BLESSED MARGARET POLE - MAY 28 - MARTYRED AT THE CONFLUENCE OF CHURCH AND STATE

 

Blessed Margaret Plantagenet Pole,

Countess of Salisbury

Martyr

14 August 1473 - 28 May 1541

MY COUSIN, BLESSED MARGARET POLE

Blessed Margaret Plantagenet Pole is my 6th cousin, 17 times removed. We share a common ancestor, who is Edward I "Longshanks," King of England, my 24th great grandfather. She was put to death in the Tower of London on the order of Henry VIII because she was Catholic, essentially and because Henry VIII was a brutal, maniacal ruler who did not want to follow the rule of the Pope with regard to his multiple marriages and his moral failings.

Henry had made himself the ruler of The Church in England, breaking off from the Catholic hierarchy and creating a new organization. Anyone who did not express absolute loyalty to him and his new church was in danger of losing their heads. Even the accidents of birth and relationship were enough to convict someone,  absent any other proof whatsoever.  

SHE WAS DEVOTED TO THE WRONG RELIGION

Margaret was given no trial and did not even know that she was going to be executed until an hour beforehand.  It was done so quickly, with so little advance notice, that many people doubted it had happened at all. The executioner was a young man with very little experience and, instead of a clean and swift chop, Margaret was hacked to death with multiple blows of the axe to her head and shoulders.

She was 68 years old - the same age I will be in a few months.

ENGLISH FLEE TO THE NEW CONTINENT

About 100 years later, the English nobility have sent their "second sons" to the new continent to grab land and create wealth from the natural resources. Those who chafed under the tyranny of official state religion escaped here for religious freedom. When the yoke of the British had been thrown off in another few hundred years, the separation of church and state was a primary principle. No more would the citizens suffer under the religious declarations issued from the seat of government.

2022 - A GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL BLACKMAILED BY A BISHOP

I did not become Catholic so I could spend time arguing about POLITICS. I was attracted to the faith because of the experience of the mystics, most of whom were monastics of one stripe or another. I was warned by a mother superior of a modern convent that I would not find that mystical life in the parishes, and she was right. 

This obsession with trying to make abortion illegal again has gotten on my ninth nerve. There is a huge movement in the Catholic Church at the moment and they call themselves "Pro-Life" but most of them that I encounter on social media only seem to be interested in one political method that supposedly addresses ONE issue (abortion) but that method never worked in the past. So it is neither logical nor inclusive of the myriad ways in which life needs to be supported from conception until natural death. I have friends who have a more global perspective so I am obviously not talking about everyone in that movement. It is the PUBLIC face of the movement that is the problem.

Anyway, I did not leave the Hindu convent to get furiously involved in political life, but today we are deluged with news items about Nancy Pelosi and how her Bishop has publicly shamed her by denying her communion in light of a position she has taken in her government job, and I find it hypocritical and upsetting on many levels.

I myself am Catholic and I LOVE the faith, but I am not in favor of forcing it on anyone else. It would be a LOT more comfortable if everyone around me was Catholic. That would be super! But you can't make someone behave as if they belong to your faith and believe as you do. It just doesn't work and it isn't what Jesus had in mind when he sent out the evangelists, I am sure of it. Nowhere did he say that Christians should dominate the government and force non-Catholics to adhere to its views. 

Criminalizing abortion did not stop them before, and Pelosi knows this. I remember 1973 when the result of Roe v. Wade was announced. It made NO impression on me or any of my contemporaries because abortions were already widely available. There were people who were relieved that abortions would thereafter be SAFER, since they could be done in a medical setting, but that was the only change that we talked about when we learned that abortion was legal.

In fact, I was pregnant at the time. I was only 18, newly married, and I was glad that I was too far into my pregnancy for my new husband to pressure me to get an abortion because we REALLY could not afford to have a child. We were Scientologists, living in the Sea Organization, and the Scientology hierarchy ended up refusing to pay the hospital bill (after promising that all medical bills would be paid if we joined.)  In fact, I only saw a doctor ONCE while I was in the Sea Org, and they never did pay that bill, as far as I know.

Prior to Roe v. Wade, I could have gotten an abortion but I personally did not want one, and the fact that it was illegal was another tool in my arsenal of defending myself against pressure to abort. I could say they were dangerous, which was true, and illegal, etc. But anyone who wanted an abortion could GET one. They are always available to anyone determined to have one. I just wasn't one of those people.

If the hard right has its way and abortion is criminalized again, I am assuming it will go back into the alley it came from and a lot of women will die, along with their babies, in botched back-alley abortions. So I am wondering what the "pro life" crowd is accomplishing by making it illegal instead of addressing the CAUSES behind the high numbers of abortions in our country.

THE HYPOCRISY OF UNEVEN APPLICATION

I don't see anyone getting publicly shamed and refused communion for supporting capital punishment executions. 

Nor is anyone being denied communion for advocating for the free sale of military style rifles in the wake of all these mass murders that are endemic to the U.S. and unknown elsewhere. 

Some types of contraceptives are considered abortifacient by The Church, but no one is being banned from communion for speaking out in favor of them.

In the Catechism, vasectomies are considered equally as evil as abortion, but there is no one trying to criminalize them and I do not see any bishop publicly naming every man who has ever had one and telling them they are banned from receiving communion until their vasectomy is surgically reversed!

THE PRACTICAL ASPECTS

First of all, Pelosi is not having abortions or encouraging people to have them. She has a job in a secular government that is founded on a first principle of separation of church and state.

She is also aware of the fact that abortions continue at a fair clip regardless of whether or not they are legal. Fewer women die in abortions when they are legal. That seems to be the only difference I can ascertain.

Criminalizing abortion will do little to stem the tide of abortions because abortions are not CAUSED by a law approving them. Most women cite financial reasons for having them. Some people will not be able to afford them, so we will have more poor women with fatherless children on our hands. Is THAT "pro life?"

On the other hand, if the causes of abortion were addressed, you could have an abortuary on every corner and every operating room would be silent and empty.

I DON'T HAVE A DOG IN THIS FIGHT

I am too old to have an abortion myself and I would do my best to discourage anyone I know from having one. But many years ago I realized that there is a very easy way to avoid having to deal with this issue at all, and that is to not have sex with anyone to whom I am not married. 

Now, I have very strong monastic leanings, so I am going to assume that avoiding sex outside of marriage may be harder for some other women to do, given the strength and power of hormones, etc. But STILL.... you have to admit that the choice to have sex IS, at least, the FIRST choice in matters having to do with this topic. So, if you are going to talk about "choice," I think it is disingenuous to ignore the opportunities for choice prior to finding oneself pregnant. There were a few choices made BEFORE the pregnancy that would have derailed getting pregnant to begin with. (Obviously I am not talking about rape, which is a violation of all a woman's choices.)

Even so - I would not legislate sex outside of marriage as a criminal act any more than i would criminalize contraceptives, etc.

The Tower of London

where Lady Margaret Pole lived

the last two years of her life

THE CARROT VERSUS THE STICK

There is a strong faction speaking loudly into the public space that is advocating for shame, force and punishment. This is a negative approach that does not work because it causes a lot of "unintended" consequences. Personally, I think that attracting someone to something POSITIVE is a lot more helpful to society than public shaming, forcing behavior to mimic moral belief systems and punishing people who don't get in line with them.

If we really want to be a society that is pro-life and pro-family, these positive measures would do more to limit abortions than the "shame, force and punishment" method:

1. Government provided maternity and paternity leave for the first year after a child is born.

2. Government provided childcare options through age 12 or 13.

3. A decent "living wage" that allows for the support of children. CEOs are actually taking vacations IN OUTER SPACE because they have more money than they know what to do with, while their employees can't afford proper food, housing and medical care. It is a sacrilege!

4. Universal health insurance for all Americans.

5.  Make the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes. The degree to which one benefits by conducting business in the United States is the degree to which one should pay for the privilege.

6. Abolish capital punishment.

7. Outlaw military style assault weapons and enact other laws around ensuring the safety of all citizens against being murdered by guns.

8. Provide education through 4 years of college. An educated population is a healthier, more productive population - which is good for everyone.

I am sure there are more I would agree with, but you will notice that I am in favor of the carrot, rather than the stick. In my experience, force and punishment do NOTHING to convert anyone to a point of view.  

Besides which, I believe we need to stop acting like we hate one another and that we are all in competition with one another for limited resources so that only a small handful can arrive at the top of the survival pyramid. It is toxic and UNTRUE. We are the most wealthy nation in the world and we do not suffer from limited resources. OTHER countries with far less money manage to support their citizens with the benefits I have outlined, above, and there is no reason we cannot do it as well.

OTHER BISHOPS DISAGREE WITH CORDILEONE

Calling out a parishioner publicly and publicly announcing their sin and that you are banning them from receiving communion is hardly a positive pastoral approach! If my bishop doesn't talk to me but instead issues a public shaming, I would not take it well.

Here is a letter from the bishop of Dubuque, Iowa with his thoughts about this topic. You may have to fiddle with your zoom function to read it. Let me know if you have a problem and I will try to get you a copy.

SATAN IS THE FATHER OF ALL LIES, NO MATTER WHAT SIDE YOU ARE ON

It makes me sad to see each side lying about the other. "Pro-choice" people claim that the opposing side "just wants to control women," when the fact is that Catholics and other Christians believe that people must be open to the grace of God and be receptive to life which begins at conception and ends at natural death. 

On the other side, "Pro-life" people claim that "pro-choice" people are "pro-abortion." NO ONE is happy to have an abortion. Pro-choice people believe that a woman must be free to choose what happens to her body and what children she will have. They are not seeing MY point - that the choice was made when they chose to have sex - but I am regularly laughed out of conversations when I posit this solution. It isn't something that even Catholics are willing to take seriously.

Each side lies to make their side sound better and few people are trying to see the point that the other side is actually making. How can any progress be made under these circumstances?

You can fool yourself into thinking you have made progress by forcing people to do what you want with laws and punishments, but it isn't going to work because you have not evangelized.

Or you could fool yourself into thinking that all you have to do is keep abortion legal and then the "problem" is solved.

"The problem" is not that abortions are legal. "The problem" is that people want them or think they need them. A law that criminalizes abortions is not going to fix that. It did not work before. It won't work now.

Instead of continuing this fight into the next few decades, we need to change our approach.

But, like I said, I do not have a dog in this fight. I am going to go back to prayer and meditation, writing and painting, and hope that the movers and shakers in charge of the world will somehow get it right.....and I hope to God I don't have to talk about this topic any more because I am just sick of it.

God bless us all.

Silver "Rose"

UNFAITHFUL CATHOLICS CAUSED THE ABORTION CRISIS

Every Catholic who abandoned their religion and began using artificial contraception and/or surgical sterilization, put a nail in the coffin of Catholic moral teachings. Every Catholic who had sex outside of marriage laid another weight on that coffin.

Contraception leads to the abandonment of chastity, which leads to "unwanted pregnancies" which, in turn, leads to abortion. The correlation is direct.

Abortions are legal because people want them. People want them because they do not adhere to Christian moral teachings and thereafter find themselves inconveniently pregnant.

The society, reflecting the will of the people, is not geared to accommodate many children because we live in a fornicating, masturbating, promiscuous society that has shifted focus from love and commitment to self-gratification. This societal sickness did not descend upon us like a cloud of locusts from hell. We created this situation by our behaviors, behaviors that are fed by ideologies that are inconsistent with Christian moral values.

The law is responding to the people. Unlike China, which forces abortion on its population, our law allows abortion in response to what the population wants. It is not the law that caused this problem. It is the people. If abortions were legal but no one wanted one (or felt they "needed" one), there could be an abortuary on every corner and they would all be EMPTY.

We have not evangelized the world and educated it about the importance of chastity because we ourselves are an unfaithful people.

I have seen a lot of Catholics fly into a rage about various political figures who believe in abortion on demand. Many of these Christians are self-righteous, hostile, argumentative and blaming, blaming, blaming. Not a whiff of humility to be found.

It is well past time that Catholics accepted that our failure to follow our own religion and our subsequent failure to evangelize the culture with Catholic moral values is the cause of the abortion crisis in our country. Marching, carrying signs, and writing hot Facebook posts might make us feel better, perhaps even superior (because we, ourselves, can't imagine having an ABORTION), but it just makes us all look like a bunch of hypocritical kooks.

It is much harder to follow our religion, live chaste lives, and evangelize from that position of faithful strength than to march around like self-important, judgy Bible thumpers. We have to live the Bible FIRST, and that hasn't happened over the last 50 years since "the pill" became available.

Now that we find ourselves living in this hellish culture, where you can kill your baby until the minute before it is born, we do have to try to stem the tide of this horror, but the answer to our dilemma is not some politician who claims to be "pro life." None of the politicians are pro-life enough to do anything about it in the legislature, and their efforts will be wasted anyway because the citizens who want abortion to be legal outnumber the people who don't.

We need to change those numbers, but we can't legislate the heart.

Fixating upon the unlikely chance of a legal solution to the abortion problem has dumped us right into this wretched situation where we have an apparently insane head of our government who lies even when caught in lies. His entire method of communication relies upon lies, and it appears that he thinks that all he has to do is continue to lie, insist upon the lie, and acts as if he thinks that the lie will somehow become true. He forces his representatives to support his lies and fires those who will not do it. Satan is the father of all lies. Wherever you see a person who relies upon lies to feed his ego needs or obtain something else he wants, you also see Satan. Satan is very close to a person who behaves like this in an habitual way.

In addition to the lies, our president acts, at times, as if he is in line to become the first dictator of the U.S.A, adopting all of the typical methods of other well-known dictators, such as Lenin, Stalin and Castro; discrediting, misdirecting and corralling the media so that Americans know less and less about what is happening in the White House than at any time in the last 40 years, for one thing.

His cabinet is composed of billionaires with suspicious ties to Russia, and his paranoia is so great that the White House offices are empty because more than 500 positions remain vacant. He probably doesn't know 500 people who are unreasonably loyal to him, and he won't hire someone who ISN'T.

Trump has moved his family into the White House, giving his daughter an office, with access to the most highly sensitive intelligence information. She is a fashionista with no government experience whatsoever. What does she offer to our people? Nothing. Her husband is stuck to Trump's side like velcro, but his job description is sketchy. We don't know what he does or what he brings to the table.

Every weekend except one, Trump has spent at his luxury country club, treating the White House as if it is an office where he works a 40 hour week. These luxury golf weekends are costing the American taxpayer a fortune. In the two months he has been in office, he has cost us more than an entire year of our last president's travel. The infuriating hypocrisy of this is almost funny when one considers the fuss that the Republicans made about our last president's travel costs, which were modest, compared to Trump.

Because the president's wife won't move into the White House, we have to pay for security for her residence at Trump Tower.  Security services has to cover her, AND the White House AND the luxury country club that has members of the public crawling all over the place. It is a security nightmare.

It is like the Romanovs have taken up residence in the middle of our democracy and are rapidly dismantling it, with the help of Leninist Steve Bannon, another odd member of Trump's entourage!

Despite his claims that he wasn't going to be like the rest of the republicans, that he would protect Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, and that he would make sure that EVERY American was insured with health care, that the health care would be cheaper, and that the quality would be better, he is pushing a health care plan that would, within the next 10 years, kick 24 MILLION people off of health care, pushing us back 10 years in time. The people who pay the most insurance premiums are those who can afford it LEAST, especially the elderly and the disabled. The health care plan is engineered so that the insurance companies may charge them 4 times more than what they charge young healthy people. ONCE AGAIN...ANOTHER BIG FAT LIE.

Trump's misogyny, prejudice and bigotry toward refugees from war torn countries are obviously anti-Christian values, and anyone who thinks otherwise needs only to read that Bible.

The entire world has been rocked by all of this crazy behavior of this president - all for the sake of the impossible dream that a man who has never lifted a finger against abortion will magically become a pro-life warrior and will appoint a judge who is sure to make abortion illegal. Meanwhile, the poor, the elderly and the sick will die because they won't be able to afford the health care that the president is currently pushing.

One thing he didn't forget to do is arrange for a billions of dollars of tax breaks for his cronies...other millionaires and billionaires.

I lay this all at the feet of Catholics who abandoned the faith and started this snowball rolling.

Silver Rose Parnell
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