This Community bears the name of St. Joan of Arc for her remarkable witness of courage and faith – virtues which are absolutely necessary to defeat this present darkness. Joan’s challenges are similar to ours in our time: to expel the darkness from our land and to unify it in the only unity which is real who is a person and the Truth itself – Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour.
FOUNDING PRINCIPLES AND OBJECTIVES OF THE ST. JOAN OF ARC COMMUNITY
- SUPPORT – We exist to provide a community of support for unvaccinated Catholics (vaccinated and unvaccinated) who firmly oppose Covid Vaccine Tyranny, as is currently practiced in Canada, and any future exercises in totalitarian oppression. Those who are militantly in favour of such vaccines and other totalitarian impulses or who are obtusely naïve are not welcome in this Community.
- TRUST – This Community places all of its trust in Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Saviour through the promise of the Holy Face Devotion to provide for our material and spiritual needs now more than ever.
- CONSCIENCE – Any initiative, activity, or forum proposed by members of this Community is completely voluntary and must respect the consciences of its members. This Community rejects all forms of direct and indirect coercion as is currently imposed in the wider culture. The only compulsion will be a member’s own conscience and the demands which Christian charity imposes upon it.
- REPRESENTATION – The Community – through the strength of its members’ faithful and moral witness – will seek to represent its members’ views and interests to third parties – legal, political, and ecclesiastical.
- MEDICAL – The Community supports and assists qualified medical professionals who respect conscience rights to assist members with their needs.
- CHARITY – This Community will provide a platform for the exercise in genuine Christian charity by financially assisting other members who are in need.
- COMMUNION – All members are encouraged to gather with one another in regular social occasions to strengthen their bonds of Catholic fellowship and charity, as well as to embolden their witness of the truth of the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of conscience.
- SOLIDARITY & EVANGELIZATION – Members are encouraged to reach out to join our fellow Canadians and their efforts to overturn the various forms of totalitarianism being imposed on Canadian citizens, and to assist them in their efforts to do so, demonstrating solidarity with them and providing them a witness of Christian solidarity and sacrifice in defense of shared and genuine Canadian values.
- SPIRITUAL – Our primary spiritual engagement is through the prayer of the Holy Rosary, Holy Face Devotion and other Catholic prayers in public venues. We gather once a week as a Community to pray. Check out our Rosary Crusade page for the details.
St Joan of Arc – A Reflection
In February 2021 as I was flipping though my Facebook News Feed, an ad advertising a book on St. Joan of Arc by Mark Twain, the famous American writer and novelist, best known for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. I was intrigued because I did not think Twain was particularly religious, and as I found out later, he most certainly was not. He was only a nominal Christian at best, and had an aversion to organized religion. However, he is an enigma of sorts as he wrote a very reverent portrayal of Joan of Arc, “a subject over which he had obsessed for forty years, studied for a dozen years and spent two years writing about. Amazingly, In 1900 and again in 1908 he stated, “I like Joan of Arc best of all my books, it is the best” (Wikipedia).
Anyhow, this ad kept coming up on my feed and I felt called to read it. I have no idea why, but I decided to make the investment. As I read it, I was amazed at Joan of Arc. Truly, amazed. We all know the story, but how many of us have actually reflected on it? There’s never really been a story like it, and I doubt there will be again – at least in the particulars. And yet, as I read this incredible story, I started to reflect on the theological and moral significance of her witness. A thirteen year-old girl would start to receive visions from St. Michael the Archangel and other saints and then eventually lead France army in battle to expel the English from France. As we all know, it did not end well for her as she was captured and then burned at the Stake by a corrupt local Church and a corrupt State.
St. Joan’s story was very instructive as it highlighted once again how God can chose the lowly, the nobodies, and the ignorant to humble and to crush proud. As I read this novel and reflected, I started to understand why her witness is so important today. Joan’s mission was quite simple: to kick out the English and unite France. She had to go up against a scheming and cowardly government and an anemic and calculating Church. And these were supposed to be her allies! She was a farm girl with no military experience, and barely a teenager when she started receiving her heavenly visitors and leading France into battle when still a minor by today’s standards. She was offered so many political compromises, but she rejected them all because her virtue was authentic and she could not be shaken or bought off from her mission. That’s why Twain fell in love with her – because of her steadfast virtues and her unshakable genuine patriotism. She was initially laughed at and scorned by her countrymen for being a mere farm girl until, that is, she started winning and winning and winning. Then the laughter stopped, and a certain sobriety took hold of the French. Humiliation, it seems, has that effect.
Why is this relevant today as we suffer through this Covid scam? Because we need St. Joan of Arc’s witness now more than ever to fight this tyrannical evil that is destroying our beloved country. And we face very similar challenges that Joan faced: Paid off politicians, a lifeless and treacherous church, a daunting wealthy power and evil so fierce that a viable opposition does not even exist, and all institutions of the country in the bag for the thugs as they were in Joan’s day.
Joan’s story might be rare, but it is not impossible. Was not Our Lady the precursor to Joan in Faith when she proclaimed what great works God had done in her:
“He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.” (Luke 1: 51-55)
Today, the West faces the most serious threat to its moral and foundational underpinnings as the attack on freedom and conscience continues unabated. We desperately need the faith and the witness of St. Joan of Arc. We need an army of Joan of Arcs!
We need Joan’s courage, fortitude, and integrity.
We must be willing to give up everything (position, wealth, even our very lives if necessary) to hold to the truth that God has given us, individually, stewardship of our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit and created in His image. And no power on this earth may encroach upon it.
This truth is worth everything we have in this life, and we must ask God for Joan’s steadfastness and resolve to witness to this truth.
In Her Immaculate Heart,
John Pacheco
St. Joan of Arc Community