As the great celebration of embracing gratitude for His Most Serene Eminence, Thomas "No Mass For You" Collins approaches, it behooves us to recycle some posts from the past.
The most disgraceful action of Thomas Cardinal Collins, though he was not alone and that is no excuse, was the shuttering of churches during the Wuhan Virus pandemic. The pandering to corrupt governments and public health officials was a scandal. The obedience before Cesare was something we found hard to believe. Given what we did not know in the first few months some restrictions may have been justified at the time, but these should have been reasonable and sensible. Certainly, the State has a right to set occupancy limits for buildings, as they do for fire. This should have been set at 50% occupancy and the order of the Cardinal to have more Masses. Yet the Cardinal, and others, sat by whilst the churches were reduced to zero and Costco and Walmart had hundreds. In fact, Collins shut down Toronto churches before the provincial government itself! When the Ontario government later allowed churches to open to 10 persons, it wasn't because Collins asked for it, it was to satisfy the need of Jews to have a quorum for worship. Collins refused to open, even with ten, rather conjuring up some ridiculous communion service.
This was a clear sign of many of the frauds we were living in. The issue of masks was another. I only argued to put on a mask for the sake of preserving our Latin Mass communities from bishops who demanded it or lose the church. Collins stood there at his sedilia and his ambo and demanded all take the jab out of "common sense" and the "common good" even though people were already becoming injured and died and terminated from their employment. He did not defend these and in fact, did the same for his own employees. We, who opposed these were right about all of it, he was wrong about all of it. Thomas Collins stood by and allowed the State and compromised corporations to persecute the faithful and he did nothing to stop it.
In an online meeting with all priests which was downloaded and then uploaded and a link made available, Collins with his No Mass for You finger in the air stated, "I will shut you down" to any parish who defied his ban on Holy Communion on the tongue. Pointing to his mouth he referred to a parish doing it.
This is what Collins did that Christmas.
Twelve days later there would be pushback. It was a small church where on a dark Epiphany morning people gathered in defiance long before dawn. No organ to awaken the neighbours only four feet away next door. No lights but the altar candles and a side door unlocked. I was honoured to have been invited, together with my wife. Well over one hundred defied his edict with no masks and packed in. Those who went to communion received on the tongue. Nobody contracted the China Virus! Generations earlier, these people refused to back down. They defied the communists that threatened to close their churches. They stood their ground, and they kept their faith. On that quiet dark winter morning, light shone. The light of faith and freedom and defiance to a Cardinal who threw in his lot with Ceasar. I was never so humbled and at the same time, so proud. After the Mass, the priest and I embraced. we cried tears of joy and sadness for what we had been building over a few years and what we knew we were losing. He had already been censured privately and publicly over Holy Communion, he didn't care. "I answer to a higher power, I will not do this to the people. We didn't let the communists shut us down, why would we let it happen now by a bishop?"
One of Collins's now-canceled priests, forcibly retired and sent away.
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