- Cardinals Goffried Danneels, Donald Wuerl, Timothy Dolan, and Blase Cupich. In a healthier age in the Church they'd be a bishops with a two room mission in a charming spot like Death Valley or at a harmless desk job in the Vatican.
- Self appointed busy bodies who make their parish priest's life Hell. I'm seeing more and more of this, even among Traditional Catholics. I realize that a lot of people were nearly destroyed by the homosexual scandals but spying on your priest is not the answer. If he is behaving in a scandalous manner by all means speak up and contact the bishop or the police if it's a criminal matter but posting messages on various Catholic sites looking for dirt on your new priest before he's even gotten through his first week at the parish is wrong. Even if there are no juicy bits of gossip for you to feast on, you've created an ugly atmosphere of suspicion in anyone who reads your post.
In addition to spying on the priest there are the people who try to boss the priest around. Look, I don't care if your family has been in that parish since 1657, or provided the money for the entire building,-- we are not Protestants. You do not own the parish and the priest is the possession of God, not you. Going berserk because he moved that ugly Jesus-and-the-children- playing-baseball painting you like, is wrong and frankly, it's likely that a whole lot of your fellow parishioners were thankful he did. Getting ugly because the priest who is allergic to flowers decided that he doesn't need a three foot wall of them in front of the altar is wrong. Screaming at the priest because he did not like your pumpkin and wheat altar decorations is wrong and perhaps you should do something about raising your taste level. Throwing a hissy fit because the priest asked your daughter to refrain from wearing a strapless dress the next time she lectors is wrong and shows that you lack both sense and control of your household. Priests have hard enough, they need proprietary parishioners to make it worse. - American Victimology. Everybody is a victim now whether they got sick or took offense at something they overheard in the lunch room. Celebrating self pity and neurosis can not be good for the country
- A close cousin of the victimology fad is the constant near worship of single mothers. First off, I want to point out that a single mother by choice is not the same as a widow. Secondly, I happen to be believe this choice is child abuse. I have two relatives who had multiple children out of wedlock. One had six boys. All of them are either dead or in prison except for the two that were adopted by a kind couple. The other cousin had five children. Except for the oldest who was raised by her mother and and stepfather, all of the kids are ruined. Look at the prison population-- it's mostly sons of single mothers. Look at the millions of victims of violent crime. Their attackers were mostly son's of single mothers. Lionizing single mothers just ignores the social and personal disaster that has arisen with the nation wide acceptance of them.
A couple of things I really like:
- Although, I DO NOT see Lord of the Rings as a Catholic allegory and I am not one of those tiresome people who seem to think you must read the entire Tolkien body of work every year or you are a bad Catholic and a dullard--- this post by Ann Barnhart left me very moved. If you are a serious Catholic and you know one plus one is two, fire is hot, water burns and that Our Lord hates sin and died a horrible death to save us from the consequences of sin and that He does not smile benignly when you commit sin, then yes, you will be mocked by the cool kids, by the folks at Patheos and Aletia and by people you care about but you carry on, even though it hurts.
- Silver Hill Treasures and four other veil makers are sponsoring an Advent Veiling event to encourage women who want to wear a scarf or mantilla but may be timid about it. This has NOTHING to do with the Latin Mass Society which has had an annual wear your veil day for a few years now. I thought at one time that the young man who founded LMS meant well but was trying too hard to make Catholicism hip. Now I don't. The "Crown Maiden" photos, which show models in suggestive poses while wearing mantillas are so problematic that they overwhelm the otherwise respectable and traditional material on the site. A priest who knew the founder of LMS has written a serious warning about the founder. Just so there is no confusion, LMS has NOTHING to do with the Latin Mass Society in England that is run by Dr. Joseph Shaw.
- This chicken and her veil made me smile.
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