Lee Ardis

Pope Francis hospitalized with respiratory infection

Pope Francis was hospitalized with a respiratory infection Wednesday after experiencing difficulty breathing in recent days and will remain in the Rome hospital for several days of treatment, the Vatican said.

The 86-year-old pope, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, doesn’t have COVID-19, spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement late Wednesday.

The hospitalization was the first since Francis spent 10 days at the Gemelli hospital in July 2021 to have 33 centimeters (13 inches) of his colon removed.

It immediately raised questions about Francis’ overall health, and his ability to celebrate the busy Holy Week events that are due to begin this weekend with Palm Sunday.

Bruni said Francis had had trouble breathing in recent days and went to the Gemelli hospital Wednesday for tests.

“The tests showed a respiratory infection (COVID-19 infection excluded) that will require some days of medical treatment in the hospital,” Bruni’s statement said.

‘Use a Nail Gun to Nail the Heads and Crucify Them’: The Persecution of Christians, February 2023

The following are among the murders and abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of February 2023:

The Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Democratic Republic of Congo: On February 12-13, Muslim terrorists massacred 22 people in the 95% Christian-majority nation. The terrorists were members of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), “a Ugandan armed group that has operated in east Congo for decades…. It has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and stages frequent deadly raids on villages.” Although Reuters claims that “There was no indication as to the motive” of the attacks, others are more forthright. Discussing the ongoing terrorization of the DRC, the human rights group, Open Doors, wrote:

“These predominantly Christian communities are attacked by an Islamic extremist group with a clear Islamic expansionist agenda…. The ideology, the agenda of establishing a ‘caliphate’ in the region, and the way they operate is the same, and we can see how they afflict terrible suffering on innocent people.”

Similarly, speaking of an earlier attack on his village, when the ADF slaughtered about 20 people, a Christian clergyman further shed light on their motivations:

“They tried to force some of our Christians to convert to Islam. They also tried to force my wife and our four children to convert to Islam, but when they refused to convert, they shot my wife in the head while our four children were cut into pieces with a Somali sword… the rebel militants intend to establish an Islamist state ruled by sharia [Islamic law].”

Read more at: www.gatestoneinstitute.org

Occultic Uptick? Alarming Proportion of Young People Use Crystals and Herbs, Follow ‘Spiritual Teachers’

A substantial proportion of young people are engaging in herbs and crystals as part of routine spiritual practices, according to a research firm that specializes in surveying youths.

Springtide Research Institute told CBN’s Faithwire it found 44% of young people between the ages of 13 and 25 “engage with herbs/crystals as a spiritual practice.” Shockingly, 21% do so on a weekly basis.

These results were found in the polling firm’s “State of Religion & Young People 2022” report, underscoring the reality that young people are finding alternative sources of religion and spirituality in an era of rampant secularism and less attachment to Judeo-Christian values.

With culture skewing away from the faith, a vacuum is in its place, and young people are desperately looking to fill the holes.

“Young people today are lonely and desperate to experience a deep sense of connection,” Kevin Singer, head of media and public relations at Springtide, told CBN’s Faithwire. “If that isn’t happening in churches and other faith communities, they will find it elsewhere — typically online — where independent spiritual teachers are making their living.”

Crystals and herbs are two New Age practices some believe hold the power to offer healing or ward off evil spirits, with these elements and practices sparking concern among many Christians.

As GotQuestions.org explains, “According to crystal healers, the careful placing of crystals on a patient’s body is supposed to line up with or stimulate the body’s chakras and promote healing.”

The FBI has found a gateway to declare Christians as criminals: federal whistleblower

The FBI is targeting Catholics who attend Latin Mass

The FBI has found a new gateway to declare Christians as criminals, a federal whistleblower said on “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

An internal document from the bureau’s Richmond, Virginia, field office allegedly vowed to spy on “radical traditionalist Catholics and their ideology.”

“They have found a gateway in what they think is fringe Catholicism in order to move into Christians in general and declare them to be the actual criminals in this country or the potential terrorists,” federal whistleblower and former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin said.

Seraphin said the document is antithetical to Catholicism and was written by someone who believes abortion rights must be upheld and the LGBTQ agenda “has to be pushed down the American people’s throats.”

“I’m friends with people who love the Latin Mass,” the Catholic federal whistleblower told Fox News. “I grew up in a traditional school where I actually learned Latin in fifth and sixth grade and all the way through high school and it doesn’t seem reasonable, but it is the state of the FBI at this point that they are so desperate to find White supremacists that they’re going to look at the Catholic Church.”

Polio is Back: London Re-Launches Vaccination Campaign Against Previously Eradicated Disease

Authorities in the UK are set to re-launch a child vaccination campaign in London in response to a polio outbreak in the capital.

British authorities are to re-launch efforts to see every child in London aged from 1 to 11 vaccinated against Polio after an outbreak of the disease last year.

An initial campaign to see all children jabbed was started last year after the formerly extinct disease was found in the city’s sewer system, with the virus thought to have possibly re-entered open-borders Britain from abroad.

Despite this attempt to get the population most vulnerable to the disease vaccinated, uptake for the childhood polio jab in London remains well below the national average, with the country’s National Health Service now set to renew efforts to get more children inoculated against the virus, which can cause paralysis and even death.

“Until we reach every last child, we cannot be sure that we will not see a case of paralysis,” The Telegraph reports Dr Vanessa Saliba of the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) as saying regarding the outbreak.

“Even a single case of paralysis from polio would be a tragedy as it is completely preventable,” she continued. “Only by improving vaccination coverage across all communities can we ensure resilience against future disease threats.”

Most Germans Fear Future War, Inability of their Country to Defend Itself – Poll

Over half of Germans believe that their country could be heading towards a future war and that the country is unable to defend itself, polling has revealed.

A study undertaken by the R+V Insurance company has reportedly found that over half of Germans now fear that the country could end up getting itself actively involved in a war in the near future.

The majority in the country, the poll asserts, also reportedly view the German state as being unable to defend itself, a viewpoint that appears to largely be in keeping with those in the country’s government.

According to the data reported on by N-TV, 55 per cent of those in Germany fear that the country is heading towards a future war, with this statistic rising to 63 per cent when only women are polled.

This statistic rises even further when only those in the once-communist-occupied east are polled, with around two-thirds of the region’s population believing that a future war is on the cards for the country.

Great Reset: EU Vote to Implement Digital ID Latest Step in the ‘Chinaficaton of Europe’ – MEP

A European Parliament vote for bloc-wide digital IDs is the latest step towards the “Chinafication of Europe”, an MEP has claimed.

Cristian Terhes, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Christian Democratic National Peasants’ Party, has described the European Union’s latest push for cross-border digital IDs as another move towards the “Chinafication” of the bloc.

Although bureaucrats in Brussels have insisted that the measure is in the interests of average citizens, the parliament’s vote to see digital IDs adopted appears to be one of the latest attempts by EU institutions to pull power away from member-states’ national governments.

According to a report by Euractiv, the vote to see negotiations for a European Digital Identity Framework (eID) to go forward was approved by the bloc’s parliament on Thursday — though the publication describes the process as a mere formality.

Romana Jerkovic, the parliament’s rapporteur for the digital ID programme, heralded its approval of the plans, claiming that they will enable individual EU citizens to have “full control over their own data” while accessing facilities across the bloc.

Cashless Society: Panera Bread Debuts “Frictionless” Palm Payment System

Amazon’s palm-reading payment technology was first introduced at numerous Whole Foods locations in California, enabling customers to pay for their groceries by scanning their palms at checkout terminals rather than using cash or a card. Now Panera Bread is experimenting with Amazon’s cashless payment system as the war on cash marches on.

On Wednesday, Panera Bread announced plans to roll out a “contactless payment method” to several stores with additional locations in the coming months. The bakery-cafe chain has over 2,000 locations, and its loyalty program has 52 million members.

“Panera is the first national restaurant company to use Amazon One as both a way for guests to pay and access their loyalty account with their palm,” the company said.

“Our philosophy has been centered around leveraging best-in-class technology to create a better Panera experience and using that to deepen our relationship with our loyal guests. Introducing Amazon One, as a frictionless, personalized, and convenient service, is another way we’re redefining the loyalty experience,” Niren Chaudhary, CEO of Panera Bread and Panera Brands, stated.

At the moment, dozens of Whole Foods locations and Amazon Go stores have integrated Amazon One contactless payment.

Cashless society: FedNow instant payments are coming and CBDCs will follow

There’s absolutely no doubt that our financial system is in flux right now. We’re watching a storm approach, and it’s about to envelop the entire nation in chaotic conditions. If you think things are crazy now, just hang on to your halo…it’s about to get a whole lot worse.

Remember how we talked about CBDCs a few weeks ago, and lots of people in the comments said never, no way, and heck no? Well, unfortunately, it’s being rolled out and soon.

Of course, they’re not calling it CBDCs. Not yet.

It’s under another name, and it’s not quite a federal digital currency. I’m sure this, too, will be called a conspiracy theory, but the Federal Reserve is launching FedNow, an instant digital payment system. This in itself is not a Central Bank Digital Currency, but it puts into place the framework needed to make the idea a reality.

Candida auris: What is the deadly fungus sweeping through US hospitals?

The drug-resistant fungus Candida auris (C. auris) was only discovered some 15 years ago but is already one of the world’s most feared hospital microbes.

If it gets inside the body, the yeast-type fungus can affect the bloodstream, the nervous system and several internal organs. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that its mortality rate ranges from 30% to 53% of patients affected by an invasive infection.

What is more worrisome is that the fungus has proven to be resistant to the most common types of antifungal drugs. Some strains are resistant to all of the medicines we have, says BBC’s health correspondent James Gallagher.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been outbreaks in more than 30 countries. A 2020 review from case reports from those nations found almost 4,750 cases globally between 2009 and 2019.