part of our pancreas, a cornea, or bone marrow, none of which impede our continued life.  These donations are a charitable work for those in need.

 

Beware of cooperating in any way in murder to “harvest” vital organs!

Not only must we never consent to murder by “donating” or receiving a vital organ, we must also never cooperate in any other way, when people commit this evil.  A person can be responsible for another person’s murder through organ “donation” in nine separate ways,[35] including by remaining silent (when we should object), by expressing approval, or by advising a person to “donate” his vital organ (or to receive the transplant of a vital organ). 

 

Society has sunk into the murderous practices of the pagan Aztecs

We see that, in a way, our society has sunk back to the evils of pagan times, murdering people to obtain their beating hearts (or hearts still able to beat).  Here is what the Spanish encountered when they first went to Aztec Mexico:

In 1519, at the time when Spanish Captain Hernán Cortez, came to Mexico, the barbaric, pagan Aztec Indians offered human sacrifices almost daily.  The Aztecs, who ruled from Mexico City, offered about 20,000 human sacrifices every year to their pagan (false) gods.  That is an average of more than 50 each day!  These victims usually had their hearts cut out while still beating; then their bodies were dismembered.  The Aztecs sometimes ate body parts.  At the Aztecs’ inauguration of their pagan temple at Mexico City, they massacred about 20,000 victims in four days.  That averages about one such gruesome murder every 17 seconds, all day and night![36]

Whereas the Aztecs offered their human sacrifices to their false gods, modern man offers similar human sacrifices to a creature lower than a “god”, viz., to a fellow man.  The modern “harvesting” of vital organs is, as it were, merely Aztec human sacrifices committed under surgical draping and using sterile technique.

 

Conclusion

“Harvesting” a person’s vital organs is premeditated murder.  Your organ donor card might be your death warrant. 

Catholics should never give permission to “donate” their vital organs and should not allow this authorization to be indicated on their driver’s license.  Such permission would be to consent to their own murder. 

Likewise, Catholics should be careful to opt out of organ “donation” in those countries such as England, where permission to “donate” organs is assumed unless a person opts out.

 

We live in a godless society and there are countless evils around us.  For example, in some places, for some diseases (like chickenpox), one can only obtain vaccines whose manufacturers used cell lines from murdered babies, as disease cultures for manufacturing the vaccine.[1]

 

The conciliar church is lax and liberal and approves receiving vaccines which come from the cell lines of murdered babies, unless there is an alternative vaccine which does not use murder.  But there are three reasons it is wrong to accept these vaccines manufactured using the cell lines of murdered babies:

 

1.    Using those vaccines promotes future murders.

 

2.    Using those vaccines rewards persons connected with the murders.

 

3.    We incur guilt for those murders, by our consent.

 

Below, we discuss each of these reasons.

 

 

1.   Using those vaccines promotes future murders.

 

Using the cell lines from murdered babies encourages future murders whenever pharmaceutical companies deem it to be convenient and profitable to commit more murders for use in vaccine research or production. 

 

Because people did not refuse vaccines coming from the 1960s-era cell lines taken from murdered babies, drug companies, labs, and researchers felt “free” to commit more murders to create new cell lines.  For example, a new cell line from a new murdered baby, was announced in 2015.[2] 

 

Accepting those vaccines manufactured through murdered babies, promotes future murders (and every murder of an innocent human is a murder too many)!  Thus, when you use a vaccine produced through murder, the drug companies are encouraged to commit additional murders to keep vaccine production high.

 

 

2.   Using those vaccines rewards persons connected with the murders.

 

It is wrong to use vaccines produced from murdered babies because using these vaccines enables manufactures to profit through the murders.  We should not help drug companies make wickedness profitable!

 

 

3.   We incur guilt for the babies’ murders, by our consent.

 

We become culpable for someone else’s sin by consenting to it.[3]  When St. Paul teaches us this truth about sharing someone else’s sin by consent, he mentions murder in particular.  Here are his words:

 

Being filled with … murder, …  they who do such things, are worthy of death; and not only they that do them, but they also that consent to them that do them.

 

Romans, 1:29-32 (emphasis added).[4]

 

A person is guilty of a murder by consent when he acquiesces[5], even passively[6], or accedes, even reluctantly,[7] to the murder.  When we use vaccines which come from murder, we are (at least) passively accepting – i.e., giving in[8] to – the murders that make those vaccines available. 

 

 

A person can incur guilt by consenting even after the murder.

 

Some types of sharing in someone else’s sin can only occur before the sin is committed, e.g., commanding or advising that the sin should be committed.  See, the above list (from The Penny Catechism) of ways to share someone else’s sin. 

 

However, consent to the sin is different.  A person can consent to (i.e., acquiesce in) a murder either before or after it is committed, and so can incur guilt either way.

 

St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that a person can incur guilt by consenting to a murder which has already been committed.  He applies this principle (of guilt through post-murder consent) to a person who joins the Jewish religion after Christ’s murder.  Here are St. Thomas’ words:

 

When a person becomes a Jew, he becomes a participant in the killing of Christ. 

 

St. Thomas Aquinas, Lectures on St. Matthew, ch.23, #1861.

 

By using those vaccines manufactured through the murders of babies, a person thus incurs guilt by consenting to (i.e., acquiescing in) the murders of those babies even though murders were already committed.

 

 

The passage of time does not erase the guilt of consenting to those murders.

 

A superficial objection could be raised that the vaccines were made from murdered babies more than five decades ago and surely that is “so long ago” that we should disregard the murders because they are too distant in time.

 

That is wrong.  God does not cease to treat a murder as murder merely because of the passage of time.[9]  Those who commit murder and those that consent to it, remain culpable.  The mere passage of time does not remove the need to repent.  The punishments of hell are forever because the passage of time does not erase guilt.

 

Just as God does not overlook culpability for murder simply because of the passage of time, man does not do so either.  In the civil law, there is typically no statute of limitations for murder.[10]  In other words, no murder is ever so remote in time that we “don’t worry about it”.

 

The murdering of the babies committed to “harvest” their cell lines, was premeditated and is first degree murder.  The passage of time does not change the guilt of the murders and does not eliminate the guilt of a person who consents to the murders.

 

No matter how much time passes, faithful and informed Catholics will never buy the vaccines manufactured through these murders!

 

 

The end does not justify the means

 

Another superficial objection could be raised that vaccines do much good and that they save so many lives that this “outweighs” the murders through which the vaccines are produced.  However, faithful and informed Catholics must never be complicit in evil because of “good” that can come from it.  The end does not justify the means!

 

 

Discerning God’s Will through standing up for principle.

 

A similar, superficial objection is that without receiving these sinful vaccines, I will

lose some opportunity, for example, the chance to enter (or send my dependents to) a particular school.  Again, the end does not justify the means!

 

If, despite your best efforts, you cannot receive a “conscience waiver” or “religious exemption” to attend (or send your dependents to) the school without receiving a sinful vaccine, that merely shows you that God does not want you to attend that particular school, etc. 

 

 

We are not justified in consenting to even the smallest of sins, much less, consenting to murder.

 

The evil at issue here is murder.  That is a very grave evil.  But even if a person were to suppose that receiving vaccines derived from the cell lines of murdered babies were “only” a venial sin, even the very smallest sin is an infinite evil in three ways.[11]  We should be ready to die rather than commit any sin. 

 

Here is how St. Alphonsus de Liguori, Doctor of the Church, warns against committing even the smallest sin:

 

A single venial sin is more displeasing to God than all the good works we can perform.

 

St. Alphonsus de Liguori, Uniformity with God’s Will, §6.

 

Here is how St. John of the Cross, Doctor of the Church, warns us that the road to hell begins with a small sin:

 

Our Lord said in the Gospel: “He that is unfaithful in little will be unfaithful also in much.”  For he that avoids the small sin will not fall into the great sin; but great evil is inherent in the small sin, since it has already penetrated within the fence and wall of the heart; and as the proverb says: Once begun, half done.

 

Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book III, ch.20, section 1.

 

Here is how John Henry Cardinal Newman declares that the smallest sin is worse than all the physical suffering in the world:

 

The Catholic Church holds it better for the sun and moon to drop from heaven, for the earth to fail, and for all the many millions on it to die of starvation in extremest agony, as far as temporal affliction goes, than that one soul, I will not say, should be lost, but should commit one single venial sin, should tell one willful untruth, or should steal one poor farthing without excuse.

 

Apologia Vita Sua, by John Henry Cardinal Newman, Image Books, Doubleday, Garden City, New York, © 1956, p.324.

 

 

Information about which vaccines to refuse.

 

We must be informed Catholics.  This sometimes means doing our own research, if we cannot obtain reliable information from our doctor.  Here is a list of sinful vaccines the use of which connects a person to the murders of those babies.  https://cogforlife.org/wp-content/uploads/vaccineListOrigFormat.pdf  The list also identifies ethically permissible alternative vaccines where they are available. 

 

If your doctor does not cooperate in your decision to refuse sinful vaccines, get a different doctor!

 

 

Conclusion

 

Some vaccines are produced through cell lines obtained from murdered babies.  There are three reasons getting these vaccines is a sin:

 

1.    Using these vaccines promotes future murders.

 

2.    Using these vaccines rewards those connected with the murders.

 

3.    We become culpable for the murders, by our consent.

 

We should stand up for Christ and reject these sinful vaccines.  We should also urge others to stand against these vaccines which break God’s Law (including the Natural Law).  At our Judgment we would want to have done so!

 

Halloween is un-Catholic, which is why so many traditional Catholic priests have taught over the years, that Catholics should not observe this holiday.

 

Halloween, which the pagans call Samhein, is an ancient pagan feast still celebrated on October 31^st, by witches and other pagans, and which pagans usually describe as being the most important feast of their (false) religions.  See, e.g., http://www.bustle.com/articles/7929-im-wiccan-and-this-is-what-halloween-means-to-me & http://www.witchway.net/halloween.html 

 

Besides the opposition “on its face”, between Catholicism and paganism, there are many other ways that Halloween is the opposite of Catholic:

 

➢  The vigil of All Saints Day is a day of penance: a traditional fast day.  Halloween is the opposite: it is portrayed as a day of gorging, of candy and of eating in between meals (mortally sinful on a fast day).

 

➢  The Catholic Church takes witches, spells and demons very seriously and requires Her children to stay far away from them.  Halloween is the opposite: it makes witches, spells and demons seem approachable, fun, familiar and harmless.

 

➢  The days which Catholics celebrate are about life and salvation.  For example, Christmas is about our Lord’s birth in His humanity.  Even Good Friday is about our Lord’s life-giving sacrifice on the Cross, out of love for us, to open the gates of heaven.  (This life-giving sacrifice of love, which makes salvation possible, is why the Church calls this day Good Friday.)  In complete contrast to Catholic celebrations, Halloween is largely about death and destruction.

 

➢  Catholicism takes death very seriously.  The Church urges us to solemnly meditate on death and prepare for it.  Many saints kept a skull in their bedrooms, to ever remind them they were on earth to prepare for death.  Halloween is the opposite: it is a time of smiling skeletons, tombstones with funny epitaphs, and a light-hearted treatment of death without any of its eternal consequences.

 

➢  Catholicism takes sin very seriously.  The Church admonishes us to have a horror for sin and to consider it as the only true evil and unmitigated disaster.  Halloween is the opposite: it is a light-hearted treatment of sin, e.g., with costumed attackers randomly committing unprovoked mayhem, with lots of blood and gore, all without the consequences of reality.

 

➢  Catholicism values beauty and order.  Halloween is the opposite.  Halloween glorifies ugliness and disorder, e.g., grotesque, painted-on scars “decorating” ugly and horrifying monsters.

 

➢  Catholicism values peace.  Halloween is the opposite, exalting sudden and unprovoked violence, all without the consequences of reality. 

 

➢  The Catholic Church forbids séances and all attempts to conjure the dead.  Witches and other pagans believe that the feast of Samhein is when the boundary between the worlds of the living and dead is blurred, and when the ghosts of the dead can return to earth.  Id.  This pagan belief is honored by Halloween’s ubiquitous ghost decorations and costumes.

 

➢  The customary greeting of children seeking candy, is “trick or treat”.  Think about this.  However unthinkingly this phrase is uttered, it is in the form of a threat, viz., if you don’t give me candy, I will do something you won’t like!

 

➢  Spiders are among the most common Halloween decorations.  Spiders are prominent pagan symbols and are considered as guides in the occult.  See, e.g., http://www.druidry.org/library/animals/spiders-spiritual-guides & http://www.whats-your-sign.com/spider-symbol-meaning.html

 

All of the above considerations leave entirely aside Halloween’s worldliness, consumerism, immodest costumes, etc.

 

Because Halloween is in many ways the opposite of Catholic, it is no surprise that Halloween is ever-more popular, as society sinks ever-further from true Catholicism.  http://source.southuniversity.edu/halloween-is-big-business-27678.aspx & http://betweenthenumbers.net/2012/10/ghoulishly-good-news-for-the-halloween-economy/

 

Someone could reply that Halloween is “all just in fun” and is not meant to be serious.  We reply: if a Catholic is willing to participate in un-Catholic things which are “all in fun”, where will he draw the line?  If the practice of getting candy involved stamping on a crucifix “in fun”, would that be OK?  How can we ever re-conquer society for Christ the King, if we take part in anti-Catholicism “in fun”?

 

So, what should a Catholic do?  Do not take part in Halloween!  Instead, celebrate All Saints Day even more than before!  If there are “trick or treaters” where you live, we suggest you hang a sign on your door on Halloween, which says:

 

 

Dear Neighborhood Children:

 

Our family is Roman Catholic and so does not observe the pagan festival of Halloween.  Therefore, we do not give out candy today.

 

However, tomorrow (November 1^st) is the great Feast of All Saints and we would be very glad to see you then and give you candy, if you wish to come.  Please come between 1pm and 8pm.

 

No costume is necessary.  However, if you decide to dress up as a saint, we will gladly be even more generous with candy, to reward your efforts.

 

Wishing you all the best!

 

Your neighbors,

[your name here]