Monday, February 28, 2022
As The Stomach Turns----The 2022 Appeal Has Officially Begun
Saturday, February 26, 2022
Umm, Fr. Keehan? Do You Know What Rock & Roll Actually Refers To?
One thing that we need to face is that the Novus Ordo is essentially whatever the bishop allows. A priest can follow the GIRM or he may not. You can have a Mass that is as well done and reverent as a Novus Ordo can be done or you have absolute buffoonery. It's valid. It's in communion, the priest is in good standing and unless the bishop has a problem with it all your letters of complaint will be sent to the delete folder.
Fr. Terrence M. Keehan, the pastor of Holy Family Catholic Church in Inverness, Illinois recently had a televised Mass where for the final blessing he held up a guitar and prayed, "Loving God, rock with us as we roll with you. Affirm us, so that we may affirm others. Sing your song in us, that we may sing it with others,” and then he used the guitar like a monstrance and blessed everyone.
There has been a lot of commentary about this. I saw the photo and watched the video clip and felt like my cheeks tingle. That unusually happens when I'm shocked. I don't know how old Fr. Keehan is but he looks like he ought to be old enough to know that the phrase "rock and roll" is euphemism for sexual intercourse and has been at least since the 1930s. For a very small example, "Roll With Me, Henry", the original "Shake, Rattle and Roll", "Rock With U" and "Rock Me, Daddy," are not about dancing. Fr. Keehan may not have a musical, or anthropological background but come on, we all know on some level that the heart of Rock and Roll is shamanistic. It appeals to the lower passions. I think Fr. either meant well, although the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, or he was trying to cute but he did something appalling. Would you simulate intercourse, howl, moan or jump around ecstatically before the Cross on Mt. Calvary? No, of course not so why is poor Father asking God Almighty to....I can't write it.
Friday, February 25, 2022
Wednesday, February 23, 2022
random thoughts on a Wednesday
- I am not a Taylor Marshall fan but I must say that the idea of him or any adult debating Michael Voris seems ridiculous.
- A lot of people seem to want war with Russia over Ukraine. I wish these people would get on a plane with their sons, grandsons and nephews and leave the rest of the country out of it.
- It started before the Obama years but became insane in his era, but when will people realize that this cult of personality; this worship of the president is unhealthy? I've seen people react to others with a different political view point as if they've committed blasphemy. Because they worship their guy or gal, anyone who doesn't' is an enemy, an apostate and an evildoer. This is sick, pathetic and dangerous. I've seen this on the Left AND the Right. The president is suppose to be the chief executive, not your god emperor.
- A lot of people need to hear what Father is saying. He doesn't mention it and probably didn't have time to get into it in a homily but one terrible case of the public being lied to was the Mississippi Appendectomy. It wasn't an appendectomy and it wasn't just Mississippi. It happened all over the South with the approval, financial support and propaganda from government officials, Northeastern philanthropists and organizations like Planned Parenthood. Women, who were considered stupid, incorrigible, or mentally sub-normal or suffering from depression went in a surgery they were told was needed and were actually sterilized. Eugenics was practiced in the USA long before WWII and in a less heavy handed public way, it still is.
- Col. Allen West is running for governor of Texas. He says he'll revoke the
charity license of Catholic Charities if he wins. It needs to happen.
Tuesday, February 22, 2022
Monday, February 07, 2022
Random thoughts on a cold Monday morning
- I refuse to give a dime to Catholic Charities. The organization takes government money to do works that do not benefit our fellow citizens. People see the vans and planes full of illegal immigrants arriving in their little towns and they see the Catholic Charities logo on the volunteers escorting them and of course they're coming to the conclusion that the Catholics aren't on their side. This won't end well.
- Why is everyone so snotty towards old women? Why is "This is not your mother's or grandmother's …. a perennial advertising catch line? Why do so many Catholics act like the elderly don't have souls to save? I know a parish needs young families but heaping contempt on the elderly who survived the 70s and 80 and still come to Mass doesn't build up families. It just sets a bad example for your children who will one day turn a jaundiced eye towards you.
- When I saw the photo of the Australian policeman walking up and down the aisle of a church during Mass and demanding to see people's vaccination status I immediately was reminded of a movie that I saw as a child. I think it was filmed the end of the '30s or the 1940s about English pilots whose plane is shot down in what I think was the Netherlands. The pilots are saved by a gallant local family and arrangements are made to get them safely out.
On the day of their escape the pilots, dressed as locals go to Mass with the family and will discreetly blend in with the Sunday crowds filling the square and roads to the rendezvous point afterwards. An SS officer and soldiers come in. The armed soldiers stand at the back of the church but the officer walks up and down the aisle intimidating people. The camera shows the priest, and a few of the appalled parishioners. The pilots sitting with the family are nervous and although they don't appear to be Catholic, the close ups of their faces show that they are disgusted at this strutting SS officer and the desecration.
- People keep saying that Francis is dying of colon or pancreatic cancer but I don't buy it. My grandmother died of colon cancer. I don't think she weighed as much as 100 pounds at the end and Francis appears to weigh quite bit more than that. I've never seen a fat colon cancer end-stage patient.
As for pancreatic cancer, my father-in-law, Big Daddy had it and when I saw him after his Whipple surgery I found that I had to struggle to maintain my composure. He started out as a hugely fat man and was still large at the time of his death but he was visibly sick and shockingly half the size he had been a few months earlier. He looked like the cancer was gobbling the fat right off him.
Both my grandmother and my father-in-law were no longer interested in the world towards the end. Big Daddy had enormous charisma and normally commanded attention wherever he went. On the last day I saw him alive, that spark was gone. He just didn't have the will or strength to dominate anymore. When you are seriously ill life gets very basic. Francis is still active and obviously cares very much about worldly affairs.
He may have a serious, chronic condition. At his age, that's highly probable but I don't think he's actively dying. Even if he were to die tonight it would not matter. Unless there is a miracle the next man to be elected pope will be no better than him. Look at the crop of cardinals we have. The good ones are weak and timid and the bad ones are riding high.
I don't want to come off as Negative Nelly but there is deep to the bone infection in the Vatican and is not just about Francis. He is the visible crown of the cyst, but there is so much more beneath the surface.
Sunday, February 06, 2022
Don't put your trust in celebrities
Milo Yiannopoulos has claimed in the past that he's been at some pretty nasty parties where he noticed older men with "dates" who looked quite young. He also said that he won't name any of the supposedly famous men he saw at those parties because it would be indiscreet. Some people are shocked by this. I am not. If Milo is telling the truth his reaction seems to be the standard one.
A few months ago I was listening to a podcast where one member of the discussion panel mentioned that he had been to a Hollywood party and would decline any further invitations from his host because although he was no prude himself what he saw at the party left him disgusted and horrified. The other people on the panel reacted with gasps, looking away from the camera, and nervous laughs. One person "jokingly" warned him that it was dangerous to talk about that. The man told them not to worry and indicated that he'd never go into detail about what he saw beyond what he'd already said. Everyone looked relieved and the subject was changed. This was all in few minutes.
The late romance novel author-priest, Father Andrew Greeley alleged that there was a homosexual pederast ring of priests operating in the Chicago area.