So they got John Henry

 

I haven't cared for John Henry Westen since he posted that weird video of his sick daughter. I rarely read LifeSite but it was shocking that the man could be ousted by the board of the organization he founded. If that wasn't enough, LifeSite flunkies are now turning on him publicly as Chris Jackson discusses on his Substack.

Uncle Junior

 My uncle, Junior,  my mother's only surviving brother fainted on Sunday. He was dehydrated and malnourished. He has such a fear of getting fat that he only eats one meal a day and doesn't fully digest that. He has a stocked pantry and fridge. This is not a matter of money. He worked had and was shrewd so he has an excellent finances. My mother, his son and cousins have all given him a talking to and he's promised to eat but....he has an eating disorder that I suspect is a form of bulimia,  and I don't know what to do.  None of us do. Please pray for him. 

The West is a Sick Place

 Look at this face.

Now read this  and this  and NEVER consent or approve or give the slightest encouragement to this situation again. Sure, it may cause you social ostracism  but at least you'll have a clean conscience. Every  social worker, judge, neighbor, boss, or co-worker who gave legal consent or just were so gutless that they voiced approval when this innocent baby was handed over to monsters  has his  blood on their hands.

The West is sick.  Are we any better than Carthage or the Moloch worshipers or ancient Rome with it's unwanted infant exposure to the elements?  Our judicial system hands children to abusers and pretends to be shocked when the inevitable happens. 

Trads, it's time to face facts

 I think it's long past time for traditional minded Catholics to face three facts. First, no matter how much you grovel and plead, if you go to a diocesan traditional Latin Mass you are living on borrowed time.

 Second, while you still have that Mass it is an act of utter folly to spend money on restoration projects. Yes, fix the roof if there's danger, and get  the boiler tended to but don't go beyond maintenance. Two times now I've seen good people  take a run down church and lovingly restore it only to have a Cardinal, in one case, and a bishop in the other decide that they aren't allowed to have the TLM anymore. Essentially, these dear folks spent their time and treasure fattening frogs for snakes. 

The third fact, may hurt the most. Your Novus Ordo attending acquaintances and family, be they wild liberals or do nothing conservatives will mock you in your grief at losing the Mass and the community you found at the TLM. They will also tell you to be silent.

Even if you have a benign bishop, and you can go to the TLM daily, he will retire or die one day and the next man up could gut you. Don't despair and don't become bitter. Talk to your spouse and friends about the worst case scenario now. If you were planning on moving across multiple states to be near a particular parish you might want to hold off and watch how the winds are blowing. You should take a road trip and see how far you can reasonably travel to get to Mass. You may have to content yourself to traveling to the TLM once or twice a year and going to the best Novus Ordo you can find for the rest of the time. This is what Rocky and I are doing and no, I'm not satisfied with it but it is the best we can do right now.

 Admittedly this is going to be hard or impossible for people with small children at home  or  for those who can't drive anymore. While none of this is a fun mental exercise, it will keep you from being blindsided when one day your priest announces that the bishop is forbidding the TLM to be celebrated anymore.  Like Our Lord set your face like flint and go forward. 

Random thoughts on a humid Sunday afternoon

• Some very bad storms swept though my area this weekend and we lost power from Friday evening to Sunday morning. When the power did come back Rocky and I both woke up and I sang a verse from "Witchita Lineman". The freezer thermometer read 40 degrees and the fridge thermometer showed it was in  the danger zone. I had throw everything out. Modern life is very fragile. 
  
  
  
•  I am very cautious about Leo XIV. He's not Francis, I mean he's polite, dresses like the pope and I'm sure he won't be smacking women in public but c'mon, you know the pope is more than optics. Time will tell if he's going to be okay. What will he actually teach? Will he get laicize Rupnik? Will he make an effort to get the bishops in Germany to act remotely Catholic?  I don't blame anybody who's wary and I don't take the hosanas from the Trad Inc. folks seriously either. 

• The Vatican is reportedly in bad financial shape. I read one report that claimed donations were down by 50%. Since most of the money comes from American Catholics, this means that even the Catholic who just comes to Mass on Sunday and not much else, even these folks were sick of the Francis show and ignored the usher when the Peter's Pence collection was being taken up. Possibly, Leo XIV, a middle of the road company man technically from America will be just the ticket for getting the coffers filled again.
  
  
  
  
• Speaking of money, after Sunday Mass, a member of the Finance Committee made a speech. She came to the point quickly, thank goodness. Unless offerings increase cuts are going to have to be made. A lot of people did not come back to the parish after Covid. You can insult them by calling them  lazy and weak but they were coming to Mass before and after being told that their spiritual lives would be just fine without Mass, I guess they believed it. Those live streamed Masses just didn't cut it. I remember feeling abandoned when my plea for a written religious exemption from the vaccine was ignored. How do all the people who had to watch their loved ones die with no priest to offer to  Last Rites feel? Every time I hear a member of the clergy or a parish official chide, however gently the people who didn't come back I feel myself becoming furious. 
  
  
  
  
• I try to buy from small Catholic businesses but some business owners don't make it easy. A while ago I bought a veil that, when I received it, did not look like what I ordered. The customer service was so bad it was insulting. I won't buy from that woman ever again. Two weeks ago, I bought a rosary and what I got was a disappointment. Whoever made it strung all the beads closely together with nothing to distinguish the Pater Noster beads from the Ave beads so if you pray in bed with the lights off you can't tell where the decade ends unless you were keeping count. Instead of metal the crucifix is very cheap and plastic. When I answered their survey and said that no, I'm not thrilled with their product and sent photos, they offered me no refund but did say I'd get 20% off my next purchase. No thanks. I think I would have done better if I'd purchased from a secular company that gets rosaries from China. 

Habemus Papam

 Okay, white smoke just came out of the chimney. I remember sitting at work when Benedict was elected and letting out a cheer. Now I actually feel my stomach clinch. I don't have any great expectations. I just pray, Dear God let this man be actually Catholic. 

................And it's Cardinal Prevost, Leo XIV. If it's true that Fr. James Martin was rooting for him then we are cooked.

Francis is no longer in control

 I woke up this morning planning to write about the Easter Vigil Mass at some point today. That plan went out the proverbial window as soon as  I picked up my phone and saw a RIP Pope Francis notice on Instagram. I didn't believe it  because it was  from an up and coming Catholic "influencer," whom I consider to be sweet and enthusiastic but gullible. My first thought was, "Not this crap again. Cool it with the fake reports." Then I saw a post from EWTN  and realized the story was true. To my surprise,  I felt...nothing. Not sorrow, like when Pope John Paul II, died, not pity as I did when poor Benedict died and certainly not satisfaction.  There was simply nothing. Later I checked Twitter and was revolted by some of the gooey, sniveling posts, including a horrible AI rendering of Francis being held in the arms of Our Lady. I decided that in the the coming days since I have nothing nice to say I'd restrict my remarks to vague platitudes and that's what I'll do with the folks at work. 

 Jorge Bergoglio is dead. Many are sad. Many are relieved but none that isn't what matters now. What matters is eternity. We all die and have to face God and give account of ourselves. There's no weasel room. There's not arguing your case. They'll be no  appeals to a higher court. On the day of our particular judgment we get exactly what's coming to us.  That is a truly terrifying and awesome thought. 

One more thing,  Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell is the camerlego. Theodore McCarrick's roommate of five years is running the Church until there's a new pope. As I've said before, the death of one man is not the end for those left behind. Whoever is elected at the conclave just might be one of McCarrick's "nephews" or at least will be someone who was a friend of a close friend.