Until now, we have not posted on little Alfie Evans, because such wonderful coverage has been given, especially by Lifesite News. However, on Sandro Magister’s blog, we see a miracle before our eyes and a very clear representation of the immensity of the battle being waged between the dark forces currently in control – ably represented by Judge Anthony Hayden, LGBT activist and anti-life proponent – and the innocent child, Alfie Evans who has become an icon of the innocent victims of the hateful ideology of death now consuming this world. We present a few excerpts of Magister’s post and refer readers to his site, here, for the entirety.
Little Alfie was supposed to have died over the span of a few minutes, once the respirator was disconnected. With the medical “comforts” of the case. “Placed with care on the laps of Mr Evans and Ms James, if they desire.” And “after the death has been confirmed, the family will be able to wash him, dress him, and spend time with him.”
Why the dogged determination to kill this Child?
But this is not what happened. Because even without the oxygen tube, which was removed at 10:17 PM on Monday, April 23, Alfie continued to breathe. On his own. For hours and hours. To the point that the next day the physicians of the hospital – resoundingly discredited by the facts – had to give back his oxygen, water, and food. “A miracle of prayer,” said Francis Cavina, the bishop who on April 18 had gone with Alfie’s father to the pope, for “a little warrior who wants to live.”
That Monday of the fourth week of Easter, many had gone into action to stop those who wanted to put Alfie to death. In Rome, the pediatric hospital of the Bambino Gesù, owned by the Holy See, was ready to welcome and care for him. The Vatican secretariat of state had already been at work for a number of days, at the explicit order of the pope. The government in Rome had given the child Italian citizenship and had activated its own embassy and consulates in the United Kingdom. The president of the Bambino Gesù, Mariella Enoc, had gone in person to Liverpool, while a special airplane was ready to take off from Rome with a medical team on board.
The next day, Tuesday April 24, given how Alfie’s stupefying vitality was blatantly contradicting those who wanted him dead, the pressure in defense of the child became even stronger. To the point that the English judge who had handled the case from the beginning and the evening before had given the order to have him killed found himself constrained to reconvene the sides for a hearing in Manchester in the afternoon.
Anthony Hayden, the judge, was until two days ago the head of the Family Division of the British high court, in addition to being an LGBT activist and author of the book “Children and Same Sex Families.” His idea has always been that death had to be provided for Alfie in that this coincided with “his best interest.” And this was also the idea of the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in Liverpool where the child was in treatment. Against the opposing view of the parents. Very young, she an Anglican and he a Catholic, from working-class families, already repeatedly humiliated by the physicians of the hospital, ignored by the major British media, and now also made the target of disdainful judgments – “deluded,” “fanatical” – at the hearing convened by Judge Hayden.
At the end of the hearing, the judge denied the request from the attorneys of Tom Evans to authorize Alfie’s immediate departure for Rome. But he issued an order to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital to decide if and how to release the child – now a citizen of both the United Kingdom and Italy – with the consequent, hypothetical ability for the parents to take him where they think appropriate.
The hospital, however, has also closed off this outlet. It has refused to free Alfie before “three to five days of extensive discussions,” with an outcome that promises to be negative. A refusal that Mariella Enoc, president of the Bambino Gesù in Rome, was expecting, after the directors of the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital had not even wanted to meet with her when she went to Liverpool, and after seeing in action, during her visit to that hospital, “too much activity not helpful for the child.” “They have deceived the family,” is her judgment today. “They have taken an adverse position. And I believe that this is the result of an ideological battle.”
This is also the judgment of Professor Fr. Roberto Colombo, a geneticist on the faculty of medicine and surgery at the Catholic University of Rome and an ordinary member of the pontifical academy for life:
“As before with little Charlie Gard, with little Alfie as well one is in the presence of ‘accanimento tanatologico’ [‘thanatological doggedness,’] or an obstinacy that is ideological and devoid of reasonable clinical and ethical foundations in bringing to an end the existence of the child. … This is the contrary of authentic palliative care, which provides for the treatment of the incurable patient until the last moment of his life, without procuring his death ahead of time with omissive euthanasia. Medicine needs to be set free from a deadly ideology that denies at the root its vocation to the service of life.”
At the Vatican and in the Catholic hierarchy, however, the voices are not unanimous. Pope Francis has spoken out in clear words in defense of Alfie’s life, especially after the audience granted to his father on the morning of Wednesday, April 18. But his protege Vincenzo Paglia, president of the pontifical academy for life – already the author last March 9 of an interview in which he completely agreed with Judge Hayden – issued on Sunday April 22, at the height of the struggle between the child’s parents and the British judicial and medical institutions, a highly ambiguous statement in which the search for consensus, whatever may be the solution adopted, is made to prevail over the truth and justice of the solution itself:
“Considering all the difficulties and possible solutions being considered as circumstances progress, we believe it is very important that everyone work together in the most collaborative way possible. Only by seeking agreement between all parties – a loving alliance of parents, relatives, and medical team – will it be possible to reach the best solution for helping baby Alfie in this dramatic moment of his life.”
Not to mention the holing up of the archdiocese of Liverpool, and – something even more serious – the Pilatesque statement of April 18 from the episcopal conference of England and Wales, headed by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, which simultaneously agrees with everyone and no one:
“We affirm our conviction that all those who are and have been taking the agonising decisions regarding the care of Alfie Evans act with integrity and for Alfie’s good as they see it.”
(English translation by Matthew Sherry, Ballwin, Missouri, U.S.A.)
Those” dogged thanatologists” who believe they control life are no different from those who shouted, “Crucify Him” when faced with the Truth. It is no coincidence that the Judge who repeatedly denied this child his right to live is also an aggressive advocate of perversion and the destruction of the family. Let us then be even more dogged in our prayers for Alfie and all victims of this perverted culture of death.
Please, Pray the Rosary and confound satan and those who serve him!
†Immaculate Heart of Mary, Queen of our hearts, Mother of the Church, do thou offer to the Eternal Father the Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ, for the conversion of poor sinners, especially our Pontiff.
†Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Thy kingdom come! Viva Cristo Rey!
†Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.
†St. Joseph, protect us, protect our families, protect our priests.
†St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle.
