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.  

I never want to hear this song sung in a church again

This spectacle took place in Saint Peter Apostle Church in Montreal. I cannot imagine that the pastor was unaware of it. The bishop must be okay with it as well because the priest has not been removed from his duties, nor has an exorcism been done at the church that we know of. I know a lot of people love this maudlin song and consider it to be some sort of modern hymn. I remember one Catholic writer getting teary about it and writing that it was bringing people back to Mass. It's not a hymn and I dismissed that once very popular writer as a flake. Hallelujah if used on a church context is a blasphemous song about hopeless lust and unhealthy relationships. Samson had no business being with Delilah. David had no business being with Bathsheba. Both men reaped suffering for rest of lives due to their choice of woman. 

Samson and Delilah by James Tissot

David and Bathsheba by James Tissot

Kyrie Elieson

Random thoughts on a hot and humid Thursday

• Rocky has a friend who works at the DC Basilica. He says that the morale among the staff is terrible.  He was so happy when he got that job and now he's thinking about quitting. 

• I've said this before but it should be obvious to everyone by now that lionizing new converts is not a good thing. Protestant preachers who convert should get a job and grow in the Faith before becoming insta-Catholic apologists, if ever.  

• Rocky is a Third Degree Knight of Columbus. He was listening to Supreme Knight, Carl Anderson's  speech at the KoC annual meeting which was broadcast on EWTN and he was not happy. The Knights are going to give money for relief of migrants at the border. Rocky just sighed and asked why that money couldn't rain down on US homeless shelters or to the Little Sisters of the Poor nursing homes instead. 

• 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's been in the news and the what's going on with co-founder, Fr. Perrone  I'm relieved.  

• The word "awesome" is too often used but this was an awesome moment of serendipity. 

Let's be honest for a moment?

Star Trek: Beyond was a terrible movie.

— Fr. Ryan Hilderbrand (@FrHilderbrand) August 7, 2019

💀: try to acknowledge the unimportance of amusement and the importance of charity

— dust to dust (@mementomorial) August 8, 2019

Dust to Dust was not responding to Fr. Hilderbrand. This just happened to the next thing on my timeline.

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.

random thoughts on a Monday afternoon

• I grew up in a non-coffee drinking household so I never understood the lure of Starbucks. Every time I've been in one with friends I either ordered nothing or purchased my lime fizzy water and left. I didn't feel cool, or have some sort of religious experience. I mean, it's just coffee, the stuff that my grandparents used as a remedy for constipation. People act like going to Starbucks is a secular version of walking the Camino del Santiago.

• John Zmirak called Cardinal Cupich "one of the meanest and one of the dumbest." Standing in front of that foul looking crucifix I'd like to add "vicious". 

• I sat through a homily where the priest railed at us about the need to offer tender care for vulnerable, pitiful immigrants. I thought, "Wait a minute. If these people are so helpless and need to be taken care of like babies, how in Sam Hill did they get themselves from their countries to the US?   Why was Father talking about some very tough, resourceful people as if they were sub-normal intellectually or physical invalids? 

•  John Zmirak is talking about heart breaking things -- the venal US bishops who sell us out for government money, the immigrants legal and illegal who lose their Faith after being exposed to parish life in the US, etc. ---but he's so funny it's bearable.
  
  
  
• I dropped my American Association of Law Librarian membership years ago and never renewed. I also did not attend the 2019, convention that was in DC this year. This Federalist article confirms my decision.
  
  
  
• Fr. Faucher of Idaho was a filthy, sadistic pervert to put it as mildly as possible. He used drugs, drank so much that he claims to be suffering from alcoholic dementia and dabbled in Satanism. He hated God, the Church, and his own parishioners so much that he  urinated on a cross,  and into the wine used for Communion. He was so spiritually polluted that the diocese had his house exorcised before putting it on sale. 
  
  Why didn't he just leave the priesthood? I strongly suspect that quietly leaving wouldn't have been any fun. He probably got enormous satisfaction standing there at Mass watching his poor parishioners take the tainted Precious Blood. How he must have mocked them in his mind!  He also probably got pleasure by grinding the Faith down day after day. Can you imagine what he was saying in the confessional or what sly, careful heresies were contained in his homilies? I completely missed coverage of his story in Catholic news and only found mention of it at Ann Bernhardt's blog. 

Home alone is a dangerous practice

Some people say that if you have a heretic for a priest and your parish is just poison and you have no other parish near you then you are justified in staying home and just reading the Mass in your missal.   The temptation is strong for many people to say,"Nuts to this. I'd do better worship to the Lord at home," or the more tragic, "This parish is killing me but I can't go anywhere else so I'm staying home."

 I sympathize and I'm thankful that I've never been in that position. My geographic parish was weird but Rocky and I were to join another parish a few miles down the road. Thank you, Lord. Now that Rocky's work schedule has changed we go to another parish that is also very good. I know many people in different parts of Virginia and the country can't do this and they have to suffer through bad Masses or move. I  read comments from people who have gone the home alone route and they all seem came off as unhinged, (understandable-- faithful Catholics have been gas-lighted   by heretical clergy and the lay professional Catholics for decades), and distrustful of everyone. I've been dismayed by comments from home aloners who finally do get a chance go to a traditional Mass and find fault with everything-- the priest's hair wasn't neat enough, a woman had on short sleeves, the conversation over doughnuts and coffee after Mass was wordly and they conclude that staying home alone is better. This is a dangerous practice. You run the risk of turning into your own pope. You run the risk of turning into an irascible hermit and you might go down the road to being so  so personally  repulsive that anyone who meets you decides to never go to a traditional Mass. And of course, you're running the risk of going to Hell.

Saint Archbishop Sheen? Not So Fast, Please.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen's cause for canonization is underway and he is now a Venerable. Will he be canonized? Probably. Unlike  Paul VI or John XXIII there are actually many people who have been devoted to him for decades and who have been calling for canonization.  Should he be canonized? I'm not sure. When I was younger I would've said "yes," but after re-reading Sheen's works and accounts of his life I'm leaning towards "no." Does this shock you? I loved watching re-runs of archbishop Sheen's show and I was deeply moved by The World's First Love and his Life of Christ.  His 1967, book, however Footprints In A Darkened Forrest was a clunker. I first put it down to age and illness and maybe shell-shock from  his fight with Cardinal Spellman but his enthusiasm for  Fr. Teilhard de Chardin is disturbing:

  “It is very likely that within 50 years when all the trivial, verbose disputes about the meaning of Teilhard's ‘unfortunate’ vocabulary will have died away or have taken a secondary place, Teilhard will appear like John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila, as the spiritual genius of the twentieth century.” 

Archbishop Sheen thought that a man like Teilhard de Chardin was a saint. Teilhard either was taken for a fool or participated in one of the greatest scientific hoaxes in history.   He also spent more time digging up bones and talking about secular and occult matters rather than conferring the sacraments.  Archbishop Sheen's was taken in by this man and also thought that Gandhi was a saint. Well, Mrs. Gandhi, their sons and some of his nieces would probably beg to differ.  It doesn't affect his personal holines but it says something about the dear archbishop's discernment.

Now,to be fair, I have to point out that a saint can make a mistake.  The Church does not say that a saint has to be 100%  correct about things that are not essential to the Faith from soup to nuts. St. John Bosco veered into papalotry on occasion in his letters. St. Vincent Ferer thought  that an antipope was the real pope for a time. Canonization requires martyrdom and/or heroic virtue.   

Venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen was great in the film studio and was a fine writer.  According to the FBI, his personal habits were beyond reproach. That does not automatically make him worthy of canonization. The canonization process has been cheapened and it's an embarrassment to the Church. St. Josemaria Escriva and Pope St. Paul VI both had highly questionable pasts and are now canonized. This is a scandal to many people and enemies of the Church smirk over the stories of Paul VI's sex life.   Pope Francis is going to do as he pleases but the Church really needs to pull back and return to the intense rigorous process of canonization that we once had. 

Everyone in Heaven is a saint. Most saints have not been canonized. Their lives were hidden in the mists of antiquity or their heroism was known only to God or they did not have enough people working on their cause. Not every saint needs to be canonized. Allowing Fulton Sheen to remain a Venerable for a time or forever is no insult to him. St. Romuald, founder of the Camaldolese order waited over 500 years to be canonized. St. Martin de Pores died in 1639, and was not even beatified until 1837. St. John Fisher was martyred in 1535. He was not canonized until 1935!  There is no need to rush. There's no need to make a mistake that will blow up in the Church's face later. It has to be noted that there are people still living in Rochester who will tell you that the only thing the archbishop did there was to treat them like lab rats.  

If you don't want to get on the Sheen canonization now bandwagon just yet it doesn't mean you are a bad Catholic.  Look beyond the Archbishop's glamour and ask with honest curiosity and open heart if canonization in this case is really to the glory of Our Lord and the edification of His Church.

Our Lady of Good Help

let the hard rain fall

When then Cardinal McCarrick announced that he was going to retire to Mater Dei seminary I was shocked. Considering all the rumors about him it seemed hubristic and an open jab at anyone who was on to him. I remember wondering if anybody thought how bad it all looked. Now the word is out that Cardinal Wuerl is retiring to the John Paul II seminary.  They just don't care that we know.  It's going to break the hearts of many nice people but as long as the Blanches, Donna's and Queens of the Nile are in charge our only hope is that the Lord sends a hard rain of chastisement.

The Visitation

The Visitation

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON A MONDAY MORNING

Our Lady of the Angels, pray for us





• Louie smells a rat.  I think he's right. 

• If you encounter a person who says, "This is my truth," or "Only God can judge me," or "I want to change the world," you are probably in the presence of a narcissist or a flat out sociopath and are about to be cheated, lied to or worse. Run.

• It is Peter's Pence weekend. Complicit Clergy called for a for a boycott.  How did things go at your parish?

• For some reason every year at the start of Summer there seems to be a discussion in blogland and Twitter about annoying children at Mass. I think it has to do with the parents. At my old parish the parents were mostly upper middle class government employees, lawyers and and other professionals. Their kids did a lot screaming, running, kicking and banging. Our new parish has a mix of working class and middle class people and a racial mix. The kids are well behaved. As much as I loved St. Rita's I have to admit I never saw children act the way they did at the Mass we went to at any other parish we've ever visited.
  
  
• Sunday morning I woke up with a migraine and spent an unremembered amount of time with my hands over my face rocking back and forth. Sunday night I heard bubbling coming from the tub. I stood in the doorway and watched as my upstairs neighbor's toilet paper and waste came up into my tub and mercifully went back down. I wondered perhaps in shock what in all the Hells my neighbor has been eating and called maintenance. I told Rocky not to use the tub in the morning and went to bed. Monday morning at work looks fantastic to me.
  
  
  
• One of Rocky's brother Knights had a brain hemorrhage last night. In your charity please pray for him. 

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.

So how come nobody ever punched Uncle Ted in the nose?

I hesitate to write this because it will probably offend a lot of people but I have simply had enough of the sugar coating that has been going on concerning the latest clergy sex scandals. For years people have been gossiping about Monsignor Rossi, the rector of the Immaculate Conception basilica in DC   and male Catholic University students.  I am not defending Rossi. In fact, I'm horrified. If he made overtures to male students he should be removed as rector of the Basilica, public ministry, and returned to the lay state.  However, he has not been accused of slipping drugs into drinks or running a Turkish prison out of his office. He may have said " How bout it?" or "Do this or I'll make sure you lose your scholarship," but the grown and in the prime of his life  college student couldn't be forced into it.  We treat college students like boys and girls but they are not and if you've ever been in an emergency room  near a university on a weekend night you've probably seen what damage an angry college student can do using nothing but his fists.

In all the years he was preying on seminarians apparently nobody  has claimed to have seen  Theodore McCarrick coming to Mass with a black eye or having to make an emergency dental visit because he claimed to have been in an accident that caused him to lose a few teeth.  I don't think that any seminarian over the age of 18 who engaged in sex acts with that wizened, foul imp can claim legal rape and neither can any male college student who acquiesced to Rossi.  McCarrick and Archbishop Bransfield up in West Virginia are a gruesome twosome but we  obviously have another problem that nobody seems to be talking about.   Why did so many young men, seminarians, lay college students and young priests put up with all this? Is sex for recompense the way to get ahead in certain Catholic circles? Why are some young men golden boys in the clerical and professional lay Catholic ranks and others-- devout, smart, and liked and trusted by men,  relegated to the outer Mongolias of their dioceses?



Update:
For further information about Monsignor Rossi see this post at An Archdiocese of Washington Catholic blog.  I can't be shocked anymore but these things do make me sick.

Mass on a road trip

Rocky's nephew graduated this weekend so we went to Mass at St. Ignatius at Chapel Point.  The parish was founded in 1641 and I think is the oldest continuously used parish in the US.  The parish priest gave a very good homily. He taught what the catechism says about the Holy Trinity and discussed what the Church Fathers have said over the centuries. The parishioners are kind and very tolerant of tourists. Sitting in the old pews I couldn't help but think about all the people who have  walked up this aisle over the centuries. May they rest in peace and may they pray for me.

Adventures in ushering-- the modesty edtion

Some years ago when Rocky was ushering at our old parish he asked a lady and her two daughters if they wanted to take up the unconsecrated Hosts and wine. They agreed. The lady and her family had been parishioners for many years and the family were friendly with the pastor. They had taken the gifts up before without incident. This time,when they got up  everyone could see that the youngest girl who looks to be about 13, was wearing white lace shorts that barely covered her buttocks. Several people complained to Father after Mass.  Later a memo went out to all the ushers to make sure that the people asked to take up the gifts were decently dressed. Rocky was very unhappy that the ushers were expected to do what the parents should be doing and said so. He also pointed out that the girl was wearing a long sweater when he saw her in the pew that covered her to the knees. He had no idea that she'd take the sweater off and he certainly had no idea of what she wearing underneath. The only person at fault was the mother. The people who were upset with Father should have been in her face instead.

It's odd but if you talk to women about modesty they freak out and accuse you of wanting them to look like Afghan women. Nonsense.  God made us to look good to men. He did not make us to look like we are for sale. There is a huge line between see through lace shorts ---which served no legitimate purpose; the church was ice cold and if the girl was that hot she needed to be taken to the hospital---- and wearing a woman hating mobile prison.

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.

What's up with all the soft core porn on Catholic sites?

I used to read a political/cultural blog by a man who raised a lot Hell back in the 60s and 70s but repented . Why did I stop reading him? Because of the porn. He can have a beautiful post about goodness, kindness and the mercy of God and then in the very next post have  a photo of a semi naked woman. Lately even his posts about his prodigal years seem less like St. Augustine's confessions and more like "I know it was bad and I wish I hadn't done it but I sure had fun," semi-boasting.  Another Catholic Tumblr blog that I used to read had breathtakingly beautiful Catholic art but also had gauzy soft core photos and paintings of naked women.

What is the deal with these guys? Are they faking their Faith for kicks or are they trying too hard to show  that while they're devout they aren't girly? If it's the latter isn't anyone worried about this? I've seen many tiresome rants about Catholic men not participating in their parishes but why would they when many men look around see that the parish is only for women, little kids and Father Skippy? Nobody talks about it but it's gotten to the point where men seem to be ashamed of being devout and have to demonstrate in some way, albeit a crude one that they aren't like Fr. Skippy.

Don't make your money from writing or talking about the church

Whenever I meet a young lay person studying theology and complaining about how little they are going to make as a professor I always want to give them a good shake. In  America we are taught to follow our passion when it comes time to get a job but what if your passion simply will not support a family and a wife who is not interested in genteel poverty? I've seen Protestant preacher converts who were too old to start over with a career who glide into being Catholic apologists and I've seen cradle Catholic guys, (its' mostly guys) who have some talent at it, supplement their incomes with writing gigs at  Catholic media outlets. The writing gig can lead to a book and the lucrative speaking circuit and fans who hang on their every thought instead of consulting an actual priest. The trouble with this is the gravy train has to be fueled.

When you have a family and the rent/mortgage/tuition needs to be paid it's pretty hard to take a stand that could take food from your children's mouths or make your spouse very unhappy because the bill collector keeps calling. Dr. Peter Kwasniewski wrote a review on Amazon about Antonio Socci's book. Somebody didn't like it and he revised the review four times and each time was less positive a bout the book.  Pitiful.