Saturday, February 24, 2018

random thoughts on a Saturday

  • I guess I'll be the skunk at the garden party but somebody has to say it, the Reverend Billy Graham was not Catholic. Some of the Catholic prelates and writers who are doing a folk canonization of him should mention that.



  • I was reading a Catholic discussion page and saw disapproving comments about the woman who reads the news on the SSPX videos. The poster and one other seemed to find her too sexy. I looked at the video and all I can say is that if this well dressed, dignified young woman strikes you as a scantily clad temptress then dude, you need to take a trip to Saudi Arabia and don't come back until you get whatever's eating you purged out of your system.



  • It looks like Paul VI is going to be made a saint. This is weird to me because I vaguely remember that when he died  none of the adults seemed unhappy.  Granted, no sensible adult was going to go into a weeping jag in front of little kids but there didn't seem to be any feeling about the man at all. There does not appear to be a genuine cultus around him. Although there is a Paul VI High School in my diocese I've never met anyone whose prayer group or knight's council is named after Paul VI.  Except for the smoke of Satan quote I've never heard anyone quote him either from the pulpit or in a parish hall lecture. I've never had a nun in elementary or high school say, "Remember what Pope Paul VI said about ...". Even the people who bang on about Humanae Vitae seem to be oddly apologetic and frame it as the one good thing Paul did.  I've come across groups that are working for the cause of canonization of Fr. Augustus Tolton, Mother Mary Lange, Mother Henriette Delille, Archbishop Sheen and Cora Evans but I've never seen online or met anyone who was wildly passionate about promoting the cause of Pope Paul VI.


  • When I saw this tweet from Cardinal Tobin I wondered if he wasn't attempting humor. He says  "baby" is one of his eight younger sisters. Judging from the comment section in all the news sites I've come across that are covering the tweet, nobody really believes him.  I suspect the cardinal will be more careful in his communications with his intimates in the future.