So......I guess this means there won't be a canonization for this one?

 He also called her a bruja which means "witch," in Spanish. Depending on which Latin American country you come from it could also mean :

• sorceress  
• hag  
• female dog  (I'm being reserved here. The actual word starts with the letter B)
• crone 
  
  To those who say ignore his moment of temper I must point out that he's the pope. The standards that Our Lord set for him are higher than anyone else's. Argentinians say he has a nasty temper and there have been reports coming out of the Vatican that when he's angry he gets loud and vulgar. Forget the photo ops. This is Franics live, raw, unedited. 

The Burning Babe

The Burning Babe

BY ROBERT SOUTHWELL SJ

As I in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow,

Surpris’d I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow;

And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near,

A pretty Babe all burning bright did in the air appear;

Who, scorched with excessive heat, such floods of tears did shed

As though his floods should quench his flames which with his tears were fed.

“Alas!” quoth he, “but newly born, in fiery heats I fry,

Yet none approach to warm their hearts or feel my fire but I!

My faultless breast the furnace is, the fuel wounding thorns,

Love is the fire, and sighs the smoke, the ashes shame and scorns;

The fuel Justice layeth on, and Mercy blows the coals,

The metal in this furnace wrought are men’s defiled souls,

For which, as now on fire I am to work them to their good,

      So will I melt into a bath to wash them in my blood.”

      With this he vanish’d out of sight and swiftly shrunk away,

      And straight I called unto mind that it was Christmas day.

Thine almighty Word, O Lord, leaped down from heaven

 

“While all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of her swift course, thine almighty Word, O Lord, leaped down from heaven out of thy royal throne.”


- Wisdom 18

Christmastide

Puer Natus Est

God bless you all

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son

Puer Natus Est

How to Survive Midnight Mass as a Visitor

1. Feed the kids. Make the little one's take a nap. Don't expect a tired toddler who's off his schedule to act like a cherub. Provide them with liquid and then take them all to the bathroom before Mass.
   
2. Get to Mass early. Sit down. Do not go into the narthex  and socialize or your spot on the pew won't be there when you get back.
   
3. If you have climb over people in the pews the saints will let it go but the regular ones will give you the stink eye.
   
4. No. Nobody wants to scoot over so you can fit in if you arrive late. Sorry.
   
5. EWTN does commentary throughout for big TV Masses. You don't need to. If you need to explain to your brother-in-law who has come to Mass for the first time, do so  quietly.
   
6. Unless it is a service dog do not bring your pet to Mass. I know he's cute and he probably is better behaved than most of the kids but no, that's not right.
   
   
7. If your teenager demands to come to Mass in a strapless dress that comes down to her thigh, yes people are going to look.
   
   
8. If your teenager is angry and behaves rudely don't spend the entire Mass angrily hissing at her or you'll become bigger distraction than you realize-- yes I have seen this.
   
   
9. Remember, real life is not a Hallmark movie. Smell the incense. Calm down. Close your eyes. Rejoice, for Christ has come. 

The Nativity

Do you STILL have your Netflix account?

Why? Can't you give up one amusement for the Lord? 

At prayer

random thoughts on Saturday afternoon

• I really wasn't enthusiastic about making Archbishop Fulton Sheen a saint. However, Cardinal Dolan, Cardinal Cupich and Archbishop Matano of Rochester objecting to his beatification and getting the cause shut down is highly suspect.
  
  
  
• You know that dollar you gave to the Peter's Pence collection? It may have gone to help fund a movie about Elton John. 
  
  
• First we get Pachamama and now the Feast of the Immaculate Conception was not a holy day of obligation in the US this year. Interesting.
  
  
  
  
• I think Fr. Leonard Feeney got excommunicated not so much for heresy but because he had so many enemies in the clergy. He seemed to loathe any priest who was a public figure. He wrote critically of Fr. Knox, Thomas Merton, then Fr. Avery Dulles, most heads of Catholic colleges,  Fr. Keller of the Christophers and Archishop Sheen. He probably wasn't too complimentary to other priests he didn't like in person either. He also had quite a lot to say about Cardinal Cushing, none of which was "He's a jolly good fellow." I'm guessing that  there were many Jesuits and other priests all who had been doing a slow burn about him for years and when the excommunication happened whiskey flasks and champagne corks got opened in quite a few rectories around the country. 

Cancel your Netflix

Netflix is launching a movie that portrays Our Lord as a homosexual. Over a million people have signed a petition protesting this. That's nice but nice is worthless in a fight. People, you don't need to sign a petition. You don't need to say anything publicly at all. Just love Our Lord enough to cancel your Netflix. Jesus will know why you did it or didn't do it and that is all that matters.

A PRAYER FOR THE REDEMPTION OF BAD PRIESTS

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.

Before you donate...due diligence

 Before you donate to any lay-run Catholic organization please check their IRS Form 990 first. The links below are a small example of what is available for the generous public.

http://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/472/472159793/472159793_201712_990.pdf

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/753087887/03_2019_prefixes_73-76%2F753087887_201809_990PF_2019031216166661
https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2017/030/448/2017-030448257-107c3d4f-9.pdf

https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2017/541/031/2017-541031437-0ea6d8fd-9.pdf

https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2017/953/754/2017-953754404-0f09a479-9.pdf

https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2016/131/809/2016-131809274-0eaadbb8-9.pdf

https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2018/412/011/2018-412011402-106443aa-9.pdf

I got nowhere else to go

This week a lot of people have been talking about losing their religion and going Orthodox or maybe just sitting at home in despair. Both Ann Barnhardt and Non Veni Pacem  have written masterful answers to these folks. The one thing that has long come to my mind when I read posts and hear podcasts of people who are doubting and looking at the backdoor is this scene from An Officer and a Gentleman. I got nowhere else to go. There is nowhere else to go. I watched a clip of the Russian Orthodox Easter service last year and a tear came to my eyes because I compared it to some of the appalling Masses I've been to but it didn't shake me. The Orthodox look nice* but they are not Catholic.  There is only one holy, catholic and apostolic church. There is only one Bride of Christ and outside of her is nothing. Don't let the Judases seduce you or drive you away from Christ. That's it.



*A lot of people babble about how awful Catholic Twitter is. If you want to see mean and nasty I suggest you spend an hour or two hanging out on Orthodox Twitter. 

At prayer

If you STILL give money to the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception read this

A friend of my husband used to work at the Shrine of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in DC. He was so happy when he started but  eventually was so disillusioned that he quit. He used to love going to Mass at the shrine before or after work but doesn't feel comfortable even visiting to pray there anymore. According to my husband's friend, he is not the only one who has been dismayed by the odd way the monsignor runs the shrine. Morale among the employees is terrible and he's not the only one who's quit in disgust. There is an old and not at all funny joke that goes,"If you want to lose your faith, go work for your parish." I hope that hasn't happened to anyone who felt they had to leave the shrine.

If you are still donating to the shrine you might want  to read this article by George Neumayr. Something is not right.

St. Joachim and St. Anne, pray for us

rest in peace Lou Lou

My cousin in hospice has died. Her funeral is today. She had the hardest life.... I don't remember a time in my life when she wasn't either sick with cancer or suffering from depression. Eternal rest grant unto her Oh Lord. Let perpetual light shine upon her. May she rest in peace. Amen.

Ave Maria

Áve María, grátia pléna, Dóminus técum; benedícta tu in muliéribus, et benedíctus frúctus véntris túi, Jésus. Sáncta María, Máter Déi, óra pro nóbis peccatóribus, nunc et in hóra mórtis nóstræ. Amen.

I hate when people at work talk bad about their spouses

It's always to the opposite sex for some reason. Never trust someone who does that with you.

Random thoughts on a Sunday afternoon

• Whenever a a Catholic leader tells me that massive illegal immigration from Latin America is actually a good thing because these folks are natural family and tradition loving conservatives I assume that I listening to a liar or a fool. Neither one is a good thing. This Sprite commercial comes from Argentina,. 

• We are long past the point of arguing whether Francis is a true pope or not. He has the ring. He is in the Vatican and wields his power like a mace to the head of a bound victim. Benedict sits mute and hidden except for when he's trotted out by his minder, Archbishop Ganswein, and no active cardinal in good standing has the guts to say to Francis on camera, in public at a Vatican event that he's spouting heretical, idolatrous, globalist crap and is an unworthy hireling. There are those who are timidly waiting for Francis to die so that this dark night in the Church can finally end. Well if you are thinking that, stop it. Francis is probably going to live into his 90s and even if he died today his policies will live on many decades after him.
  
• Sr. Sasagawa of Akita says she's had another visitation after 46 years. I've noticed that this has been ignored by most of Catholic media. Another thing I noticed is that Sister said Our Lady spoke of penance and asked that we pray the rosary. She said nothing about Divine Mercy or loving icebergs.
  
  
• My cousin Lou Lou is in hospice. When she was 19 she had a hysterectomy and I think it led to the collapse of her first marriage.  I don't think she was ever free of depression for very long in her entire life and her siblings did not help. In your charity could you please say an Ave for her?
  
• Quite a few people were dismayed by the Virginia elections earlier this month but really what else did they expect? Catholic Charities and the Lutherans flooded Northern Virginia with Somalis.  This created a good deal of grumbling about the Catholics but it didn't stop the flood.   Northern Virginia is heavily Hispanic, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Somalian, Syrian, Afghani, and Iraqi. Many of my neighbors can't speak English but the Democrats were able to connect with them enough to get them onto the free van and car rides to the polls. Northern Virginia dominates Virginia because the government workers have money. The state is done. It's going to be a more southerly version of Maryland now. 

This quote haunts me....

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

― Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn , The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

For the Forgotten Dead

Words of Wisdom

“Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.”

Sadly it was not a modern Catholic woman who said this but Margaret Nadauld, a Mormon. 

Lord have mercy

Into every life a time of tragedy and great suffering must fall. Everybody has a lonesome valley to walk through. My Uncle Junior and my mother may be about to walk into that valley. She noticed in their last conversation that he did not remember telling her something that he told her the day before and she says that he was "talking crazy," this morning on the phone. Junior's son called her a few days ago to tell her that Junior looked thin when Junior Jr. visited and there seemed to be signs of cognitive decline. Junior Jr. is going to take Uncle Junior into his home. My mother is the bravest person I've ever known but I can tell that she's afraid now. My Uncle Sonny Boy's dementia and death is still fresh in both our minds.

Halloween has gotten out of hand

When I was a child Halloween was for kids. Now it has decayed into something very low and nasty. When Rocky and I stepped out of church after Mass I saw four adults in Haloween costumes. One was a vampire and one was dressed as a prostitute and one was a cowboy. I'm not sure what the last one was because I looked away before I got a good look at him.  They were loud but looked away when parishioners glanced at them. When the church bells rang the Halloween revelers began wildly rocking back and forth toward the ground. I assume it was some sort of mockery of holy things  but as we hurried into our car I  wondered why these people felt the need to come to a Catholic church.

It's been a sickening week--- I binged on some restorative talks, crafts and a big boom

Holy Day of Obligations away from your own parish can be an adventure.

Mass was weird last night. Rocky was feeling bad so we did not go to the 7:30 PM Mass but went to an earlier one at St. Anthony's in Falls Church. We sat down in our pew and four or five teen aged girls sat down behind us. One dropped something and cursed. She blasphemed. Right there in church. Right in front of the Blessed Sacrament. At first I thought I had heard wrong. Then Rocky looked at me and whispered, "Did she just blaspheme?" "Yeah," was all I said. I looked back at the girls and an usher came up and told them to move. Rocky remained upset for the rest of Mass and later told me that he wished he'd stood up and rebuked them. He did not go to Communion. I wish I had done more than glare at them. 

A PRAYER FOR THE REDEMPTION OF BAD PRIESTS

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.

Thank you, Maureen Mullarkey

It's fashionable in Catholic circles to screech at Catholics who attend the traditional Mass. Even some priests who only offer it zealously wield the criticism lash.  Maureen Mullarkey has written a defense of traditional Catholics-- the smallest group in the all the different groups that make up the Church. .

The pope is blessing idols. The cardinals and bishops are embezzling, smuggling illegal aliens, and taking catamites. Father Skippy is running a freak show in the rectory and his antics have driven people out the door and some right out of the Faith. Sr. Scowl of the Pantsuit is escorting women into the abortion clinic and  weird, heretical stuff is going on the various New Movements but it's the man or woman who prefer to go to the traditional Mass who is the problem... yeah sure...
This gas-lighting campaign against traditional Mass goers is good for one thing. It's shows that somebody is afraid. Thanks to Maureen Mullarkey for being the Joseph Cotton character.

Boyer, Bergman and Cotton in "Gaslight".

Somebody threw the idols into the Tiber!

What will YOU do when the earth mother idol shows up at your parish?

Holy Roman martyrs, who refused to offer so much a pinch of incense to pagan idols, pray for us.

If pachanama is good enough for the pope then look for parishes in the US to imitate him. I wouldn't be surprised if that idol shows up at the Jesuit  Georgetown University student chapel, which is a weird place anyway or in a Redemptorist parish or a Maryknoll chapel before the month is out.

Hey Catholic media! Here's an idea for you.

Who is that woman in the yoga pants tracksuit seen dancing with the Gospel, being carried in a canoe and dancing in the street? Who brought her and her buddies to Rome?

Church with an Amazonian face? Nuts!

Is this what a church with an Amazonian face means? Are we to imitate people who would have shocked even  the pagan Romans of  2000 years ago? Can you imagine how an Egyptian from 5000 years ago would have reacted to the Amazonian culture that the Vatican is celebrating in the synod? Is walking around naked, covered in dirt, exposed to insects and anything that could wound or cause infection, protected only by feathers and beads and offering one's breast to a hopefully toothless animal what Pope Francis thinks Catholic women all over the world should be doing? If we are to imitate people in such a state then is infanticide, pedophilia, sexual incontinence and paganism okay now? If all that should be overlooked  then I guess it's okay to have married*priests, priestesses, and gay priests with a live in lover.

If there were just one woman or man in Rome who'd be willing to tear this disgusting image down from the church wall I'd be proud to contribute to whatever fund was set up to pay the fine or legal defense.


* Married and having affairs with women and men--you know that would happen. Look at the Protestants. And what about the divorced priests? Will they get laicized or a do over with a new woman?

The Canonization of John Newman was an obvious trap...

The stomach turning Jesuit, Fr. James Martin is claiming newly canonized Cardinal Newman as a gay icon. Very nice people are arguing against him but this is exactly one of the reasons why Newman should not have been canonized in the first place. Both admirers and enemies have long noted his relationship with  Fr. Ambrose St. John. Some people read Newman's letter describing his feelings after Fr. St. John's death and were disgusted. Some were touched and said that Newman and St. John were just best friends and anybody who says anything else has a dirty mind. John Newman is going arlready being embraced and celebrated as the chaste gay saint and we can no more stop it than we can "take back," the rainbow symbol. The table was set and the Church's enemies inside and out are feasting. It's only a matter of time before we see artwork depicting St. John holding hands with or embracing Fr. St. John. I imagine someone is working on a variation of their 1847 portrait right now.

Portrait of John Henry Newman, right, and Ambrose Saint John by Maria Giberne, 1847

Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us.

Christ Cleanses the Temple

Trads In the Kill box?

I listened to a homily by what I'm guessing is either an ICKSP or   FSSP priest in which an earnest and devout Father X encouraged his listeners to stay calm and not worry about whether the order is sitting in a kill box and just waiting to be destroyed when Pope Francis gets around to it. After all, the Jesuits were suppressed and rose again.  Freaking out won't change a thing and a suppression may never come. I understood what the priest is saying here but I also get that people are scared and need to make decisions. People are wondering if they should  go through the trouble and in some cases the sacrifice of pulling up stakes and moving their family to be closer to a parish, oratory or monastery that has the traditional Mass when there is a possibility that it's all going to be shut down.

And then I watched this scene from King of Kings. The YouTube suggested viewing algorithm can be really funny at times.

The Fate of Fr. Escalante and other random thoughts on a Sunday afternoon

• Father Escalante of the St. Francis de Sales parish in Purcelville,Virginia  has been forced to resign from his parish. According to my bishop,  "Father Escalante freely admitted to conduct unbecoming and foreign to the clerical state involving two adults."
  What exactly does that mean? Did he make fun of a pious parish family? Did he curse during a homily? Did he mock the Blessed Mother? Did he tell a lie in front an audience and while being recorded? Did he promote sins against chastity? I can think of priests who did those things in the presence of multiple adults and despite complaints in some cases, they are still in good standing.
   If Fr. Escalante is guilty and might one day end up in my parish, I don't want this vague letter. Tell us exactly what he is supposed to have done. His main adversaries, were the director of religious education who has left the parish and the associate pastor, both of whom could land anywhere in the diocese so I'd like to hear what they have to say for themselves.  If Father Escalante is innocent then what is the real reason he's been ruined?
  
  
  
  
  
• The Devil is a liar and the uber mean joker too. So many wicked and stupid people thought that adding dancing girls to  the Mass would look like Vestal virgins or Rita Hayworth in Salome. 

Instead they got this:

Churches all over the US and Europe have been foisting liturgical dance on the Faithful for decades but it was easy to roll one's eyes in disgust and mock it ...  

There were people who were revolted but most Catholics who were even paying attention just said, "Well, it's the Germans. What do you expect?", or "It's just that one weird parish in Washington state," or "It's an unfortunate abuse but Rome has not approved it and my diocese would never allow it..."

But now someone at the Vatican served up this: 

 So I guess dancing girls who can't even dance, are official now. Click on this link  to see the whole thing. I don't care to post it on my blog.

• By the time the Pope Francis show finally has it's last act he will have to go down in history as the man who convinced more American Catholics to convert to Eastern Orthodoxy than anybody else. This ceremony in the Vatican gardens probably sent a lot of people screaming over the wall. 

St. Boniface, pray for us and may your spiritual sons get ready to swing their gospel axes.

A PRAYER FOR THE REDEMPTION OF BAD PRIESTS

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.

The Last Judgement

not a gentleman

I stopped reading 1P5 partly because there just haven't been very many interesting essays for some time  and partly because I've been mystified by Steve Skojec's Jekyll and Hyde behavior. 1P5 Steve writes beautifully and is very impressive. Have you ever heard one of his podcasts? He has an excellent voice and some of the early ones were profound.  Facebook and Twitter Steve, on the other hand, can be so mean that  it really is like two different guys and when I first noticed it, the behavior was shocking. Now it's become a pattern and I'm tired of his act. 

Trash talking  about Ann Bernhardt's looks is definitely not the act of a gentleman. First off, Ann is not his woman. What she looks like is none of his business and he should restrict his attentions to his own wife. He has said that he couldn't help but notice that she looks different over the years but who doesn't, including him?  I don't want to read anymore excuses about his years with the Legionnaires making him prone to moodiness. A bad time in one's youth does not bestow a life time pass that requires other people to just accept rude behavior without comment. I don't see myself ever clicking  on the 1P5 site page again.

Then Jesus said to the twelve: Will you also go away?

I'm not so concerned about schism after the Amazon synod. I am concerned with how people will react. How many of our priests will stay faithful? More to the point, what will your and my pastor do?  Are Rocky and I going to have to find a new place to go to Mass? Will it come to finding a priest and going to Mass in a rented room or a basement? I am seeing more and more people in discussion forums and on Twitter who can't take it anymore and are heading towards the Eastern Orthodox.  Others say that they can't do that...yet and have decided to go to an Eastern Catholic parish for as long as they can. Who will stay and who will go away?

random thoughts at the end of vacation

• You can play the enfant terrible for only so long. After a while even patient gentle people start wondering if it's an act or if you really are emotionally defective. 

• I was reading about a cheerleader who managed to fool her incredibly unobservant parents, delivered a baby, killed him and buried him in her parents' yard.  She got off. A jury found her not guilty. The first thing that popped into my mind is that parents really shouldn't let their daughters be cheerleaders or join the dance squad at school. You sit there and  clap and grin like a fool while she does a routine that a stripper would approve of and then are shocked when she acts out sexually..... And you parents who send your daughter to swimming and gymnastics ought to consider the huge amount of sexual interference that goes on from coaches, team trainers and doctors in both sports.
  
  
• Rocky and I went to Pennsylvania on vacation last week and went to Mass at a Redemptorist parish. It wasn't bad. Father gave a sound homily and while he was surprised that I received on the tongue he didn't refuse or frown,  but it was almost comical because everything I expected from a Redemptorist parish happened.
  
  Eucharistic ministers in albs? Check
  Altar girl? Check
  Music from the 1970s? Check
  Jokes from the priest? Check
  The shortest version of the Confietor allowed? Check
  Lay person giving a talk after Mass and before the dismissal? Check

To be fair, the parishioners were very pleasant and Father was happy to greet us after Mass and ask us to come back for Mass on our next vacation.

• Monsignor Rossi is "on retreat." 

random thoughts on a Sunday afternoon

St. Giles, pray for us

• The College of Cardinals has has 13 new members. God help us.
  
  
• I don't like doing housework on Sunday but my mother is spending the night with us tomorrow and I think I saw a mouse in the living room last night. If we were in South Carolina I'd ask one of my relative if their Feist dog could spend the day with me. They great little vermin hunters.  Instead I'm putting out traps and hope that if they don't get him the rodent will at least stay quiet and out of sight while Mama is here.  (Update: the mouse did not make an appearance while my mother was here!)
  
  
• C.L. at  Vincit Qui Se Vincit  has some very good thoughts after reading my thoughts on the call to unite the clans.
  
• Back in the 80s and early 90s corporate America sold us out by taking all the factories to China and other countries where they could pay a child a pittance an hour and work him all day. Working class Americans lost their jobs they were told that it was progress and to deal with it. There is a lot of talk today about the opioid "epidemic," as if it just happened but despair has been growing for at least three decades. The alcoholism, drug use and family destruction went through the roof in whole swaths of the country and it was either ignored, mocked or dismissed.  Kids were told that if you had a college degree in anything you'd never have to walk home in shock after finding out that the entire plant had closed. Well, a little bit legislation called  the Immigration Act of 1990 created the H1-B visa and made things....interesting for Americans with Bachelor's degrees. By the mid to late 90s people who thought they were bullet proof were stunned to find out that they weren't.
  
  The experts on TV, and in magazines and newspapers  told us that if you wanted to be safe you had to go beyond the Bachelors. A Master degree was the answer until it wasn't. For the past five years or so Americans have been told that STEM is the way to save themselves. Umm, no. STEM OPT gives foreign students a 24 month Visa extension if they pursue a science, technology, engineering or math program. If you think a STEM degree makes you safe you may be in for the same horrible surprise that one of my uncle's  faced when Bethlehem Steel closed or you may get to feel the same crushing fear some of my cousins faced when the textile mills closed in South Carolina. Nobody is safe.
  
  
  
  
  
  
•   I tell my relatives and best friends, ‘If you want your children to fight for their faith, send them to public school. If you want them to lose their faith, send them to Catholic school.’ ~Archbishop Fulton Sheen
  
  I'm sure the archbishop was talking about the Catholic-lite schools but there are still people in Rochester, NY who remember that one of the first things he did was to order the closure of a Catholic school. The families of the students fought back ferociously and the decision was dropped. The incident that ended the archbishop's time in Rochester was his decision to give St. Bridget's Church and school to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The reaction from the parishioners was intense and the idea was dropped and Archbishop Sheen put in for retirement.
  
  
  
• Eternal rest grant Oh Lord unto Thy servant.....

Fr. David Tanko was murdered in Nigeria. He is the 11th priest to be murdered in an African country this year. 

• I've read comments from Australians on multiple sites who are pretty much content with Cardinal Pell's conviction because all though he could not have done what he was convicted of but because of all the things he's been suspected of over the decades. Has Australian law always been like that or is this something new?

A PRAYER FOR THE REDEMPTION OF BAD PRIESTS

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.

Unite the Clans and other random thoughts on a Thursday afternoon

• You may have read that Illinois is going start teaching children in public school that same sex fornication is a good thing and were relieved that you don't live there. Perhaps you shook your head and although you do live in Illinois you were comforted by the fact that your kid goes to private school or is home schooled. That may not be enough to save your children from potential tragedy. What are you going to do when your sister and her family come to visit next Christmas and her son who can barely read at his grade level but got high marks on  how use a condom shows your 8 year old what he's been learning all year?  How will you react when your 6 year old tells you about anal lubricants because the neighbor kid who moved from Illinois told him and offered to show him all about them? Your daughter may be going to dance camp in the waning days of Summer and might make the acquaintance of another girl whose been taught stuff you never even heard about until you were an adult.  The curriculum of Illinois public schools may strike you as distasteful today but may break your heart tomorrow. It's a small world after all.

• Michael Matt, Fr. Z. and Taylor Marshall all say ,"Unite the clans!" That means all the groups who love the traditional Mass should ignore the at times, deep differences and come together. Their argument is that it is relatively little stuff that divides  and that it is nothing compared to the one thing that we all love. That's  lovely but in a practical sense how is this uniting to come about? The diocesan Trads don't want to rock the boat. The Fraternity and Institute of Christ the King are none too friendly to the SSPX; the SSPX people have been insulted by everyone for so long that I think they're shell shocked and some lay people are pretty frank about just wanting to be left in peace and the sedevacantists think all the rest of us are a bunch of fools. Finally there's the  Resistance clan who trust no-one outside of their chapels and the Home Aloners who don't trust anyone-- period-- and have such bad PTSD that they'll spook with the first raised eyebrow.  Who is our Wallace or our Bruce? It can't be Cardinal Burke. There are those who love him but I've seen pretty harsh dismissal of him as being a "banquet bishop" and too timid. It can't be Vigano. He's in hiding and looking forward to leaving this world in peace now that he's blown the whistle. Bishop Schneider and Cardinal Muller  have also been scorned as being too timid to trust in and they are not well known by many traditional Catholics.  Who is there in the entire Trad world whom the majority of the clans are willing to follow? You don't have to love the man who but who is there that the majority of us even respect?
  
  
  
  
• Please pray for Julie at Connecticut Catholic. She's taken dangerous ill.

Hey Honey let's NOT go to the Ren Faire...

I read Ann Barnhardt's post on the Society for Creative Anachronism and remembered the stories a friend used to tell about her Renaissance Fair days. She'd stay for a weekend or more  and only stopped because she couldn't afford to do it anymore and she got  married to a man who didn't care for those people. What goes on at camp at night when the tourists go home is distasteful and the  friends that she made were horribly immoral sorts who played musical beds within the group.
If you are invited to stay overnight at a gathering you may not be asked to participate in the sexual goings on -- my friend was not, largely because of her age and because the older person who first invited her warned everyone off from messing with her --- but you will see and hear raunchy, filthy stuff that is better left alone for the safety of your soul.

The Buffalo diocese got hit with RICO and Saturday afternoon random thoughts

• The leadership brought this on themselves and nobody else to blame. 

"The Mass is not about adoring Jesus or even praying to Jesus." Fr. Thomas Reese S.J.

•  If Saint Ignatius walked into Fr. Reese's office today I don't think he'd be smiling and I think he'd be carrying a whip.
  
  
  
• Shirley Jackson once wrote a short story about self righteous woman who was happy to accuse others of being racist but ended up being upset and offended because the little black boy who she so happy to have her son play with was not poor and did not need the charity she offered. At the end of the story her embarrassed son walks outside with his buddy and asks him to excuse her. I was reminded of this when I read about the people in Portland who are protesting their new Nigerian priest because he says "He" when referring to God and Jesus among other things. This parish has been out in the moonbeams worshiping their own navels and Fr. Kuforjii is not having it. Hopefully if Father can't tame his wild parish the bishop will shut it down because judging from what I've seen from their behavior on camera these people are essentially Unitarians.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Mass at the Monastery

Rocky and I went to the Vigil of the Assumption at the DC Franciscan Monastery. It was packed. The friars looked surprised and delighted. A huge number of Catholic University students were there. Originally, the Mass was supposed to be in the grotto but the threat of thunderstorms made the abbot decide to move it indoors. I'm glad of that because the mosquitoes in the grotto are fierce. Archbishop Wilton Gregory came. He's shorter than he looks on TV. He did not say anything offensive in his homily and did not talk politics. After Mass Rocky and I accidentally walked close to him in the garden and he waved at us. The guest choir was astonishing and I don't mean that in a good way. Their version of the Magnificat was blues style and sounded like  Vera Hall singing the   Death Have Mercy song. Rocky looked at me out of the corner of his eye. When they sang the Alleluia and it went on so long and the tambourines were so loud I was almost surprised when the priest finally began reading the Gospel. One man couldn't take it and quietly left during the singing. The Gloria went on so long I wondered if I could do a whole decade of the rosary before it ended.

After Mass Rocky as we walked to our car told me that he didn't feel like he'd been to Mass at all. It was like a concert with Mass added as an afterthought.

The end of a tubal pregnancy

There is a discussion going on about ectopic pregnancy on  the Eponynmous Flower blog. The author says he knows nothing about the topic but he's done some reading on it.  Well I lived through it and know a bit more than he does. As some of my old readers may recall, I had an ectoptic rupture in 2007. I can not bear to read the blog post I wrote about it or post it again but I feel that I should say something. If you  have been told that your child has not implanted in the uterus or even stomach but is in your fallopian tube you will be offered the choice of surgery, the methotrexate drug or you could reject both choices and wait for the rupture to happen.  If you decide to  let nature take it's course you should have an idea of what to expect.  I don't know if you can be forced into treatment but I do not think that any US doctor will accept admitting you to the hospital until the rupture happens. Unless you have someone watching you 24 hours a day you might be alone when it happens and when It does it will not be pretty. I've written this not to frighten anyone but because you need an honest description from someone who survived.

 I didn't know that I was pregnant so Rocky and I didn't have to make a decision. Having fought infertility for years I'd given up hope of ever having a successful pregnancy and I had no morning sickness or any other physical sign. I looked and felt the same as always.  I was standing in my bedroom closet  when it happened. It felt like a giant rubber band snapped inside me. I staggered backwards and ended up on the bed. I lay there curled up in a fetal position for I don't know how long. My pain level was excruciating. It was as if I'd been swallowed up and was being  gnawed on and consumed by pain. I could not speak. My eyes were wide open but the sight of my quilt meant nothing to me. I could not form a rational thought. I just existed, plunged as I was into that abyss  of agony minute by minute and until it stopped. Dazed, I got up and walked out of my home. Instinct or muscle memory or  most likely, my guardian angel took me to work. I walked in and spoke to my boss. She was stunned by how pale and gray I looked and suggested that I call Rocky.  I sat at my desk  and tried to make a plan.   Then came tunnel vision and muffled hearing, pain and the realization that this, whatever it was; was altogether beyond my control. Next came a thick, curtain of blackness before my eyes and ..... nothing.


I woke up on the floor under my desk and next to my own vomit.  Co-workers had called ambulance and I was whisked away. My family arrived.  After tests the surgeon told me what had happened and that there was no hope for my child because he was already dead. The Georgetown hospital staff called for the priest on duty.  He gave me  the sacrament and the apostolic pardon. He told me not to fear for I was loved by my Heavenly Father and whatever happened would be His will.  After that  I went to surgery.   My stomach was full of blood and I was in shock. Had I not collapsed at work my husband would've come home and found me dead or dying.  I urge any woman who needs to figure out what to do about a tubal pregnancy to go with her husband to seek the counsel of a learned, devout priest.

  Thanks to Fr. "Angel", Fr. "Wise" and Fr. "Youngblood" who comforted Rocky and I during that terrible time. 

Due Diligence --before you right that check or click that Paypal button....

• I posted this last week but I think it needs to be said again.
  
  Before you give to any Catholic non-profit check their Form 990. This is the form that non-profits must file with the IRS. I have used Foundation Center, Guidestar   and  Charity Navigator . If they don't have one think long and hard before you proceed. Think about the longevity of the organization, pay attention to outside news about the organization and demand to know how the head of the organization lives, especially if they talk about living modestly but post photos of themselves traveling all over the US and Europe. Last year I received an anonymous letter from someone warning me not to donate to Opus Bono Sacredotti. The letter alleged that the founders were living rather high on the hog instead of helping elderly conservative or traditional-minded priests who had been cast out of their dioceses by liberal bishops. I called the Michigan Attorney General's office and  asked them about OBS and if an investigation was going on and I also called the organization. I wasn't happy with the answers I heard and Opus Bono was off my list, forever.  Considering what I've been seeing online and the what's going on with co-founder, Fr. Perrone  I'm relieved.