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.

The Figueiredo Report

Hospitality workers, secretaries and personal assistant's all  see  the private side of the people they work for and I was reminded of all this when I finished reading the Figueriedo Report.  Monsignor Anthony J. Figueiredo was then Cardinal McCarrick's secretary for many years. The correspondence shown therein shines a harsh light on Cardinal Wuerl's claim that he knew nothing about Cardinal McCarrick being told to get out of the Mater Dei seminary, stop making public appearances, diplomatic travel and turn to silent penance. Benedict's restrictions were weak and Uncle Ted defied them almost immediately but they did exist and were known about.

 

A Prayer against the Enemies of Christ

Eternal Father I offer Thee the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ and all the other instruments of His Holy Passion, that Thou mayest put division in the camp of Thine enemies; for as Thy Beloved Son has said, “A kingdom divided against itself shall fall.”

Well that was interesting and other random thoughts

St. Rita, patroness of impossible causes, pray for us

• I just read an article about my old parish, St. Rita's in 1P5. Normally I don't bother with Steve Skojec's site anymore but I was pleasantly surprised to see St. Rita's. Getting a glimpse of how someone else sees something you care about passionately is an interesting experience.. The author's view of St. Rita's and why things happened was pretty different from mine. He praises Fr. Scalia, who was the parochial vicar, and rightly so because he was pretty awesome (people wept when he announced that he was leaving to be a pastor at another parish), but the author failed to mention Fr. Donohue, the pastor during those years. Everything that Fr. Scalia did was made possible because Fr. Donohue allowed it and he ought to get some credit for that. I even remember Fr. Scalia giving a lecture series for Lent and at one point he said that being a parochial vicar was great because he had Fr. Donahue's backing for all his big ideas.
  
  Also, the number one reason why the music at St. Rita's is so good was not mentioned at all. Mr. Bowie the head of sacred music is not only a fine organist; he's also a very good judge of vocal talent. We never had screeching divas or lounge act tenors at St. Rita's. You had to be be able to sing complicated music. You had to work hard and you had to accept that the Mass is not about the lector and is not a Broadway musical. That was all on Mr. Bowie.The author also left out the reason why St. Rita's is so beautiful. Being in a not so great neighborhood with a  gang problem   heavy gang presence kept the busy bodies out of St. Rita's. So the church retains most of it's architectural beauty and the parish has been largely left alone.
  
  

•  Whenever someone cries poverty in one breath and then talks about their vacation   oh excuse me, pilgrimage to France I always want to laugh. C'mon we all know the plane tickets for the entire family were not free, nor was the hotel or the fabulous food or the trains in Europe. If you can afford to go to Rome and post the photos on your blog er.. lay apostolate, then you aint poor.
  
  
  
  
• I certainly don't want to defend  the odious Cardinal Wuerl but in all fairness there is no way to know if  he saying "I love you" in sign language to a woman in the pew, a man or a group of deaf people. I was not happy  that he was at Archbishop Wilton's installation  but we need to know who he was signing to before assuming that he's talking to a lover in public. 

• Some people are all upset about talk  of Martin Luther King Jr. being an adulterer. Except for the under 30 set, I have to ask, "Where have you people been? Do you not read? Did you grow up in the Twilight Zone?"  Dr. King's best friend the Reverend Ralph Abernathy wrote about the affairs and one night stands in his book''And the Walls Came Tumbling Down'. He wrote that on the last night of his life Dr. King was with two women and got into a shoving fight with a third. Abernathy was called a Judas and was shunned until his death. Georgia Davis Powers   wrote a memoir called I Shared the Dream, years ago. She said that she had a long intense relationship with MLK and was one of the women who was with him on his last night and would have gone with him to the hospital when he was shot had a quick thinking Andrew Young not stopped her. She was not ashamed and justified her behavior as nothing more than what millions of women would have done had they gotten the chance.
  
  The media ignored her book and those of us who read it knew better than to discuss it at work or school.  LBJ used to get a good laugh by playing the FBI tapes of MLK for visitors. JFK, interestingly enough heard them and was saddened. Jackie Kennedy privately told friends that MLK was no saint. It's said that the FBI even sent poor Coretta King a photo of her husband with another woman. In college, professors who did acknowledge that there were other women in Dr. King's life made excuses... he was under constant stress and never knew which day would be his last (true), women were constantly throwing themselves at him (very probably true), the FBI was constantly sending women to try to seduce him (possible) so he fell a couple of times (according to Ralph Abernathy it was more than a couple of times) and he and Coretta were not a love match and she understood that sacrifices had to be made for the greater good, (impossible to confirm as Mrs. King is dead).  None of what you may be reading is new.
  
  I come from a Baptist family. It is common for Baptist preachers to have affairs and as long as  he is discreet it is ignored. Complain and you'll be told, "Touch not, God's anointed," or that it's the pastor's wife's fault because she's not a good First Lady.  A family or two may be upset and leave for another church but nobody cares. A group of families may leave to form another church over it but that's happened so many times before that most churches know how to weather the financial storm until membership stabilizes again. 

Santa Evita? Seriously?

• If Eva Peron's cause for beatification, much less canonization EVER gets opened and taken seriously by the Vatican it will be one of the most ridiculous, indefensible spectacles to ever befall the Church. 

• A number of people are sad about Fr. Jonathan Morris leaving the priesthood because it's too hard and he'd like to get married.  My first reaction was to ask why is the Legionare  order still in existence? As for Fr. Morris personally, I think that he will discover that his girlfriend, if he already has one may have the attributes  that males look for in a mistress  but   those same attributes make for a  poor wife. The girlfriend--if she exists may very well discover one day that if she can pull a priest away from God then there's no reason to think that another woman can't do the same to her.
  
  
• Game of Thrones is finally over and  it was very quiet in my office this morning. I'm so relieved. 

St. John of  Nepomuk, faithful priest and martyr, pray for us. 

Entrappment

I think this California law is going to lead to entrapment. Sooner or later an FBI agent or  cop is going to go into a confessional and lie to a priest and then arrest him for not breaking the seal of the confessional.