random thoughts on Sunday afternoon

•  Thousands of people died yesterday, over 3000 in the US alone. Obviously, none of these people was Jorge Bergoglio. He's 88, has one lung and mathematically he's closer to the grave than the cradle but never measure a man for his shroud until he starts actively dying. That sounds grim but Pope Francis may outlive some of the people who are anticipating his death. This is in God's hands and God's will be done. I don't feel the same way about Francis that I did about JPII so until I see that he's recovered and going home or he's dead I'm not fixating on the medical updates and rumors. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I read something extremely sad last night. A woman was complaining that she can't get close to her pastor because the rectory staff gatekeeps his schedule and after Mass, he's always swarmed by families who want to talk to him. She's been trying for months. The poor woman doesn't realize that she sounds like a stalker. If I was a parish secretary and a woman kept coming in demanding an appointment with Father for several months because she wants to invite him to dinner I'd be a bit unnerved by her. Folks, you don't own your priest. You don't have the right to demand that he be your buddy. Frankly, if you're a single woman or an unhappily married woman you really need to restrict your interactions to the sacraments. Rocky and I were blessed to have a wonderful relationship with our former pastor and parochial vicar but we don't have that with the pastor and parochial vicar we have now. I like them and they always smile and chat with us when they see us but it's not the same. I didn't expect it to be. Personal relationships have to develop naturally. They aren't owed and can't be forced. 
  
  
  
  
  
• IVF is an obscene and anti-human practice. Your husband is treated like a stud boar except instead of being tricked into doing what comes naturally, he's given porn, told to masturbate and then ejaculate into a cup, which the staff will collect. In order to get one "perfect" baby you will need to create multiple tiny lives and most of them will be destroyed or frozen indefinitely. Infertility and pregnancy loss is...painful. Time dulls it and you will think that you have overcome it but  this love that cannot live, yet never dies will surprise you from time to time.  You will look at your relatives who are doing a terrible job with their kids and you will burn with sudden anger. You will, as I did a few months ago,  be going along, minding your own business and having a good day when   you  glance over at a nursery school and the thought pops into your head that it would have so beautiful to see your son's wonder and imagination grow each day and that thought will  cause a physical hurt so bad you have restrain yourself from screaming. 
  
  I fully understand women who say they are suffering because they cannot have a longed for baby. One day the Good Lord will tell us why we, out of all the women in the world have this particular cross to bear  but until then we have to deal with it. I was not owed a child. None of us is.  God permits IVF to exist for now, but He does not approve of it. Every child is a gift from God but if you used IVF to get him or her here, you committed a sin and will  have to answer for it. Every one of those children that were created in the lab and then killed will be witnesses against you on the day of your particular judgment.  
  
  
  
  
  
• At the end of Mass, Fr. announced that the Bishop's Lenten Appeal will start next week. When we were in the parking lot Rocky, commented that he's glad we'll miss it because we will be out of town next Sunday. We both giggled like bad children. I'm sorry for Fr. and all the priests of the diocese because I don't the BLA is going to go smoothly this year at all.

Let me tell you what Catholic Charities Did For Me and My Old Neighbors

 I've written about this several times but Catholic Charities and the Episcopalians brought a lot of Somalis to my complex seemingly overnight back in 2005. It was Hell. The smell of stewing goat tripe in the hallway, the women who had never seen a modern stove, accidentally setting fires at least once and sometimes twice a week, families who had never seen modern plumbing before and kept flooding the bathroom and damaging the washing machines was all an experience you wouldn't want to live with.  I once got on an elevator and the man already on it retreated to a corner and looked like a Vulcan going through Pon Farr. I was on my way to work. I am a librarian. My hair, hands and legs should not have reduced anyone in the Western world to a quivering mass.

Stuff like this ruined the quiet enjoyment that tenants in any building, much less an expensive one,  have a right to and drove many of my long time neighbors out.  One neighbor couldn't take it anymore and went back to West Virginia. Another loaded up his moving truck and made the trek to Florida. Still another neighbor retired and bought himself  an RV. He went to the Eastern Shore of Virginia and was so happy to be leaving. This wasn't just snooty white people if anyone is thinking that.  The Ethiopian family that lived next door to me and the cool Ghanaian couple  down the hall, wished me well and moved out at the end of the first month. There were so many complaints that  most of the immigrants/refugees were resettled elsewhere but it took so long that many people couldn't wait.

Things settled down but damage was done to the complex and to the residents who toughed it out and refused to leave our home. It all came back me with memories as strong as carrion on a Summer day, when I read the most recent item on Complicit Clergy.     The good folks at that site wrote about a self righteous post on Twitter made by some PR person at Catholic Charities  and the furious responses to it.  One woman woman commented thusly and boy oh boy, do I understand what she's talking about  : 

@americancatass: Your human trafficking operation ruined our lives for 2 years. We had to spend $2500 to break our lease to flee from our apartment of 6 years because you filled it with illegals. You are traitors to the American people and I hope your “charity” is bankrupted.