random thoughts

1. Why does anybody pay any attention to Andrew Sullivan?

2. Why was so much attention paid to the Indian Ocean tidal wave last year? Not that it wasn't a tragedy but people are being slaughtered, raped, and enslaved in the Sudan every day. The victims are screaming for help but they get only sporadic attention.

You want human misery? Heck, come take a walk with me in inner city Baltimore. You want shocking sights? Go visit the projects in Philly. You want to gawk at a genuine nightmare? Step inside your local crack house. I guess you need a beach, open prostitution, and a luxury hotel that none of your people can afford to got to for the West to care about your plight.

3. Why is everybody so down on the parishioners of St. Stanislaus? I'm not saying they're right but they aren't the worst out there by a long shot. There are many churches around this country that are openly heretical. How come their boards don't get excomunicated? How come the pederast priests weren't all instantly excomunicated?

4. We are supposedly living in the Age of the Laity. How come no-one will admit that so far it's been a bust?

5. How come dissident Catholics don't just leave? Take a page from Martin Luther's book. Start your own church and leave the rest of us in peace.

6. The women of America abort more children in a week than King Herod ever dreamed of killing. How long do we think God will stay His hand?

7. When it comes to New Orleans my give a damn is busted. Yes, I know.... I know....

8. We pray for priests and nuns but when our relatives express the feeling that they have a vocation many of us try to talk them out of it.

9. When did it become fashionable to bring food and water to Mass? I can't count the number of water bottles I've seen in the pews.

10. Ever notice that the media loves it when black people behave badly? At the LA Lakers/ Miami Heat basketball game all the announcers could talk about was that this was a chance for Kobe and Shaq to mix it up. They seemed disappointed that not only did Shaq and Kobe not get into a fight on the court but they both concentrated on the game and not each other. The reporterette who spoke to Shaq at the end of the game didn't ask him about basketball but had to bring up his feelings about Kobe. I was very pleased that Shaq didn't even answer her. It reminded me of how shocked media talking heads were that there was no riot over Tookie Williams. I always find it interesting that the people who claim to care about black folks seem to think that that we are all children or untrained pets.

Footprints of God

This Christmas my husband and I watched Steve Ray's DVD on the life of Jesus. It's pretty good. Ray's voice is very, very annoying but what he's presenting is so interesting that after a while I didn't notice it anymore. Seeing the church that's built over Golgotha, and site of Christ's tomb was very moving. This DVD is great for kids and teens. Adults might find it too simple. I liked the series that Raymond Arroyo did for EWTN better.

Happy Birthday Jesus

At the 10:30 Christmas Mass at the Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in DC, the celebrating priest led the worshippers in a chourus of Happy Birthday Dear Jesus. How lame. Mnsgr. Bansfield hasn't even been gone a year yet and the fruit loops are blooming already.

Scrooge

I've been listening to a CD ofA Christmas Carol performed by Basil Rathbone and a couple of weird thoughts came to me. Is it really poor old Scrooge's fault that Tiny Tim is sickly? Perhaps Bob Cratchit should get another job. Scrooge can't be too bad, Cratchit has been in his employ for years. And what about Fred? He looks sympathetically at poor old Bob but he never once makes a move to help. Instead of preaching at Scrooge why doesn't Fred drop a few coins in the Cratchit palm. And why is it required that Scrooge be nice to Fred? We all have relatives that we could really do without.

Weird thoughts aside. I do love A Christmas Carol.

On Christmas Eve we went to Mass at midnight. It was very good. I would've preferred to go to the Cathedral in DC but my husband was tired and so was I. Father Gandalf (I think I'll call him Father Theoden from now on. That's who he really reminds me of now) gave a fine homily and Father Aragorn co celebrated. We had one jolly looking seminarian and one scrubbed clean altar boy. The cantor kept her showgirl tendencies under controll and the people, except for one loud old man in the back were well behaved.

Thank you, Jesus for coming to us. Thank you for starting out on Your rescue mission in that stable in Bethlehem. Thank you for completing in on the cross in Jerusalem.

Being the preacher's wife aint easy

Being the wife of the preacher man is not easy. Some preacher's wives become depressed. Some take comfort in being co-leaders of the church or in the unofficial but powerful role as First Lady/Queen of the church. Others snap and embarrass their husbands.

Thank you Lord!

My in-laws gave me a large statue of Pope John Paul II for Christmas. It looks a bit like this one. I was so happy. It's a nice statue but even if it had been cheap plastic and hideous it would still be one of the greatest things to happen this year. My in-laws are Baptists. They weren't happy about their son marrying a Catholic. They weren't at our wedding. When my husband converted they were not at church. My father in law used to make slightly offensive Catholic jokes. Giving me this statue shows that they may not be happy that my husband and I are both Catholic but they are going to accept it. That's what I wanted for 17 years. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Years of bitterness have been washed away.

I feel like that scene from Kill Bill 2 when Uma Thurman was lying on the bathroom floor saying "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

visit to a church

Yesterday I was in Vienna Virginia and made a quick stop to a church that I'd driven past for years but never visited. It's a traditional Latin rite church and the parish is independent of the diocese. The door was locked when my husband and I stopped by but the sacristan let us in to pray. It was the most beautiful little church I've ever seen in Virginia, period. The altar and altar rails were oak. The place smelled of sweet pine from the wreaths and garland. They had traditional pews and kneelers and there were viels available for visitors. There were lovely stations of the cross on the walls and wooden ones along the walkway outside. It was silent except for our voices saying the Hail Mary. I was really moved. I haven't felt such precious peace in a long time.

Rest in peace Richard

Richard Pryor died. He'd been sick for years with MS and it was a release. Yes, it's true that he had a drug problem once and that his humor was on the blue side but his humor was REAL. Every black person who saw him on stage, TV or in the movies understood what Richard was talking about.

I loved Richard because in his prime he was the funniest man alive and because he reminded me very much of my father. They looked alike, sounded a bit alike and both were funny. My dad used to say that since he was the oldest Richard Pryor really looked like him and not the other way around. My father has been dead for more than 20 years now and it still seems so strange and now with Richard gone it seems like another link to him is gone forever.

Eternal rest, give to him, Oh Lord.

Let prepetual light shine upon him.

Father Neo

Hooray! You can buy the Father Neo poster now.

Tookie Williams

Tookie Williams is going to be given a rousing funeral at an AME church in LA. What a shameful moment for AME. Tookie was a thug, a killer, a man who was proud to call himself the founder of the Crips. Most of Tookie's supporters were either old thugs like him, camera hogs like Je$$e Jackson and Louis Farakhan or upper class twits.

In order to join the Crips a kid had to go through an initiation period. What was the initiation? Hurting somebody. Someone had to be beat up or maimed (cripped). In other words ever Crip has done something really bad just to be a member. Think of all the black women in the hood who have no son becuase their kid got shot or beat to death by the Crips. Think of all the girls who were raped, of all the people who were robbed and terrorized. Think of Albert Owens lying on the floor and being shot in the back by Tookie. Think of the Yang family being blasted to bits and him and then think of Tookie laughing and bragging about it later. It boggles the mind that anybody would shed a tear for Tookie.

I wasn't suprised that Snoop Dogg came out in support of him because Snoop was an old gangsta himself but what the heck was Jamie Foxx doing? Jamie you were great in "Ray" but you won't see one damn dime of my money for your movies or music, period.

It would be bad enough if the Crips had staid in LA but they spread out and inspired other punks. When I was a kid growing up in DC the gangs were fighting the crack wars and it was common to hear gunshots at night. Women did not leave their homes after 7 PM unless they went out in a group. In the 80s a local woman was raped and murdered by a gang out on spree. She was a middle aged woman who just going about her own business when she was dragged into an alley. There is no glamour in gang life. There is no glory. These aren't poor, misunderstood lads. They're just a pack of damn domestic terrorists. Shed tears for Tookie if you want but all you'll get from me is scorn.

confession at St. Matts & misery at St. Burbs

On December 15, St. Matthews Cathedral in DC had its annual pennance service. There were 20 priests there and they spoke several languages including sign language. I went to an older priest and found him to be very kind and understanding. While I was confessing a drunk man wandered in and began talking to us. Father shooed him away and continued giving me counsel. That's one thing you don't run into in the burbs but I love Saint Matts. I love the beauty of the mosaics, the biggness of the space, the silence, the large aisles and the privacy of the chapels.

At Saturday Mass at my suburban back up church I had a slight anxiety attack. All of a sudden I began feeling hemmed in. For some reason, all though the church was not packed a lot of people decided to sit close to me and my husband. I need a certain amount of personal space or I become nervous. There was a loud woman behind me with two bratty kids. She never shut up all through Mass. She constantly had to chide the children or hush them. She does this every time she comes. Her children are not small. Discipline is one thing Catholics don't do well. Baptists (my family is either Baptist or AME Zion) don't put up with that mess. When Baptist kids act up in church they get corrected, immediately.


Anyway, Father Gandalf gave a sterling homily and that saved the day. He looks like he's been sick lately but his whole countenance seems to light up when he ascends to the altar. I was so busy concentrating on him that I was almost able to ignore the noise and eating, yes I said eating. At some point in 2005, it became popular for young parents to bring snacks to church to quiet their kids. When Mass was over I couldn't even make a thanksgiving because a gaggle of women decided to come up to the altar to gossip.

One more thing. If the Vatican is going to make any changes in the Mass I suggest doing away with the cantors or getting them off the altar. At least get them to sing in a register most of the people can follow. I sing soprano and even I can't follow the cantor at St. Burbs.

silly Christians

Some of my fellow Christians embarrass me. They whine and complain that there is nothing to watch at the theater and when a movie like Narnia comes along they whine and complain that it's not Christian enough. Look people. Disney-- gay loving, fart joke making, kill daddy before the first reel --- Disney made this movie. You're lucky that Aslan is still in it and doesn't sing or dance. Go to the movie or don't but I can gaurantee that if Narnia doesn't a blockbuster (AndI don't think it will. It doesn't seem to be a "must see" like the LOTR movies were. When the trailers for the Star Wars movies hit the theaters people cheered. People cheered for the LOTR trailers. The LWW trailer was met by silence at the theaters I went to) Hollywood will take it as a sign that Christians just want to complain and will never show up with cash.

As for me and mine. We won't see Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe because it just doesn't interest us. I loved the book and wept when Aslan died, and cheered when he rose from the dead but the BBC version and the really very good cartoon versions were enough for me.

It's the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

The Angel Gabriel from Heaven Came :

The angel Gabriel from heaven came,With wings as drifted snow, with eyes as flame:"All hail to thee, O lowly maiden Mary,Most highly favored lady."

Gloria!
"For know a blessed mother thou shalt be,All generations laud and honor thee;Thy son shall be Emmanuel, by seers foretold,Most highly favored lady."

Gloria!
Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head;"To me be as it pleaseth God," she said."My soul shall laud and magnify God’s holy name."Most highly favored lady."

Gloria!
Of her, Emmanuel, the Christ, was bornIn Bethlehem all on a Christmas morn,And Christian folk through-out the world will ever say:"Most highly favored lady."

Gloria!

well that's kinda interesting

In the What Kind of Hero Would You Be quizz I scored as Batman

more harm than good?

Do Catholic message boards/chat forums do more harm than good? After reading Angelqueen and a number of blogs I'm really wondering if these sites are helping the Faith. Would you want to join a church where the people seem to be split into factions and hate each other? The people on one site hate traditionalists. One blogger was crowing with delight because there was a scandal in an ultraconservative but schismatic group. His joy over someone else's pain was embarrassing.

Another site is filled with people who would damn those of us who go to Novus Ordo masses to hell. How loving and kind--- not! I'm not saying that Catholics should be mealey mouthed with each other, I hate that myself but why must we be so quick to go to war with each other?

book roundup

I just got through reading Inside Mormonism by Isaiah Bennet. It is very sad. The further you get away from orthodox Christianity the crazier you get, I guess. I also read Creation Rediscovered and I have to say that the writing is so stolid that I fell asleep every time I picked the darn thing up.

Good news

An English translation of the Vatican instruction on gays in the seminary is online at Catholic World News and other places. It looks like good news. If a young man is prancing around the seminary acting like Truman Capote he's not supposed to be ordained. Of course how many bad bishops are going to obey? How many seminarians are just going to go the Rock Hudson route? Oh well, it's a start. The road to Heaven begins with one faltering step.

In other news, the pope put the smackdown on the monks at Assisi. Years ago there was a meeting of world religions at the St. Francis shrine. The buddists were allowed to put an idol on the altar and animists slaughtered a chicken. That was an appalling episode that set the rad trads on fire and frankly, us conservative semi traditionalists couldn't really answer back.


Oh, I saw Harry Potter last night. The trailers before the movie got a mostly tepid response. Nobody seemed to be moved by King Kong, a few people laughed at Cheaper by the Dozen II and there were approving murmurs for the the Lady in the Water trailer.

The Goblet of Fire movie is MUCH better than Azkhaban. The theater was so packed it was actually too warm. The audience reaction was good. I thought the girl playing Fleur was horribly miscast....c'mon Fleur is part Veela. She should be a stunner. This actress was plain as a pancake. The boy playing Victor was perfect. I wasn't impressed by Voldie's makeup but I did like how Hogwarts looked this time out. Next up, Order of Phoenix in 2007?

Neat blogs and a confrontation at the confessional

I found a blog by a young man that is very neat. It's called St. Joseph's Vanguard.

And another one was Catholic Fire.

I went to the Catholic Answers forum and was kind of sad. It was 100% better than Angelqueen. The people at CAF are normal but judging by the posts the church in America has a long, LONG way to go in improving catechesis.


Mass tonight was interesting. I didn't get to confession. Just as I was about to go into the confessional and old man waved me off. "He's done." the old fellow grunted. Confession is from 4 to 5. It was 4:45. I felt like telling him to step off, mind his own cotton picking business, and that preventing somone from going to confession has got to be some kind of mortal sin but I didn't. Actually, in just a split second I went from being annoyed to amused. Bless the old guy's heart. I guess he was just trying to look out for Fr. Gandalf, in his own way.

Father Aragorn preached a smoking homily. There was a large group of elderly people there so I guess they were having something for them after Mass. There was a second collection but we weren't told what it was for.

things that make me happy

Fr. Corapi's preaching.

Fr. Pablo Struab's preaching. Love that accent.

The Franciscans of the Eternal Word.

Weep

The LA Times ran a story about a seminary in California that apparently was the original Pink Palace. It looks like any freak with a yen to hide his pervesion behind a white collar was welcome there.

In Virginia a brave priest went up against the lavender mafia and lost. His incredibly painful story is here The disgusting way Father Haley was treated is one of the reasons I left the Arlington diocese.



St. Charles Borromeo, patron of seminarians, pray for us.

St. John, the Cure d' Ars pray for us.

St. Pio, pray for us.

St. Peter and St. Paul, pray for us.

St. Athanasius, who had to hang tough for God when almost all the other clergy failed, pray for us.

St. John Fisher, who stood up to Henry the VIII, when all the other bishops turned coward, pray for us.

it's a mystery

Why is Mark Shea the king of Catholic blogdom? His blog is not funny. He's often mean and is always picking fights with people. I don't get it.

My search for a good Catholic newsy blog goes on. I checked out Angelqueen.org awhile back and didn't like it. Those folks are too bitter for my taste.

Mass

Father Gandalf did the confessions today. He is so kind and gives such good counsel. I felt so light and free when I left the confessional. Young Fr. Aragorn celebrated the Mass and his homily on the lazy, timid servant and his one talent was a knock out. For a young priest he speaks very well and really stirs the heart.

One funny thing-- okay most normal folks wouldn't find it funny but I have this weird sense of humor, okay? One funny thing happened. There were three or four babies of various ages at Mass tonight. One began to make a sound like yodeling. The others joined in. It was like a baby choir. Fr. began to pray and the tots got louder so he got louder. One began to shriek and Fr. just prayed a litlte louder. Finally he came to the consecration and they all quieted down. I immediately thought about the power of Christ compels you scene from the Exorcist and began to grin. At one point Fr. looked up and had this perplexed look on his face as if he couldn't figure out what the heck was wrong with me. Oh well....

I discovered something tonight. You can't wear a chapel cap on top of curly hair. It works fine when my hair is straight but tonight even with a hair comb it just wouldn't stay on.
I guess I'll buy a for real veil for the curly days. Now where to get one? I don't like the ones at Immaculata. The ones at Halo-works are nice but too long and the ones at the online Aquinas store are way too big. I might just get a chiffon scarf and carry it with me in my bottomless pit of a handbag.

and here we are, in heaven

"...and here we are in heaven, 'cause you are mine...at last. "

That line is from the great Etta James song, "At Last." I was reminded of it tonight while thinking about the Mass my husband I attended this evening. Our backup church (when my husband works late on Saturday and is just too tired to go 30 miles to our parish church we go to the back up church which is just 4 miles away.) is a little old church in a semi okay neighborhood. It's a beautiful thing. I guess the parish was too poor to renovate back in the 70s and 80s when that was the big church fad and thankfully the church looks much the same as it probably did 90 years ago. The Mass there is always beautiful, always reverant, always about God and not some experimental mess. The priests there are fantastic.

Tonight Father Gandalf (no, that's not his name but it's what I've nicknamed him because he's a lot like Gandalf the Gray) gave a long homily on the parable of the foolish virgins who let their oil run out. He really explained that parable and I was inspired. Mass is heaven on earth because Jesus, Himself comes to us and gives Himself, body, blood, soul and divinity to us in the form of the Eucharist but tonight I felt it more strongly than I have in a while.

God makes it plain

At confession tonight the priest suggested that I refrain from profanity. When I got home I was surfing the net and found this quote from St. John Chrysostomos "Above all the other members, then, let us control this; let us bridle it; and let us expel from the mouth railings, and contumelies, and foul and slanderous language, and the evil habit of oaths." Okay, Lord. I promise to try.

Goodnight Harriet

Corporal Miers, having taken a gut shot for the big guy was finally allowed to withdraw to the rear. I don't know if she would've made a good Supreme Court justice. I don't know if she would've done well in the Senate hearings, in fact I doubt it, but I am very sad at how this woman was treated by her fellow republicans. She was called Caligula's horse, Barney the dog, the cleaning lady, and was sarcasticly referred to as a 60 year old virgin. There was also ugly talk of lesbianism. Her supporters were called crude and kool-aid drinkers. The smartie pants at National Review Online are still doing the Snoopy Dance because Miers withdrew her name from consideration but I think this is a phyrric victory. Don't expect the Miers supporters to forgive and forget. There are a lot of bitter people out there right now.

Saturday in Old Town

I went to the Daughters of St. Paul bookstore in Old Town, Alexandria. It's very nice. The nuns are kind and patient but I always felt it lacked something. Today I finally was able to figure out what that is: Tradition. You can buy new Catholic books thre. You can buy all kinds of bibles except the Duay Rheims. You can buy stuff on Medjugorje and the charismatics but they only have one book on purgatory and it's a poor book at that. The store is geared towards people who practice Catholicism lite. If you want serious works, or great classics the only option is Tan Books online or Roman Catholic Books.

Later I went to confession at St. Mary's a few blocks away. The line was long but it moved lightning fast. People were going in and coming out like pinballs. Some of them looked perplexed. When I got into the confessional I understood why. The priest didn't speak to me at all except to give me my pennace. The whole thing took less than five minutes and that was mostly me confessing.

I was shocked but God works things out in ways we can't understand. I had some painful things to confess and perhaps it's best that the priest obviously wasn't paying me any attention. The sacrament was still valid and all that stuff is wiped away and off my soul. That's all that really counts.

Religion of Peace?

Yeah, right.


These young ladies are martyrs. You can see for yourself (upsetting photos) what happens when the ROP is taken to its logical conclusion.

He Saved Me

Some times when I go to adore the Blessed Sacrament I have to fight the urge to fall to the floor and to weep for sorrow at my past sins and in thanksgiving for the rescue mission Jesus went on to save me.

You can make an online visit to an adoration chapel here : Savior

Bible pictures

When I was a kid I had a picture Bible and today I found out who the artist was and that there's a whole site dedicated to his work. Neat.

Anne Rice's Jesus Book

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9785289/site/newsweek/ Anne Rice has written a book about the Christ's life in Egypt from his baby days until he's about 7.Somehow I don't think this is going to be like anything that Archbishop Fulton Sheen would've written.
Anne Rice is famous for her vampire stories and she used to write super nasty porn. She's apparently come back to the church. Thank God for that but I'm not rushing out to buy the book until I've read several reviews by solid conservative Catholics.

chapel veil

I wore my chapel veil (It's a bitty thing made of black acrylic lace. In order to notice it on my dark hair you'd have to be staring at me) to Mass yesterday and noticed an odd thing. Nobody paid me any attention except for a few old women of baby boomer age who gave sour looks. Isn't this the if it feels good do it generation? I thought they believed in living and letting live?

The Catholic Net

I've been looking for a place other than Open Book to read about Catholic news and such . I still havent' found it but it my search I've come across soem really good things.


Father McCloskey This Opus Dei priest used to be at the DC Catholic Information Center. He's still in DC and writes beautifully.

Catholicity. These folks have wonderful apologetics and evangelism CDs for just a $1 donation.


Tan Books. I owe the Tan people a lot. Like most kids who came up in the 80s I was badly catechized. I didn't really learn about the Faith until I picked up a Tan books catalog and began ordering.

Roman Catholic Books. They are a publisher of some of the finest Catholic books I've ever read. Including The Life of Christ, the greatest book on our Lord ever written.

Father John Corapi. Wow! He preaches "real mighty!"

EWTN. Of course.

Cardinal McCarrick

I live in VA but I joined a parish in DC because the Arlington Diocese ( It's a big ole diocese ; it covers from Alexandria to the Shennandoah Valley. The rest of Virginia belongs to the Richmond diocese.) is too messed up and has too much funky weirdness going unchecked. Cardinal McCarrick, whom I like (he reminds me of a happy elf and he is very kind) sucked up to King Abdullah at a Catholic Univeristy lunch by invoking the name of allah. I was sad about that. Magesterial Fidelity and American Prower has the story.

Harriet Miers

To be honest, I'm ambivalent. When Americans start worrying about what's going on in their own homes as opposed to the White House we'll all be a lot better off. A judge is just a lawyer and a lawyer is just a guy or girl who passed all the tests in law school. I've spent most of my life working in law firms and some of the people I've met are so messed up and so miserable that I wouldn't want to be them for anything. Some people are against Harriet Miers because she didn't go to Harvard or Yale. I've known several people from those schools. A few were brilliant. Others were nothing special. Two were darn near insane. Who cares what college a person went to? How precious and elitist. I thought we left that crap in England.

Besides it hardly matters who'se on the court bench anyway. Roe v. Wade is the law of the land. It will not change. It will not change because we Christians failed. If we can change people's hearts then and only then will the majority of the nation will want the law changed.

Saint John Eudes

"The most evident mark of God's anger, and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world, is manifest when He permits His people to fall into the hands of a clergy who are more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds. They abandon the things of God to devote themselves to the things of the world and, in their saintly calling of holiness, they spend their time in profane and worldly pursuits. When God permits such things, it is a very positive proof that He is thoroughly angry with His people and is visiting His most dreadful wrath upon them." ----Saint John Eudes

Seminary visit

I have a friend who wanted to be a priest. He went to a seminary on the East Coast that had a reputation for being a good place. He discovered that homosexual activity was going on in the open. One of the VIPs at the seminary was openly gay and flirted with the students. You could "play" with Father X, or you could tell him that you didn't swing that way and ignore him as best you could, but if you complained your vocation was put in danger. My friend left, brokenhearted. He's a deacon today but he remembers his time at the seminary with sadness. Crap like this needs to stop.

Judging by the comments floating around in the Catholic blogosphere most folks are against the molestation of boys but want to keep their gay priests and seminarians provided that they are chaste. Well shucks and thanks for nothing. How do you KNOW Father Light in the Loafers is maintaining chastity? If he can't hide the fact that he's gay from his parishioners what do you think he's doing in private? Do you want somebody like this in the priesthood? I don't.

In the 1950s version of Three Musketeers, Van Hefflin, playing Athos says to his wife, Milady, played by Lana Turner that he loves her still but he doesn't dare trust her (she's confessed to killing a number of people) and he can't send her on her merry way. For the sake of the innocent he can't just ignore what she is so he hands her over to the authorities to be executed.

We don't dare go back to the way things were. You must love the sinner but you don't give him access to your kids. We can't afford to let another kid be molested, we can't afford to let another person lose their Faith becasuse they broken hearted over the scandals.

Most of the pedophoile cases have involved a man and a little boy or a teenaged boy. How do we prevent this? One way to start is to make it plain that the man who has SSA is to be pitied and prayed for but he is also not to be put in a position where he's tempted constantly.

The buck has got to stop somewhere. Clean up the seminaries.

St. Fidelis

Woe to me if I should prove myself but a halfhearted soldier in the service of my thorn-crowned Captain. -Saint Fidelis


Saint Fidelis, pray for us.

What have you done for Him lately?

American Catholics bitch a lot. We try to manipulate the church to please ourselves and we stamp our feet and complain when we don't get our precious way but what have we done FOR Holy Mother Church lately? What have we done FOR Christ lately?
Do you fulfil the Sunday obligation?
Do you pray the rosary?
Do you thank God when you wake up in the morning?
Do you thank God for getting you through another day at night?
Have you ever said a novena?
If your only son wanted to be a priest would you try to stop him?
If your daughter wanted to be a Carmelite would you cry and carry on like a hysteric?
Do you ever say the Stations of the Cross in private or at church?
Have you ever prayed the Divine Mercy chaplet?
Are you making sure that your kids know their faith?
Have you ever spoken to the CCD teachers or looked at the material they are teaching?
Have you volunteered to help the RCIA director?
Would you be willing to drive 50 miles to go to go to a church where the Mass is celebrated in a devout and reverant manner or are you too busy?
Do you go to visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament? Outside of Mass this is the greatest thing in the world, do you know that?
Have you joined the Legion of Mary, the Blue Army, the local Sodality or the Ladies of Charity chapter in your parish?

Have you visited the sick? Have you spent one hour helping the homeless ministry at your church? Have you ever voluntered to help clean the church? Have you offered to wash the altar linnens? Have you offered to do the flower arrangement? Have you volunteered to be an usher or be a hospitality minister?

When new people come to your church do you smile at them or do you stare at them becuase they are another race or obviously poorer than you? Do you distribute Catholic literature for the literature rack at church?

If a heathen were to study you would he or she be impressed by the Catholic faith by looking at you or would that person decide that if you are Catholic it would be better to be a pagan?

Seriously, what have you done for Jesus lately? You don't need to be a msytic to see that chastisement is coming. The United States produces and consumes more pornography than any other country. We allow TV and movies, and music to seduce kids and laugh at people who try to prevent it. We give Planned Parenthood our tax dollars. We abort millions of children for no good reason except that it's convenient. We have more stuff than any other people in the world and yet millions of us are miserable. American Catholics have not done a good job evangelizing. We've not only failed in that, many of us have in various ways, joined the orgy.

Pope John Paul II and Sister Lucia have passed on. Like Saint Faustina, I think they were spared the sadness of seeing many of the things and people they loved suffer and fall into ruin. I personally think the American church is in for a sifting. It will be interesting to see who's left after it's done.

Catholic blogs

I used to read Open Book quite a lot but lately it's become very tedious. All the posters do on the comments section is complain about something or make fun of traditionalist Catholics. They are also shockingly insular and seem to have no understanding that there are Catholics from other races and cultures. If the blogger, Amy Welborn, posts a nice story about little African orphans being helped by traditional, happy devout nuns no-one responds. If she posts a story abut SSPX or about a sex scandal there will be at least 50 or more comments. It's quite depressing.

Bettnet is much better especially since the guy who runs it got married. Marriage to a nice lady seems to have taken some of the piss and vinegar out of his posts. However, it's very Boston-centric. My parish isn't perfect by a long shot but it could be worse. It could be Boston. After reading Bettnet and the fiery blog, Magesterial Fidelity I've come to the conlusion that the Boston diocese should be restructured completely. I've had people tell me that things haven't been right since the 70s. Others laugh at that and say that Boston has been a mess for at least 50 years. And if Boston is sad enough for you read LA Catholic which chronicles the misery that is the LA diocese under Cardinal Hollywood. Yow!

Whispers in the Logia is mean. The guy who runs it seems to hate traditionalists, conservatives and anybody else who doesn't agree with him. I read it a couple of times and realized that I needed to hightail it to greener pastures.

The Vaticanisti bloggers claim to be church insiders and they do occasionally have gossip about who's going to be made a bishop and who's going to be sent into retirement but their stories tend to be mean and sarcastic. They hint about the private lives of certain people but don't come out and plainly say what they mean. Where I come from calumny and detraction are sins so I don't go there anymore.

Curt Jester is great. It's funny and has a huge list of blog links. Extreme Catholic, The Anchoress, Angry Twins and sometimes Happy Catholic, when she's not telling boring and sickeningly sweet stories about her kid, is very good. The Penitent Blogger is the best Catholic blog on the web. Catholic Apologetics of America's content is excellent. It's execution and design however, is terrible. I adored Father Bryce Sibley's Saintly Salmagundi but alas, he shut it down.

The Universal church

Last Sunday I went Mass at church that has mostly Mexican and Salvadoran parishioners. My husband and I went to the English Mass and it was awesome. The choir wasn't great but it didn't matter because they were sincerely trying to honor God. The cantor was blessedly free from the usual bossiness. The homily was given by a Kenyan priest. The main celebrant was Mexican. The pews were filled with white, Latino, Filipino and a sprinkling of black people. This is one of the things I so love about my religion. We were all from different cultures but we were all one in one act of worship and part of one universal church.
I saw a lot of young people and happily, a lot of them were young men who had come by themselves. This tell me that something good is happening at this church. After Mass about 30 people stayed to pray and to visit the Blessed Sacrement. I was impressed by how much reverence and beauty was shown in this Mass. My husband and I may make it our backup when the weather or traffic is too bad to get to our regular church.

Cindy Sheehan.

This wretched woman is a perfect example of what's wrong with main stream media. Why, out of all the things going on in the world is this woman on the front page of all the newspapers? Who decided that she's more newsworthy than the famine in Niger? I can't imagine what it must be like to lose a son so I don’t want to be too harsh but damn-- this woman is standing on her son's corpse and shouting "Look at me! Look at me!"