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Dominik DukaKonzervativní Noviny / YouTube

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PRAGUE, Czech Republic, February 19, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — In a stirring Sunday homily, a Czech cardinal expressed his opinion that COVID-19 is a Chinese bioweapon that escaped from a lab.

Cardinal Dominik Duka, 77, made the remark in early February when commenting on the human fear of death. Noting that babies scream and cry after they are born, but find comfort when they are laid under their mother’s breast, the cardinal stated that human beings are just as afraid of death but find comfort in the parental love of God.

“The coronavirus situation brings us back to that,” the cardinal said, and mused over the kind of death one might usually expect in old age — a broken hip and then pneumonia.

“And now, in this situation, it’s a Chinese virus, a biological weapons leak,” he said. “Military specialists around the world are convinced of this. Or they are afraid to say it, or they must not say it.”

The cardinal also reflected that although the Czech Republic is one of the most atheist nations in the world, its churches had never closed to worshipers during the coronavirus crisis. He also noted that although atheist societies say with Nietzsche “God is dead,” they have discovered that they are not themselves gods and that an invisible virus can get the better of them.

Duka encouraged his congregation not to be afraid and to consider the examples of saints who lived in the Roman Empire during a terrible twenty-year plague. St. Cyprian (200-258 AD), the bishop of Carthage, had to admonish his flock for its terror, Duka said, but the Christians proved their faith by taking care of the sick and the dying. He noted also that the modern world has already dealt with pandemics, like the Spanish Flu, which originated in China, and the Hong Kong flu of 1968.

To further bolster their courage, the cardinal archbishop of Prague retold the story of a man who meets Plague on its way to a city, intending to kill 5,000 people. When the man meets Plague again, he upbraids it, pointing out that 20,000 had died. But Plague refused responsibility, saying, “I killed 5,000. 15,000 died of fear.”

“And we must avoid that fear,” Duka said. “We must be an example of those who follow that path of [Saints] Agnes, Agatha, those who have passed these trials … They knew what it means to be a Christian.”

The cardinal’s remark about the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus was criticized in the Czech secular press and by China.

According to the Global Times, which is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, the Chinese Embassy in the Czech Republic launched a complaint and “urged” the cardinal “to immediately correct his mistakes.” The Global Times said that the Chinese embassy had called his characterization of COVID-19 as a Chinese biological weapons leak “groundless slander.”

“China is firmly opposed to anyone politicizing the pandemic and stigmatizing China,” the Embassy stated. “The Chinese Embassy in the Czech Republic urges Czech Cardinal Dominik Duka to immediately correct his mistakes and eliminate the adverse influence.”

According to La Croix International, the Czech military denied believing COVID-19 is an escaped Chinese bioweapon.

“We have no such evidence, nor have we ever presented it anywhere,” a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense told Czech media.

A Czech immunologist named Vaclav Horejsi told Czech media that the cardinal’s take on COVID-19 was “absolutely scandalous” and accused him of spreading fake news.

“As a Catholic, I am ashamed and embarrassed that this man heads our church,” he added.

Nevertheless, there have been numerous reports that there is evidence COVID-19 was made in a lab, probably the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In May 2020, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that there is “enormous evidence” that the coronavirus first came from a Wuhan lab.

Earlier this year, the head of the Population Research Institute and China expert Steven Mosher told Fox News host Tucker Carlson, “I think the evidence is obvious to anybody who looks at it. Tucker, we have not, in the past year, found a natural analog to the China virus. That is, we have not found a coronavirus … that looks at all like the China virus. It looks like a lab creation.”

He went on to discuss the testimony of Chinese virologist Dr. Li-Meng Yan who fled to the U.S. and claims that COVID-19 was manufactured in a China lab. With three colleagues, Yan issued a research paper in September which casted doubt on the commonly held position that COVID-19 originated naturally. The paper stated that “the natural origin theory, although widely accepted, lacks substantial support.”