In the midst of the darkness

You don't have to celebrate Paul VI's feast day next year or any year.

Paul VI removed 200 saints and feast days from the calendar. If he could ignore St. Philomena, then it's no trouble at all to just  ignore St. Paul VI. 

Vigano speaks

Archbishop Vigano is not giving up.

Oh Mary Conceived Without Sin

pray for us, who have recourse to thee.

random thoughts on a Saturday afternoon

Sacred Heart of Jesus! Have mercy on us.

• Rocky, my mother and I went on vacation in Pennsylvania and it was wonderful as usual. At the end of the week we wen to Mass at St. Jospeh's in Lancaster. It's a beautiful old church. One thing I've noticed is that whenever a parish uses the Penitential rite B instead of the Confeitor , it's going to be a wonky Mass. It wasn't horrible but the cantor and lady Eucharistic ministers were clearly the dominant force.  When we got back from vacation I got sick with a nasty respiratory infection and was wiped out for two weeks.
  
• Let's say that you decide to live out the Benedict Option and buy a nice chunk of property. A couple of like-minded families join you and eventually you have a community. Your group decides to be sensible so there's no commune type ownership or living. Everybody is responsible for their own income, families and property. The only shared things are the home school co-op  and the building of the chapel and rectory that you all contributed to, either in labor or money. So far so good. You get a wonderful priest or even a few monks.  Because this is an explicitly stated Benedict Option community every adult has agreed either verbally or in writing to stay out of public life to the point of refusing to discuss politics at work (a wise thing in general), or tweeting or blogging about anything to do with politics. Nobody protests at abortion clinics, nobody runs for public office.
  
  You think everything is great but you have a problem. It's your neighbors. When Hasidic  Jews started moving to New Jersey and setting up large communities people went crazy. There have been lawsuits and open hostility.  In Jackson, New Jersey people even counted the number of cars at a Jewish man's house on Fridays and accused him of having prayer services at home.
  
  When Catholics started moving to Florida to live near Ave Maria University the neighbors weren't thrilled. Way back in the 80s when Christendom's leaders were considering a move to a property in Boyce, Virginia the locals rallied in opposition.
  
  Don't be surprised in the locals aren't happy to see your Benedict Option community and it only takes one person to call the police and make some allegation. If a really clever person calls the police and claims that the children in your community are being abused the FBI and a swat team could be at your door.
  
  
  
• Just when I thought nothing Pope Francis does could move me anymore he comes out in public carrying a witch's stang. He's not a fool. The clergy around him are not fools. Nobody grabbed that thing and took it away.  I'd be shocked but  delighted if it comes out that one Cardinal or bishop said, "Holy Father, that's a stang. I'll burn it for you but you can't possibly carry that." As bad as Pope Paul VI was he never did anything as revolting and in-your-face,  in public as this.
  
  
  
• As for Paul VI, I think it's going to be a disaster when he's canonized. There are many people still living who have said that he was a homosexual. Once he has been raised to the altars he will become the gay saint. If a man who was rumored to have his lover, the Italian actor Paolo Carlini visit him at the Vatican at night is made a saint that is ammunition against any rector who dares to keep homosexuals out of his seminary. 

• I like Monsignor Pope. He was good to my family when my uncle was in the nursing home and in and out of the hospital but I was a bit disappointed in his kind words about Cardinal Wuerl.

• I have a feeling that Cardinal Wuerl's resignation is only a technicality. He seems to still have the pope's favor.

• I attracted the attention of a mentally disturbed individual earlier this year but he seems to have gotten bored and has moved on so comments will no longer be moderated.