URGENT APPEAL - 'LIFESITE' AND Apple

We have had occasion before on this blog to raise matters of freedom of speech and censorship, and our dear readers were then very supportive in their active responses, which bore real fruit.

This time it is the very diffusion of the teaching of Holy Mother Church which is threatened. LIFESTYLE NEWS has been banned by the online news agency Apple News for alleged intolerance.  We have seen this sort of thing coming for some time, and that is good reason why we should fight hard. Apple are after all doing no more than many Government agencies have already done in schools, town halls and other places. We know these people's agenda; this is the sort of the thing the Order of Malta was founded for.

Please sign the PETITION HERE, and diffuse this among your friends. It seems from this afternoon's update from LIFESITE NEWS that this campaign is already working!

This is real Tuitio Fidei. For those of you who think it is some vague Latin principle which has nothing to do with you, think again!

LIFESITE write:

Apple News has just banned LifeSite, the world's largest and most-popular pro-life and pro-family news website, from its Apple News platform. 

Without any prior warning, Apple News informed us in an e-mail today: "Your channel has been disabled, and your content has been removed from Apple News." 

This unfounded decision seems to be designed to silence LifeSiteNews. But, we will not be silenced, and we are not taking this lightly. 

We are URGENTLY calling on our readers and supporters - and on all freedom-loving people - to SIGN THIS PETITION, demanding that Apple reinstate LifeSite's Apple News channel immediately. 

Apple claimed that LifeSite's channel, "shows intolerance towards a specific group," but Apple did not state which "specific group" the site allegedly showed intolerance towards, and provided no specific examples of offending content. 

“It goes without saying that LifeSite would never promote intolerance or hatred against any group," said LifeSite's Editor-in-Chief John-Henry Westen. 

"Unfortunately, however, in our divisive political climate, even mild expressions of common Christian and conservative viewpoints are now often dismissed as de facto 'hatred' and 'intolerance'. We certainly hope that this is not what Apple is doing. But at a time when there is growing evidence of left-wing censorship by the tech juggernauts, this decision is frightening. 

"We are awaiting Apple's response providing further details on their decision," added Westen. "But at face value, this decision looks like just another case of a tech company using their power to quietly censor conservative opinions, simply because they don't agree with them." 

Unfortunately, Apple's e-mail provided LifeSite with no opportunity to appeal their decision. 

Apple News is an app that is available on all Apple devices. It aggregates news content from thousands of publishers. Apple users can “follow” their favorite news sites and receive customized updates. 

Apple News first approved LifeSite's channel earlier this month, after a six month delay. Since then, thousands of people have read LifeSite's news content on the platform.
LifeSite is by far the largest pro-life and pro-family news site on the Internet. Over 22 million people have visited the site so far this year, viewing over 57 million pages. The site employs a team of over a dozen professional journalists and editors. 

"We urge our readers, and any concerned citizen, to tell Apple that this kind of censorship is unacceptable," said Westen. "If anybody is 'showing intolerance' here, it is Apple that is showing intolerance towards the millions of people who rely on LifeSite for our news reporting, and who support our pro-life and pro-family values."

TODAY - PORTIUNCULA INDULGENCE!

Today is the day upon which every year we may gain the Portiuncula Indulgence, from the afternoon on the 1st August to sunset on the 2nd.  This plenary indulgence may only be applied to the Souls in Purgatory, by the act of visiting a church following Confession and receiving Holy Communion. It is thus one of the greatest Acts of Charity we can perform, to release a soul from Purgatory. Why would one not do this?

The Indulgence was granted miraculously to Saint Francis on a night of great temptation, in which he is said to have rolled as mortification in a briar-bush which became a bush of sweet thornless roses.  Originally it required a visit to the cell where he died, now in the basilica at Portiuncula (see photo above) about a mile from Assisi, but by successive Popes, in their great mercy, has been granted more and more liberally until today any church may be visited to gain this indulgence. (This privilege has been finally established for an indefinite time by a decree of the S. Cong. of Indul., 26 March, 1911 (Acta Apostolicae Sedis, III, 1911, 233-4), and reformed and confirmed by Pope Paul VI in "Indulgentiarum Doctrina" (1967). This Apostolic Constitution established that a Plenary Indulgence may be gained only once a day.)

The obligations are the usual ones of Confession and Holy Communion, ideally on the day, and recitation of the Lord's Prayer and the Creed, and prayer for the Holy Father's intentions, carried out with the will to gain the indulgence, and a detachment from sin. That is all. The indulgence may be gained on each of the two days, thus twice, assisting two souls.

Please make the effort to do this wonderful charitable work today!

For more information see HERE.