(LifeSiteNews) — In a ceremony in London, England, on Sunday April 23, Dutch farmers’ activist and lawyer Eva Vlaardingerbroek converted to the Catholic faith. She posted a video on her Twitter feed, showing the moment she was received into the Catholic Church alongside her father. “I’m home now” she wrote.
A legacy of Pope Benedict XVI
Eva Vlaardingerbroek’s mother is a Roman Catholic, but both she and her father, whilst practising Christians, were not. In this light, the choice of the church at Warwick Street in London is a significant one. It is home to an Ordinariate created by Pope Benedict XVI to address the spiritual needs of Christians wishing for full communion with Holy Mother Church.
In November 2009, Pope Benedict XVI issued the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus, writing:
In recent times the Holy Spirit has moved groups of Anglicans to petition repeatedly and insistently to be received into full Catholic communion individually as well as corporately. The Apostolic See has responded favorably to such petitions.
Indeed, the successor of Peter, mandated by the Lord Jesus to guarantee the unity of the episcopate and to preside over and safeguard the universal communion of all the Churches, could not fail to make available the means necessary to bring this holy desire to realization.
Her conversion was performed by Monsignor Keith Newton, a former Anglican bishop who was ordained as a Catholic priest in 2011. Newton leads The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham at Our Lady of the Assumption and St Gregory at Warwick Street, London.
Since its creation, the Ordinariate has seen over 80 former Anglican priests received into the Catholic Church, bringing thousands of laity and forty former Anglican parishes with them.
It is fitting that Vlaardingerbroek should choose this setting, made possible by the then Holy Father, to join the one true faith founded by Christ.
The president of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) has described assisted suicide as sometimes being the “greatest common good concretely possible” contrary to the Catholic Church’s strenuous condemnation of the practice.
This betrayal of the Catholic faith by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia is not for the first time, with the PAV repeatedly causing scandal under his watch by:
- recently appointing a notorious pro-abortion atheist to the organization
- claiming contraception and artificial insemination are sometimes acceptable
- insisting that priests could accompany people through assisted-suicide, and
- that Italy’s pro-abortion law is a “pillar” of the country’s social life.
SIGN: Pope Francis must remove Abp. Paglia from the Pontifical Academy for Life
“Personally, I would not practice suicide assistance,” Archbishop Paglia told an Italian journalism conference last week, “but I understand that legal mediation may be the greatest common good concretely possible under the conditions we find ourselves in.”
Accepting an anti-life Italian court ruling that specified when assisted-suicide is permitted, the archbishop claimed “it is not to be ruled out that in our society a legal mediation is feasible that would allow assistance to suicide under the conditions specified by Constitutional Court Sentence 242/2019…”
From the outset of his presentation in Perugia, Paglia also undermined the authority of the Catholic Church on matters of faith and morals, stating: “First of all, I would like to clarify that the Catholic Church is not that it has a ready-made, prepackaged package of truths, as if it were a dispenser of truth pills.”
SIGN: Abp. Paglia must be removed from the Pontifical Academy for Life
The PAV issued a statement on Monday trying to clarify the archbishop’s remarks, insisting that Paglia “reiterates his ‘no’ towards euthanasia and assisted suicide, in full adherence to the Magisterium”.
However, far from denouncing Paglia’s words, the PAV unsurprisingly supported its president. Referencing the Italian court ruling which partially decriminalized euthanasia by outlining exceptions to its illegality, the PAV stated it was in the context of this ruling that Paglia had made his comments.
In this precise and specific context, Msgr. Paglia explained that in his opinion a ‘legal mediation’ (certainly not a moral one) in the direction indicated by the Sentence is possible, maintaining the crime and the conditions under which it is decriminalized, as the same Constitutional Court has asked Parliament to legislate.
The PAV’s fudging of the issue was met with consternation from several Catholic commentators, with liturgist Matthew Hazell, who had highlighted Paglia’s original comments, asking “How hard is it for the @PontAcadLife to just say ‘sorry’ for scandalising the faithful? Indeed, how hard is it to actually adhere to the teaching of the Church on life issues? Are you so incapable of reading the signs of the times & interpreting them in the light of the Gospel?”
The Pontifical Academy for Life has tried & failed to explain @monspaglia‘s remarks. Paglia had spoken about the “accompaniment” needed for the dying, saying “in this context, it is not to be ruled out that in our society a legal mediation is feasible …” https://t.co/C3LU601aA2
— Michael Haynes 🇻🇦 (@MLJHaynes) April 24, 2023
Sorry guys, not good enough. Nowhere near good enough.
Archbishop Paglia’s “opinion” on the possibility of “juridical mediation” regarding euthanasia is still contrary to the Catholic faith, as has been explained already. https://t.co/qMATq0UZrL pic.twitter.com/W8s4zLvkj7— Matthew Hazell (@M_P_Hazell) April 24, 2023
Archbishop Paglia’s comments about assisted suicide being “feasible” are wrong and harmful. It’s the kind of “crack in the wall” that opponents of human life will run with to promote their agenda. The teaching of the Church is clear: Euthanasia is “morally unacceptable.” Period.
— Bishop Thomas Tobin (@ThomasJTobin1) April 24, 2023
SIGN: Abp. Paglia’s presidency of the Pontifical Academy for Life is untenable
It’s vital that the Church and PAV push back against the culture of death, rather than trying to accommodate it and accept a world that where the vulnerable are helped to kill themselves.
Be part of pushing back against the tide and making it clear that there is no room for confusion or betrayal when it comes to the sanctity of human life and the infallibilty of Catholic teaching on the matter.
SIGN AND SHARE THE PETITION WITH FRIENDS & FAMILY
MORE INFORMATION:
Abp. Paglia defends assisted-suicide as ‘greatest common good possible’ for dying people – LifeSiteNews
Reject globalism – embrace God
The 26-year-old Dutch lawyer has been at the forefront of the protests by Dutch farmers to halt Net Zero measures which would see thousands of Dutch farms forcibly closed. Yet she believes the issue is neither confined to farming, nor to the Netherlands.
In a video interview in March 2023 with The Spectator she observed, “This Net Zero plan is not actually about saving the climate or avoiding the world from being destroyed – it is a political decision that is used to crack down on people’s freedom and people’s rights.”
In an address to the Brussels National Conservatism Conference on March 23, 2022, Vlaardingerbroek outlined a manifesto for a renewed political movement.
During her talk “Reject Globalism – Embrace God” – she argues that the reason conservatives are losing so many battles is because “we have lost track – and sight of God.”
A journey home
What brought Vlaardingerbroek into the sight of God? In an April 23 email interview with The National Catholic Register she expands on her belief that the difficulties facing the modern world are the result of a spiritual battle.
Born to a Catholic mother and Protestant father, Vlaardingerbroek, 26, was brought up a Christian, but it was the COVID-19 pandemic that fully awakened her to the reality of the spiritual battle the world is facing, and a realization that the Catholic faith is “the most powerful weapon” against the moral relativism of today.
She is not the only Christian to have noticed this, of course. What then brought her to Catholicism?
I found professor Peter Kreeft’s speeches on YouTube. I watched his content for hours on end till I stumbled on his video called “Seven Reasons Why Everyone Should Become a Catholic.” I watched it, and I simply couldn’t argue with what he said.
Returning home from Christmas Mass in 2022, she received a message from her friend Father Benedict Kiely. “When are you going to become a Catholic?” it said. She realized that the time had come, and that God was calling her home.
A message of hope in dark times
Vlaardingerbroek combines a clear-sighted view of the political and social evil of the world of today. Yet her faith both guides and consoles her, as the madness of modernism is foretold by God – whose goodness is certain to prevail.
Politically and socially speaking, I think we live in incredibly dark times. An upside down world, where people call men women, women men; a world where people call evil good and good evil, as described in Isaiah 5:20.
Good will win because Christ has already conquered death and set us free.
The banner of Christ
Vlaardingerbroek is already an accomplished and intelligent political commentator – and activist. She does not rely on empty slogans, but allies her steadfast faith in God with a penetrating analysis of the ideology of evil which we as Catholics face today.
She reminds us that we have the supreme weapon – in Christ’s help – and we should no longer be afraid to use His name in defense of the good.
We are fighting such a large evil, that we can only win with Him on our side. And we have Him on our side. But if we spend our energy on hiding Him, why would He be there for us?
This is not a mere posture. Vlaardingerbroek believes, as I do, that politically and socially we face a diabolical wickedness which masquerades as the highest virtue.
We will have to recognize that we are dealing with an evil ideology that is fundamentally opposed to everything we, as Catholics stand for, if we want to stand a fighting chance.
The replacement of God
This, of course, is the familiar program of deception, seduction, lies and ruin. It is the work of Satan whispered in flattering terms – offering man as the replacement of God. This is a strategy which exploits human limitations and weakness alike, and is heavily reliant on the manipulation of mortal fear.
The problem is that many Christians fall for the ‘pretty words’ the globalists use to sell us their plans.
Whether it’s climate change, COVID or transhumanism, they present their ‘solutions’ under the guise of equality and noble pretexts, but in fact, if you look at what they’re really proposing, it always comes down to the fact that these people want to play God.
She is equally precise on the propaganda employed in the information war, to convert populations to a posthuman – and Godless – agenda,
And the solutions they offer — vaccine passports, transhumanism, ‘saving the planet’ — always feed off of people’s fear of death.
Which, sadly, if you believe this life on earth is all there is, is not a strange thing to be afraid of.
Does Eva herself see the ultimate depth of this evil? Certainly. Her closing remarks serve as a rallying cry for Catholics everywhere,
So what I believe needs to be done is that Christians, especially Catholics, openly reject any type of cultural or religious relativism. The narrative of ‘you can have your truth and I have mine,’ is I think exactly what the devil wants people to say.
Eva Vlaardingerbroek took the confirmation name of St. Joan of Arc on Sunday. It is clear she understands the fight ahead, to which she appears to have devoted her life. Welcome, Eva Joan, to the Catholic faith.