Holy Innocents, pray for us

Merry Christmas

Fiat

The Promise of Ages

I wish Bishop Barron would say something like this....

Contrary to what some may say, the god of Islam & the God of the Christian faith are not the same. The God of the Christian faith is Creator of the Universe & sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to save us from our sin. He can change every heart who will put their faith in Him. 2/2

— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) December 15, 2018

So let me get this straight....

The pope has been  openly meddling in the secular affairs of Western nations by telling us that we should cheerfully accept millions of Third World migrants but Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Parolin says when asked about Catholic Asia Bibi and her family said, “It’s an internal question that regards Pakistan, I hope it will be resolved in the best ways possible”. 

The Annunciation

Thanks

Thank-you to everyone who prayed for Rocky before his surgery. It went well and he's home.

Pray for us, Mother

It aint about the gingerbread

These are  St. Meinrad seminarians

St. Meinrad's seminarians put on an apparently annual show for their professors and the lay professor's children. This year they also got together and  had a decorated gingerbread house competition either before or after the show. Taylor Marshall, has objected to the sight of grown men engaging in a kindergarten activity and  and was  crude about it.


My father was a cook and I learned the fundamentals of baking and cake decorating from him. Cooking is hard work. It gets noisy and hot and profane in the professional kitchen and since it's a high stress environment, tempers can flare up. It takes a tough man to turn out hundreds of tender baked goods everyday.  Marshall mocked the gingerbread decorating but that's not the problem. Decorating a gingerbread house kit is a short cut that I wouldn't make in my kitchen but  is in itself no more effeminate than when my great uncle and his friends got together to make moonshine, or when my grandfather and his friends got together to do a hog roast fundraiser  or when my father and his friends got together after culinary school to make omelets.

 The problem is that this whole event in this day and age seems socially tone deaf.  I'm guessing that the seminarian who posted this photo  is too young to have heard the stuff that was whispered about St. Meinrad's past.  I've read multiple accounts from men who said they were seminarians there in the 80s and left in disgust, never to be ordained.  Perhaps he's unaware that the Church in America has paid out something like a billion dollars in settlements to mostly males who say they were used by priests for sexual gratification. The seminarian  who posted this photo may not have any idea how nervous parents are right now. It's not uncommon for people to ask a priest where he went to the seminary in an attempt to figure out if he's going to be trustworthy or not. They may not say anything on social media or out loud but I bet that there are people who saw this photo and who will be watching with extra critical eyes when a seminarian from St. Meinrad's shows up at their parish. The 70s and 80s are over. Things that once seemed like light-hearted fun now make people's stomachs twist and turn. You can argue all you want about whether that's fair or not but that's the way things are right now and how things will be for many years to come.  The photo of the seminarians isn't inspiring. If I was kid I would not want to follow these guys.

  St. Paul Miki and,Blessed Rolando Rivi seminarians and martyrs, pray for us.

DIABOLICAL NARCISSISM in a snapshot

Look closely at this photo. I saw it on Complicit Clergy via The Remnant. Then Cardinal McCarrick has his arm around a younger priest or seminarian. Ask yourself this question: Did you ever see your Dad put his arm around any of his friends and embrace them at the waist? When you saw your Dad embrace somebody like that it was your Mom or there would have been trouble.  McCarrick really wasn't hiding his predilections at all. Looking back on it, he must have been terribly amused by these displays. He knew that none of the men  present or anyone viewing the photo had the power touch him. That's pure, undiluted narcissism.

I am the Immaculate Conception

Mary, Seat of Wisdom, pray for us

St. Edmund Campion, Pray for us

Dear Priests,

Don't be afraid of getting a crappy assignment. St. Edmund Campion worked undercover in Elizabeth I's England. Elizabeth is a feminist saint these days but she was a great killer of Catholics. St. Edmund knew that he was risking death being a priest in England but he did it. His feast day was December 1.

Judgement day

"Why wasn't he natural in his lifetime? If he had been, he'd have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with Death, instead of lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself."  "It's the truest word that ever was spoke," said Mrs. Dilber. "It's a judgment on him."'

---A Christmas Carol

  Those who were careless in their youth will be made to care in their helpless old age. I think a lot of people who chose sterilization and abortions are going to have a Scrooge Christmas Future experience on their deathbeds.

Get hold of yourself

Pope Francis may break your heart but don't let him and his flunkeys break your Faith. Our Lord and Our Lady both said that things would get foul in the Vatican one day.

More and more people have quietly decided that if Francis is right, then Catholicism must be wrong and they've gone to the Orthodox or Protestantism. A few days ago I even saw a tweet from someone who was so disturbed by Francis that this person wondered if the Vatican I Council, (1869–1870),was wrong. If you feel yourself starting to panic take heart in the words of Pope Pius IX and get hold of yourself. 

St. Francis of Assisi was not soft

Forget those horrible, sentimental but very popular images of the seraphic St. Francis. He was not skipping and twirling around Italy while petting St. Bernards and parrots.

Pray for us dear Mother

A prayer for the redemption of bad priests

Divine Savior Jesus Christ, Thou are the Good Shepherd who gives His life for His sheep. Oh, be in a very special way the Good Shepherd of those poor lost priests who are also appointed by Thee to be leaders of Thy people, but who have broken the oath of their holy ordination and have become unfaithful to their exalted calling. Bestow upon these poorest of the poor the very fullness of that pastoral solicitude with which Thou dost so faithfully seek the sheep that are lost! Touch their hearts with the irresistible ray of grace which emanates from Thine all-merciful love! Enlighten their minds and strengthen their wills, that they may turn away from all sin and error and come back to Thy holy altar and to Thy people. O most compassionate Savior! Remember that Thou didst once redeem the souls of Thine erring priests with Thy Precious Blood and in infinite preferential love didst impress upon them the indelible character of the priesthood. Put wholly to shame those miserable helpers of Satan who lay snares for the virtue of priests and endanger the holy ideal of the priesthood. Most graciously accept our prayers and sacrifices for poor priests who have gone astray and hear our earnest petition.

 Amen 

Imprimatur - Bishop John F. Noll (April 18, 1948)

St. Anthony of Padua, defender of the Holy Eucharist, obtain for us holy priests

St. John-Mary Vianney, model of sacerdotal holiness, obtain for us holy priests

St. Francis Xavier, patron of missionary priests, obtain for us holy priests

St. Therese of the Child-Jesus and of the Holy Face, victim offered for the sanctification of priests, obtain for us holy priests

Saints and Servants of God, obtain for us holy priests.

Saint Peter Martyr, pray for us

Some priests have said that they would speak up on a particular subject but they fear that their bishop will punish them by sending them to a crappy assignment. If only they could spend time staring at this painting of St. Peter Martyr. He got a crappy assignment. He also persevered and preached and taught and bore all for the love of God. Is being sent to a parish in a lousy neighborhood or being a chaplain at the mental institution as bad and being hacked to death? Nope.

Pope St. Pius X, pray for us

Christ the King

Random thoughts on a Sunday evening

• Rocky's hip pain level has gone from two Tylenols and a good dinner to Tramadol and a cane so he's having surgery next month. St. Alphonsus Ligouri, patron of arthritis sufferers please pray for him.
• Bishop Morlino died of a heart attack last night. He seems to have run a decent diocese which is far more than many bishops in the US can say. May he rest in peace. Let's pray for his diocese because Cardinals Wuerl and Cupich will almost certainly have a say in who becomes his successor. 

• I was reading the Complicity Clergy site and paused to study the faces and body language in this photo. Even if I didn't know who this is I could see that something is clearly wrong. Men don't embrace each other around the waist. The  kid looks defeated and now as a 60 year old man he still appears to be haunted. Once again, I'm stunned that anybody who worked with Uncle Ted can say with a straight face that they had no idea what he was.
  
  
    

• Monsignor Nicola Bux is the theologian consultor of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints in Rome but if you want to make him some stationery with his title on it I suggest you hurry because he probably won't be there much longer. Msgr. Bux is questioning the validity of Pope Benedict's abdication. He's not the only one but instead of just moaning about it in private he's made his query in public. 
  A number of public Catholics (Ann Barnhardt uses the term "thought leaders") have reacted poorly to Monsignor's  doubts.  Some of them say there's no point in talking about  Benedict anymore because the reality is that the St. Gallen mafia won and the Church lost. These people say that the only thing we can do is wait for Francis to die and try to keep our Faith. They may have point but they go too far when they  the hurl the epithets, "rad trad", "stupid", "schizophrenic", "weird" "unhelpful"  and "sedevacantist"  at people for not believing  or daring to doubt that  Benedict's abdication was valid. When I think of all the heretical garbage  I've heard seen freely spewed about in these last few years alone I don't see why this subject is taboo. Monsignor. Bux may be wrong but I've had enough of people telling us what we can't even discuss in public.
  
  
•  To the impure all purity in others must be destroyed.  They will not leave the innocent in peace. Sometimes they are violent. Usually they are sly and degrade the general culture. Earlier this year someone posted a video of her little granddaughter's dance recital. One little in the girl in the group abandoned the choreography and began gyrating and thrusting her chest and pelvis. The other three girls froze but the audience filled with parents and relatives cheered.  People in the comments section thought she was cute but one person said a six year old performing like a stripper wasn't cute at all. It was like a damn bursting. Some people wrote things like,  "it's harmless" and "lighten up," but they were overwhelmed by other people saying that they agreed that the dance number was distasteful and wondered where this child, not even a good three years out of diapers had learned to bump and grind like this? Where indeed?
  
   Several years ago a pervert  carrying items usually found on serial rapists walked into an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, and  murdered multiple young girls before ending his own wicked life. On November 19th, an armed man in his 50s walked into the Catholic Supply Store in St. Louis. He forced himself on the all female staff and murdered a customer who refused his lust.  Who knows what story he's telling the police now but I think he chose the Catholic Supply store because it would be a soft target and he probably got a thrill out of defiling what he perceived to be good churchgoing women. 

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us

St. Vincent Ferrer, pray for us

St. Vincent was one of the wonder worker saints. He healed lepers, raised the dead and preached to multitudes.

Saint Gertrude, the Great

This holy nun is the only female saint known as "the great". She did not sell herself into a kind of prostitution in order to be a star in music or the screen. She did not crave power. She did not rush hither and yon demanding that other people turn their countries and homes into freak shows or she'd screech at them. She did none of the stuff that pop culture tells women that we have to do.

Does your bishop support an investigation of Cardinal McCarrick or not?

"I know Archbishop Vigano.... We need to review Archbishop Vigano's letter carefully, comprehensively, thoroughly. Evidence needs to be given. But the bottom line is we need to know the truth. What is the truth? It demands a comprehensive review. All the faithful need to hear the answer to those questions. Who knew what and when?"

                                                                                           Bishop Michael F. Burbidge

I'm very pleased to say that my bishop said he was for an investigation of Cardinal McCarrick's filthy activities and how he got away with it for so long. Cardinal Wuerl is against an investigation as one would expect. If you want to see where your bishop stands you can look it up at the Church Transparency site. God bless the anonymous Texan who took the time to put this together.

RICO time?

George Robert Blakey

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 84 Stat. 941, commonly known by its  acronym,  RICO, is the Federal law  that attacks organized crime with extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.  It was originally drafted by George Robert Blakey, an Irish Catholic government attorney who graduated from Notre Dame and began his career under then Attorney General Bobby Kennedy. 

Originally, people thought RICO was only a means for going after the mafia, particularly the Five Families and some Italian Americans feared that it would be used against any Italian businessman who had more than two nickles to rub together. Blakey stoutly argued that this was not the case and anyone, whether his ancestors came over from England in the colonial era or he was fresh off the boat last week was subject to RICO if they were running or part of a organized criminal venture. 

Today, many people are saying that the only thing that is going to get men like Cardinal McCarrick out of our seminaries and rectories is an application of RICO to the Church. I've read comments from a few nervous people who say that the enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend. They fret that the state attorney generals just want to attack the Church any way they can and there will unforeseen consequences for all of us. After the pathetic performance of US bishops at the annual Baltimore meeting I think it's going to have to come to down to RICO. God help us!  Our bishops will not and since many are probably being blackmailed, they can not police themselves.  It's incredibly ironic that a law drafted by a Catholic man just might be one of the tools (along with this one)for cleaning up this sewer.

St. Athanatius, St. John Eudes and St. Peter Damian, pray for us. 

A neuralgic kind of Cute Catholicism

“As Leviathan’s lions begin to roar, the nominal Catholics will skip out of the arena. Roman Catholicism has become for baptized pagans a neuralgic kind of Cute Catholicism, with leprechauns, mariachi bands and Santa Claus instead of confession, prayer and fidelity to doctrine. But behind each leprechaun St. Patrick stares, and behind every mariachi band Our Lady of Guadalupe weeps, and behind every Santa Claus Christ himself judges.”

                                                      Fr. George Rutler

The mask slips

On November 6th I was walking down the hall at work. A small group of people were watching the TV. One man, an individual of some importance at this job said that he wished that people who vote against his party could be put into "re-education" camps and that the US could be China for just one day. This man is not ignorant. He's a world traveler and highly credentialed from Ivy League schools. He knows damned well what China does to inconvenient people.  Except for one man, everyone either smiled or laughed. The one man who remained silent glanced away but I saw that he had a grimace on his face. Was it because he was shocked or was it because he was concerned that Ole Mr. Nasty was being careless in saying this out loud in front of the staff? At any rate I'm glad I heard that and glad I saw who laughed. It helps to know who is a decent person and who most definitely is not.

Pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory

Eternal Father, I offer Thee the most precious blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, for those in my own home and in my family. Amen.

I agree with Julie

Julie at Connecticut Catholic  is a sweet, gentle lady so if you get her riled up you must be a real piece of work. She sums up quite well my feelings about Father Longenecker. I used to read him years ago and came to the conclusion that he is an example of why priests should not blog about anything but apologetics or parish doings.  I don't think the man ever should have been ordained and he probably would be a lot happier if he was still in England. If the Church is going to allow married Protestant ministers to become priests then the  rigor of the vetting process needs to be vastly improved.

A Tale of Two Nuns

When I was a young girl we had a nun who struck me as odd. Sr. X wore her skirt shorter than the other sisters and her veil was smaller. She also preferred the boys to the girls, particularly shy, lady-like girls which I was. Thankfully, some wise person kept her in the office so she had little to do with the kids. Years later she got a job at one of the boy's high schools and the last time I saw her she'd stopped wearing her even modified habit and was sporting the suit, almost buzz cut short hair and sour expression of most modern nuns.

From second grade to eighth grade I never saw anything  about Sr. X that struck me as holy, pious or admirable.  I didn't want to be like her.

My school had another nun who was remarkable. Sr. Jane Mariae was a serious nun. She wore her full habit with her skirt hem to her ankle and her rosary on her belt and nobody, not Paul VI, not Mother Superior or any mocking fellow liberal nun at the convent fazed her one bit. She never tried to be my big goofy adult friend. We all adored and admired Sr. Jane Mariae and we were sure that she loved us. I wanted to be like her. Her pious example and the examples of my other good nuns are among the reasons why I'm still Catholic.

A ghost tale ---Say a prayer for mad Fr. Lesches

Years ago when I was still in high school I read a collection of ghost stories called "Haunted Heartland." Most of them weren't a bit scary and were presented in  the dry  businesslike fashion of a folklorist who is merely collecting materials for a dissertation, but one tale stuck with me. It was the story of Fr. Louis Lesches, a priest assigned to St. Mary's College in Minnesota, who tried to kill his superior, Bishop Patrick Hefron. The bishop was saying Mass in the chapel one morning when he turned around and saw Fr. Lesches standing behind him. To the bishop's surprise, the priest was wearing a Prince Albert suit instead of his cassock or clericals. To add to this surprise the bishop quickly realized that  the priest was packing heat. Fr. Lesches fired a gun three times, hitting the bishop twice.

At that time Fr. Lesches was already the number one problem child of the diocese. Although he was said to be brilliant and had done well in the academic part of his seminary studies,  he was also overly emotional, insubordinate, and felt that the bishop was persecuting him. He'd failed at parish assignments and now the annoyed and apparently unsympathetic bishop was keeping a close eye on him by removing him from parish life and bringing him back to the chancery to live.  

 Bishop Hefron's vestments, orneriness, and his great physical shape probably saved his life.  Instead of dropping dead or swooning he yelled at his now panicked attacker and chased him out of the chapel. Fr. Lesches was captured and spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital.

 Students have been claiming to see the anguished ghost of Fr. Lesches on campus for many decades. It's a spooky tale but I hope everyone who hears or reads it will stop and say a prayer for this poor, strange, unstable man who never should've been ordained but is a priest forever and one who probably really needs our help now.

A Prayer for the redemption of bad priests

Divine Savior Jesus Christ, Thou are the Good Shepherd who gives His life for His sheep. Oh, be in a very special way the Good Shepherd of those poor lost priests who are also appointed by Thee to be leaders of Thy people, but who have broken the oath of their holy ordination and have become unfaithful to their exalted calling. Bestow upon these poorest of the poor the very fullness of that pastoral solicitude with which Thou dost so faithfully seek the sheep that are lost! Touch their hearts with the irresistible ray of grace which emanates from Thine all-merciful love! Enlighten their minds and strengthen their wills, that they may turn away from all sin and error and come back to Thy holy altar and to Thy people. O most compassionate Savior! Remember that Thou didst once redeem the souls of Thine erring priests with Thy Precious Blood and in infinite preferential love didst impress upon them the indelible character of the priesthood. Put wholly to shame those miserable helpers of Satan who lay snares for the virtue of priests and endanger the holy ideal of the priesthood. Most graciously accept our prayers and sacrifices for poor priests who have gone astray and hear our earnest petition.

 Amen 

Imprimatur - Bishop John F. Noll (April 18, 1948)

St. Anthony of Padua, defender of the Holy Eucharist, obtain for us holy priests

St. John-Mary Vianney, model of sacerdotal holiness, obtain for us holy priests

St. Francis Xavier, patron of missionary priests, obtain for us holy priests

St. Therese of the Child-Jesus and of the Holy Face, victim offered for the sanctification of priests, obtain for us holy priests

Saints and Servants of God, obtain for us holy priests.

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. 

Man of Sorrows

A nun

The Agony

When Our Lord was sweating blood in the garden He was thinking of His Church. His   indescribable pain was due to my sins and yours.

Don't forget

He's old. He's left his country and is in hiding. Why? Because he stated that Cardinal McCarrick is exactly what people have been whispering he was and that yeah, both Pope Benedict and Francis knew about it. Benedict tried,weakly to do something about it and Francis ignored it and promoted Uncle Ted. Don't forget--- V for Vigano.

At Prayer

random thoughts on a Saturday

• I'm terribly fond of and have great respect for Ann Barnhardt but she's wrong about one thing. Plagiarism does matter.  The person who steals the intellectual property of another and passes it off as his or her own is not to be trusted about anything else they write and the johnny come lately who was hostile to you for years and suddenly shows up claiming to be on your side  will surely stab you in the back somewhere down the road. 

• A while back I wondered if the Church's penchant for bringing illegal aliens from Latin America and Islamic countries to the West (and getting paid for it) wasn't going going to cause anger and resentment and possibly more than that. Ordinary people are watching and they see the Pope and their local priest carrying on about Muslims and Hispanics and they are drawing certain conclusions.
  
  When I was 15, a  tall, elegant looking Mexican man who worked at the embassy introduced himself to me and asked for a date. He told me that every day he looked out of his office and saw me walking home from school and thought I was pretty. He said he was 35 and I told him I was too young for anything like that. He told me that in his country 15 was a grown woman old enough to be married and have a child. I calmly told him that we could go out on a date but he'd have to come to my house and ask my parents for permission and thank God, he reacted the way I had hoped he would.  He cleverly moved back from me, apologized and let me go on my way.
  
  Last year a former co-worker of mine was jogging when she realized that two Latino men were following her in their truck. She went right and the truck followed. She cut left and the truck followed. Finally, she got to the park and ran onto the path. It had steel barriers to keep vehicles off the walking/running trail and the truck could not follow without causing damage. My co-worker ran for her life, then got off the trail and ran through the woods until she found a trail that led to another entrance and she ran home.
  
   These two incidents happen to women and girls all the time and they don't always end well. The man or woman who has either comforted a frightened daughter who survived unharmed or shed tears of grief and rage over a daughter who wasn't lucky has got to be righteously pissed by now. People are leaving the Church over this. Protestants and unchurched people are looking at the Church and are getting the idea that Catholics not only don't care about their neighbors but are actively part of the network that brings in more and more hostile people who don't seem to be able to assimilate.  It's going to boomerang on the Church and I think it's going to be ugly.

• Fr. Enrique Rueda, Fr. John O'Connor, pray for us and God bless, this priest, who it has been reported, got into a whole lot of trouble after giving this homily.

• 

There's talk that Cardinal Farrell is about to get a bit of comeuppance. We'll see. Thanks to Hilary White for making this gif.

 

random thoughts

• Look at the lady in the pink and black sweater and then look at the lady on the right. Neither woman appeared to like what she saw from her archbishop. 

• I'm recuperating from a kidney infection and I looked at the McCain funeral for a bit. His was the longest death scene outside of an opera and this tax payer funded spectacle has actually been longer than what would have been due to an actual head of state.
  
  
  
• Cardinal Wuel surfaced at a Mass at Annunciation Church.  Only one man objected and left. Everyone else sat there and even clapped when the cardinal finished talking. I was a bit sad by that but then I remembered that Annunciation was a safe venue for the cardinal. He might have had a much different reaction elsewhere.
  
  
  
• Some jackwagon stole the flowers off my father's grave. It turns out that there were a group of women who went to rural cemeteries, stole flowers and rearranged them in order to sell at the county flea market. What disgusting people. If you buy silk flowers from a road side market that suddenly popped up one weekend ask questions about their supply.

It's time for a rude question

Cupich, Tobin, McElroy and Farrell all got to be where they are because of the kingmaker, Cardinal McCarrick.  Big time Catholic media, you may lose your invitation to the better cocktail parties and this may be the end of your private Vatican tours  and yeah, you may lose that cushy job
but you have to ask them to their faces why McCarrick liked them so much.

Excerpts from the Vigano letter....

 ...December 6, 2006, I wrote to my superiors, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and the Substitute Leonardo Sandri, that the facts attributed to McCarrick by Littleton were of such gravity and vileness as to provoke bewilderment, a sense of disgust, deep sorrow and bitterness in the reader, and that they constituted the crimes of seducing, requesting depraved acts of seminarians and priests, repeatedly and simultaneously with several people, derision of a young seminarian who tried to resist the Archbishop’s seductions in the presence of two other priests, absolution of the accomplices in these depraved acts, sacrilegious celebration of the Eucharist with the same priests after committing such acts. In my memo, which I delivered on that same December 6, 2006 to my direct superior, the Substitute Leonardo Sandri, I proposed the following considerations and course of action to my superiors:

• Given that it seemed a new scandal of particular gravity, as it regarded a cardinal, was going to be added to the many scandals for the Church in the United States,

 • and that, since this matter had to do with a cardinal, and according to can. 1405 § 1, No. 2˚, “ipsius Romani Pontificis dumtaxat ius est iudicandi”;

 • I proposed that an exemplary measure be taken against the Cardinal that could have a medicinal function, to prevent future abuses against innocent victims and alleviate the very serious scandal for the faithful, who despite everything continued to love and believe in the Church.

Vigano saddles up

Immediately after, the Pope asked me in a deceitful way: “What is Cardinal McCarrick like?” I answered him with complete frankness and, if you want, with great naiveté: “Holy Father, I don’t know if you know Cardinal McCarrick, but if you ask the Congregation for Bishops there is a dossier this thick about him. He corrupted generations of seminarians and priests and Pope Benedict ordered him to withdraw to a life of prayer and penance.” The Pope did not make the slightest comment about those very grave words of mine and did not show any expression of surprise on his face, as if he had already known the matter for some time, and he immediately changed the subject......

from the testimony of former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States (2011-2016), Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.                                                                                  

A lot of people are freaking out after reading the Archbishop Vigano letter  , others are thanking God that the truth is finally coming out. I am grateful that Archbishop Vigano got mad enough to give his testimony. I've noticed that the so-called Vatican insiders are silent this morning and I'm surprised that anyone is claiming surprise.  Those of you who are men think about how you behave around the homosexuals at your job. You're polite, get the work done and move on. You  do not have an after hours social relationship with them and  assume that those co-workers who do are fully aware and approve of the situation. So, when you see Pope Francis surrounding himself with cardinals and other clergy who are rumored to be homosexual and when you see men like McCarrick as kingmakers you should assume that yes, the pope knows what these men are and he doesn't care.

Pope Benedict told McCarrick to get out of that DC seminary he was living in, forbade him to say Mass in public or make appearances. Francis undid all that.  In October of 2013, then Cardinal McCarrick told a "cute" story during a speech at Villanova University.  He talked about his recovery from a heart attack in Rome and how he met with the pope after his release from the hospital. When he "piously"  attributed the recovery to the Lord still wanting him to do more work on earth the pope  jokingly replied, "Maybe the Devil did not have your accommodations ready."

 I'm sure people in the audience chuckled at what they thought was the  pope's teasing  and the cardinal's marvelous self deprecating humor.  One blogger seized on this comment and was hopeful that the pope was telling McCarrick that he was on to him and McCarrick was too arrogant to realize it. Others simply criticized the pope for joking about Hell. Now we know that it was much worse that what any of us thought.  Archbishop Vigano says he told the pope on June 23, 2013 that Cardinal MCarrick was an evil man but by October, 2013, McCarrick was still riding high. I think in that "cute" speech he was actually mocking Vigano and everyone else who had complained about him.

Rorate Caeli's writers have the weird knack at times of  being able to write like both teen aged girls with a delicious secret and a frosty old grande dame but let's give credit where it is due. Within a day or two of the habemus papam announcement Rorate was reporting that Cardinal Bergoglio was bad news. They were mocked, minimized (remember when Fr. Z. was telling us to stay calm and read Francis through Benedict?* ), or given the same silent treatment that Randy Engel got when she wrote Rite of Sodomy.  I hope some people have apologized even privately for that.

Now as for the Church, some people are saying that they are leaving that this scandal proves that the gates of Hell have prevailed. Well now, Jesus Christ said that the gates of Hell would not prevail against His Church. Some people think the gates of Hell are pressing against the Church walls but that's not it at all. The Church is supposed to be attacking the gates of Hell. Some times we are blessed with popes like Gregory the Great, Peter, Pius V, and Pius X who went after Hell with battering rams and trebuchets and sometimes we get popes who timidly tap on the infernal gates and  run back several steps and sometimes we get a pope who tries to slap a coat of paint on the gates and pretends they aren't there. Pope Francis is a bad pope. People from Argentina and around the world have been telling us this from day one. It's time to face it. We are in a great war. It is heartbreaking to realize that many of our generals, if not most of them have gone over to the other side and seeing so many of our officers fail in their duty throws us into confusion and despair but we only need one brave general to act with aggression and the pragmatic ones who have decided to keep their heads down and just wait for Francis to die may rouse themselves and follow. In the mean time pray for Archbishop Vigano.  At 77, he's saddled up and  he rode out. A cannonball of malice is coming his way.

*What in Sam Hill does that mean? I never got it.

Pray for us, Mother

I

The scourge

In this interesting homily the priest talks about the rise of Islam in Europe. He noted that Christians used to pray the Angelus three times a day. Now almost no-one does and in it's place the Muslims pray five times a day. The Church has withdrawn in many ways and made friends with the world instead of converting it. Islam rejects that flatly and in place of the sweet yoke of Christ the world is facing a yoke of iron and a scourge.

And David wept...

Remember back in the 80s when we were told that the bad old days were over because we had John Paul II? Remember when people who mentioned Good Bye Good Men  in conversation were told sometimes angrily, that it was never that bad or that the so-called lavender mafia was never that strong or that the "irregular" behavior in the seminaries was all over and done with? Has everybody forgotten when we were told in 2002, that the bishops were on it and the fake priests who used the church to practice their predation on young males were all dead or kicked out?

 I never quite believed that. Great evil is like disease. You may survive the polio but do so with a paralyzed leg for the rest of your life.  Vampires are a terrific metaphor for monstrous sin. You may get lucky and stake the master vampire but the contagion may have already spread throughout the village and has to be dealt with.

When King David sinned there were people who knew what really happened to Uriah and they said nothing. Others noted the speed in which the king married Uriah's widow and the timing of her pregnancy. David got away with it before men but God was having none of it. The fearless prophet Nathan called David out in public. David did hard penance and was forgiven but the consequences of his sin did not vanish into thin air.  His first son with Bathsheba died. His daughter Tamar fell victim to her half brother's lust. His son Amnon was killed. His son Absalom rebelled and was killed.The sword never departed from David's house.

Even  if Archbishop McCarrick  repents, confesses, and does hard penance  this malignant thing will never be over. The Church has been damaged. There are those who are delighted by this and hope that it will cause people to realize that Jesus did not found a new church in the 60s.  I think a few people will discover the wondrous beauty of the Church's traditions that have been waiting for them but I'm pretty sure that most of the broken-hearted will drift into Protestantism, Mormonism, and atheism. 

At prayer

Several years ago I saw a photo of the James Tissot painting, "The Holy Women" depicting the women who followed Our Lord when they could and who offered food and lodging  to Him and the Apostles when He came to their towns. I was deeply moved and decided to dedicate myself to taking every opportunity to show kindness and helpfulness to priests, whether they are obviously holy or just good bread and butter priests.  The priesthood is under attack. It's always been under attack.  Judas has many sons and this didn't just happen with Vatican II, although that was the tip of the spear. Let's pray for the good priests out there.

At prayer

I smiled when I saw this painting. Many times from my childhood on I've sat in a pew with my head against the cool stone column and either prayed or just sat in the presence of the Lord.

Catholic 101 : How do I use the missal during Mass?

I found a good video on how to use the missal during Mass. I normally use the online Sancta Misa missal so I don't have to go back and forth. Rocky prefers to use the big missal at home or during Adoration and uses the red Eclesia Dei missal and the photocopied daily readings provided by the parish during Mass. I think this video is very helpful no matter missal you use.

A Prayer for the Redemption of Bad Priests

Divine Savior Jesus Christ, Thou are the Good Shepherd who gives His life for His sheep. Oh, be in a very special way the Good Shepherd of those poor lost priests who are also appointed by Thee to be leaders of Thy people, but who have broken the oath of their holy ordination and have become unfaithful to their exalted calling. Bestow upon these poorest of the poor the very fullness of that pastoral solicitude with which Thou dost so faithfully seek the sheep that are lost! Touch their hearts with the irresistible ray of grace which emanates from Thine all-merciful love! Enlighten their minds and strengthen their wills, that they may turn away from all sin and error and come back to Thy holy altar and to Thy people. O most compassionate Savior! Remember that Thou didst once redeem the souls of Thine erring priests with Thy Precious Blood and in infinite preferential love didst impress upon them the indelible character of the priesthood. Put wholly to shame those miserable helpers of Satan who lay snares for the virtue of priests and endanger the holy ideal of the priesthood. Most graciously accept our prayers and sacrifices for poor priests who have gone astray and hear our earnest petition.

 Amen 

Imprimatur - Bishop John F. Noll (April 18, 1948)

St. Anthony of Padua, defender of the Holy Eucharist, obtain for us holy priests

St. John-Mary Vianney, model of sacerdotal holiness, obtain for us holy priests

St. Francis Xavier, patron of missionary priests, obtain for us holy priests

St. Therese of the Child-Jesus and of the Holy Face, victim offered for the sanctification of priests, obtain for us holy priests

Saints and Servants of God, obtain for us holy priests.