TOWSON, Maryland (LifeSiteNews) – A Catholic priest has slammed vaccine mandates from the pulpit, saying that “no earthly king or president…gets to dictate what we must put into our bodies.”
The homily which was later publicly attacked by LGBT activist Father James Martin as “moronic.”
Addressing his congregation at Christ the King Church in Towson, Maryland, Father Edward Meeks of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter used Catholic doctrine to defend the right of bodily autonomy through his homily.
Speaking on the feast of Christ the King, November 21, Meeks reminded the congregation that “you and I belong to another realm, another kingdom. This earthly kingdom, this earthly realm is not our home; it is part of our journey.”
Mentioning the “ongoing conflict” within the human being, Meeks noted that in saying that “Jesus is our Lord and King, what we’re saying is that we owe our allegiance and our loyalty first and foremost to Him and to His kingdom.”
“So then how does this principle work itself out in our daily lives, practically speaking?” he asked rhetorically.
Drawing from Scripture, Fr. Meeks defended the right of individuals to refuse forced medical intervention, saying that the body must be cared for since it is a “temple of the Holy Spirit”:
Our King tells us in His written word that our bodies … are temples of the Holy Spirit. First Corinthians, 6:19: “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own, you were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body.”
Do you believe that? Do you believe that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit? Do you take it seriously?
Among all the other things that that implies – if you do, if you do take it seriously – is this: that no earthly king or president or public health official or billionaire technocrat gets to dictate what we must put into our bodies – into these temples of the Holy Spirit.
At this, Meeks’ congregation gave their pastor a round of applause.
Meeks further noted that “it was easier for a Christian living today in a repressive, totalitarian regime to maintain that perspective of the heavenly kingdom than it is for us.”
Despite this seeming “paradox,” Meeks explained that “modern Western culture” distracts Catholics from giving their “attention or affection” to God while those in anti-Catholics times or societies were daily faced with having to “profess…Christ is king.”
“There was little or nothing in the societies of ancient Rome, or of the Soviet Union, or today in radical Islam to compete with the Christian’s attention or affection, but there is much in our modern Western culture of freedom, peace, and prosperity to attract us and thus to distract us from our allegiance and responsibilities to the One who we verbally confess as Lord.”
Freedom-loving Australians are sending out an urgent call for help, a veritable SOS.
Over the past year and a half, Australia's democracy has been replaced by a type of medical fascism which has grasped control of power by using police state tactics.
In that time, freedoms have been curtailed or suppressed altogether and human rights have been abused, often with the use of the police force.
Please WATCH this video from our friends at Reignite Democracy Australia to better understand how BAD it is right now in Australia.
And, the situation just continues to deteriorate, so much so that our friends Down Under are now asking for outside help.
We simply must come to their aid! But, what can we do?
Please consider participating in the following two action items:
1) SAVE THE DATE and ATTEND a Pro-Freedom Rally on DEC. 4th (12pm, local time) at the Australian Embassy in Washington, DC, (address below), or at an Australian consulate office in one of the cities listed below.
2) Please SIGN and SHARE this petition, directed to the Australian Ambassador to the United States, H.E. Arthur Sinodinos, asking him to:
- End the lockdowns in Australia
- End police brutality in Australia
- End mandatory vaccinations in Australia
- Restore the freedoms of speech, assembly and travel in Australia
Remember, after signing, please make a note of this important date and time (and address, below): Saturday, December 4th, 2021, 12pm.
And, please commit to peaceful protest in support of Australian freedom at one of the locations below on that date!
Our friends Down Under are reaching their limits. So, we must now join them in their struggle to retain their freedoms and human rights against police brutality and medical dictatorship.
Thank you for taking part in this important campaign.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'‘SOS from Australia’: Freedom activists plead for political asylum from COVID regime' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/australians-call-on-foreign-leaders-to-accept-covid-tyranny-refugees/
Click here to learn more about the the December 4th protest, including helpful messaging for signs you can make at home to take with you on the day: https://www.reignitedemocracyaustralia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/FINAL-media-release-SOS-from-Australia.pdf
LOCATIONS and PHONE NUMBERS of the Australian Embassy in the United States, as well as their consular offices in Chicago, Honolulu, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. [Please use the phone number to politely, but firmly object to the oppression of the people of Australia if you can't go to the protest in person.]:
Embassy - Washington, DC
1145 17th St NW,
Washington DC,
20036-4707
Telephone: +1 202 797 3000
Chicago Consulate
123 North Wacker Drive, Suite 1330
Chicago, Illinois 60606
Telephone: +1 312 419 1480
Honolulu Consulate
Penthouse, 1000 Bishop Street
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
Telephone: +1 808 529 8100
Houston Consulate
3009 Post Oak Blvd, Suite 1310
Houston, Texas 77056
Telephone: +1 832 962 8420
Los Angeles Consulate
2029 Century Park East, 31st Floor
Los Angeles, California 90067
Telephone: +1 310 229 2300
New York Consulate
150 East 42nd Street, 34th Floor
New York, New York 10017-5612
Telephone: +1 212 351 6500
San Francisco Consulate
575 Market Street, Suite 1800
San Francisco, California 94105
Telephone: +1 415 644 3620
While not mentioning them by name, Meeks appeared to be alluding to the abortion-tainted COVID injections, promoted by Pope Francis as a “gift of love” and mandated by politicians in countries around the world.
Such a reference was noted and strongly protested by pro-LGBT Jesuit, Father James Martin, who took to Twitter to call Fr. Meeks’ words as “moronic.”
This is, to use some theological language, moronic. It’s not just about your own Temple of the Holy Spirit, i.e., your own body; it’s about other people’s bodies, too. Vaccines save lives. As Pope Francis (Fr. Meeks’ boss) has said, getting vaccinated is an “act of love.” https://t.co/ma1DitIOQi
— James Martin, SJ (@JamesMartinSJ) November 29, 2021
Meeks’ homily was a contrast to Pope Francis’ interview with Italian television channel Canale 5 in January, during which the pontiff called taking the injection “an ethical choice because you are playing with health, life, but you are also playing with the lives of others.”
Shortly afterwards, Vatican City mandated COVID inoculations for Vatican employees; those who refused the shot would be moved to different professional roles.
Pope Francis then stipulated that all reporters on his Iraq trip must be injected and provide proof of their COVID-19 injection, meaning that any unjabbed reporters would not be allowed to accompany the Pope on the journey.
Along with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Francis was reportedly one of the first to receive the vaccine when injections began in the Vatican in January.
However, in a paper released on December 12, 2020, Bishop Athanasius Schneider and co-signers Cardinal Janis Pujats, Bishop Joseph Strickland, and Archbishops Tomasz Peta and Jan Pawel Lenga expressed their strong conviction that any use of a vaccine tainted with the “unspeakable crime” of abortion, under any circumstances, “cannot be acceptable for Catholics.”
The prelates pointed to the contradiction between Catholic doctrine, which teaches that abortion is “a grave moral evil that cries out to heaven for vengeance,” and the commonly found view that vaccines resulting from abortion-derived material are permitted in “exceptional cases of ‘urgent need.’”
Fr. Meeks is no stranger to discussing controversial topics in his homilies. In October 2020 he delivered a homily in which he described pro-abortion Joe Biden as “in very public [and] very obstinate opposition to Church teaching.”
A “Biden presidency would be a danger to our already dwindling religious liberty,” Meeks warned.