She is clothed in strength and dignity...

SPRING 

You were able to write this message to me because the Catholic Church preserved the Latin alphabet in late antiquity when virtually nobody else bothered to learn to read or write. 

THE SHORT LIST OF CONTRIBUTIONS BY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Modern optics, including glasses, telescopes, and microscopes

Gregorian calendar

Astrophysics

The Big Bang theory, the most important theory of cosmology

Modern maps

Stratigraphy, one of the principles of geology

the study of genetics

the first theory of evolution

the philosophy that humans can’t be reduced to matter, which is the basis of human rights

the university system

virtually all extant medieval and Renaissance art (there are exceptions, but they are few)

Western law and jurisprudence, such as habeas corpus, trial by jury, and equality before the law

Braille

Western musical tradition

the elevated status of women and children. seen any honor killings or exposed infants lately? No? Thank the Catholic Church.

hospitals

the idea that society should provide charity for the poor and disadvantaged

Now get the hell off my blog and go educate yourself, preferably by going to a university (Catholic idea). If you happen to get hit by car on the way there, your lawyer (Catholic idea) will argue before a jury (Catholic idea) that your life has worth no matter how many imbecilic anon messages you send (Catholic idea). If your eyesight is reduced in the crash, you’ll be sent to an optometrist (Catholic idea) to be fitted for glasses (Catholic idea). If you’re blinded, you can learn Braille (Catholic idea). 

So I didn’t put the whole list on, because I was on mobile and couldn’t remember everything on the list. So what? I can write a point-by-point post of every single item on the list if you want and send it to your inbox. I have a feeling you don’t want that, though. It would be inconvenient.

The Vatican is necessary for the protection of the Church as an institution. People will always hate their teachings and the Pope must have a safe place to live that other countries don’t govern. This proved true in the late 19th century and early 20th centuries with the Pope and the Italian government. The Church, which is outside all of politics, must have a neutral headquarters.

I’m gonna say that science was set back during the middle ages due to basically three things:

1) loss of Greek texts

For centuries, Greek texts were our source for scientific understanding and this wasn’t really a problem during the time of the Roman Empire. However, when the RE began to decline, translating the Greek into Latin wasn’t as successful and when the Western Roman Empire finally fell, Western Europe, which spoke only Latin, couldn’t understand or use these texts. It was the Catholic Church that recognized the value in them and decided to work to preserve and translate them. In the meantime, scientists had only summaries to use as references. And though long, detailed scientific papers are incredibly painful to read, they’re also incredibly helpful, way more than any summary could be. Because of this, scientists were incredibly limited in what they could do.

2) focus on applied research

In Western Europe during the middle ages, people didn’t see a reason to study abstract concepts and pursue basic research which seemed to have no immediate purpose (but actually can be used as a foundation for future advancements) and this had nothing to do with influence from the Church or the time period. Even today, people believe we put too much money into NASA since they don’t believe it helps solve any of our current problems (which is totally a load of crap because these people don’t understand the link between space exploration and the technological developments of the late 1900s to the present NASA is actually underfunded please fund NASA but anyway back to my main point). Some advancements were made in biology and chemistry because of the need for medicine and astronomy and math because of the need to create a proper calendar for the Church, however without a good balance between basic and applied research, scientific development was not at the level that it should have been.

3) the plague

This one is pretty self explanatory since it’s a little hard to do science when a third of your population is dying. It was towards the end so it probably didn’t have as big of an effect as the previous two, but it did stifle science for at least half a century as Europe struggled to recover. And if you don’t consider that a long time consider the progress we’ve made since the mid 1900s.

By end of the middle ages, Greek texts that were now translated into Latin were being distributed thanks to advancements in printing and newly established universities (which if you refer to the original post’s list was a catholic idea) encouraged all kinds of research, leading to the huge scientific developments of the Renaissance.

So, for what better be the last time or I will literally hunt you people down and physically fight you, the Catholic Church didn’t oppress science during the middle ages in Western Europe. It actually probably saved it.

I’m sorry but just. You cant do this. That isn’t what Catholicism is. The ideology cannot be separated from the institution. The institution IS the ideology and the ideology IS the institution. The Church is the Body of Christ. Without the Church, the institution, we do not have the Mass which is the source and summit of the Faith.

Without the institution, we do not have the Sacraments, without the Sacraments we do not have the Faith.

“The word ‘Church’ means ‘convocation.’ It designates the assembly of those whom God’s Word ‘convokes,’ i.e., gathers together to form the People of God, and who themselves, nourished with the Body of Christ, become the Body of Christ. The Church is both the means and the goal of God’s plan: prefigured in creation, prepared for in the Old Covenant, founded by the words and actions of Jesus Christ, fulfilled by his redeeming cross and his Resurrection, the Church has been manifested as the mystery of salvation by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. She will be perfected in the glory of heaven as the assembly of all the redeemed of the earth (cf. Rev 14:4). The Church is both visible and spiritual, a hierarchical society and the Mystical Body of Christ. She is one, yet formed of two components, human and divine. That is her mystery, which only faith can accept. The Church in this world is the sacrament of salvation, the sign and the instrument of the communion of God and men.” [CCC 777-780]

The fact that it’s an API indicates that it may just be meant to work with an app that you download rather than something that does contact tracing on its own.

Either way…

Thus far it looks like exposure notification is something you have to opt in to. I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t trust that, but there is also a concern with security if you don’t update.

Additionally, not all devices will get this part of the update. Here’s what mine looks like:

With a lot of upcoming bills and not having the resources to pay them and have anything left to get through the fortnight, I would so appreciate any little bit of help.

If you did have a spare dollar or two I would be so immensely grateful. No pressure, just seeking help if it’s there. Thank you x