Is the Church in America out of touch with working class people? I'd say yes.

I've just read an article in the Catholic Herald about how the Church in America doesn't seem to know or care about working class Americans anymore. I've thought that for years. In my diocese unless you belong to a parish that has a large Hispanic, Vietnamese or Korean population it's just about impossible to find a Sunday Mass after 4PM in the suburbs and of course those Masses are not in English.  People like my husband who do not live a 9 to 5, Monday through Friday life have to make a huge effort to get Mass in a lot of places. Check your parish for the times of the  Pre-Cana or the Baptism class and you'll find they're usually at times when a blue collar person has to take off from work.  Want to become Catholic? You may need to attend the Spanish OCIA or race over to the English OCIA without any time to change out of your work clothes or shower.

 It's not just working class people who have been saying they don't feel like their concerns are being taken seriously either.  I've seen comments from Americans that have fallen on hard times and who say they feel invisible at church. Years ago I read a very sad story in a secular magazine that interviewed a newly widowed woman who went from middle class to struggling overnight. After years of faithfully supporting the parish charities she felt terribly betrayed and humiliated by the cold reception she received from the ladies who ran the her church's food pantry. Although she saw people who appeared to be immigrants receiving  groceries with no questions about their legal status asked,  the pantry volunteers demanded that she provide proof of her neediness and wouldn't give her anything. When she sat in her pew during Mass and had to listen to her priest bang on about Americans being selfish if they weren't helping illegal immigrants she wanted to ask how he felt  about kindness to native born American parishioners. It sounded like her Faith was shaken. I hope the poor lady found another parish or at least got the chance to tell Fr. how the pantry was being run. 

Random thoughts on a sick day

• I was feverish all weekend and didn't start feeling better until around 10PM, Sunday night. It did give me time to conclude that I need to pray more so I can't say it was a wasted three day weekend.

• Pope Leo says remigration is not Christian response.  Ignoring all the victims of migrants/ illegal aliens isn't very Christian either. 
  
  
  
  
• Bishop Burbidge has invited the FSSP to the Arlington diocese. I should be excited  but I just can't muster up any enthusiasm. 
• 
  
  
  
  
  

This was beautiful

 It's been a long time since I've seen something like this video. It was inspiring and  the zeal of the missionaries filled me with respect.  

Are the bishops having a contest to see who can attack the devotion of the people the most?

Cardinal McElroy has banned the use of altar rails in the DC diocese. I expected no better and am waiting for the next thing to drop. 

Terrible news

 This morning I checked my email and read an appalling message about the pastor of the parish we attend. I immediately called the  parish's secretary to see if it was a legitimate communication and she confirmed that it was. I then Googled the priest's name and read a brief news article on the matter. An odd thing that happened last week at Mass makes sense now.  

Oh God, dear Father have mercy. If our pastor is innocent, may he be swiftly vindicated. If he is not, may justice, both secular and ecclesiastical be done. 

Random thoughts on a humid afternoon.

• I just read about some Catholic people who were conned by a  person who runs a purported charity.  It's very sad and I won't go into it except to offer a word of caution. Folks, when someone asks you for donations or investor money you can't just accept their pitch. If they are claiming to be a charity then you need to look up their Form 990. If they are a business then you need to go to the Secretary of State site for the state this person's entity is located in.  At the very least, do a Google search. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I noticed multiple people were wearing face masks at Mass. My first thought was "Not again!" I normally don't care if someone is masking or not as long as they don't try to force it on me but  the timing made me a little nervous. So many people were mentally crushed by Covid and never recovered. I hate to see people falling for Hantavirus and Ebola panic. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• When it comes making an argument for their position, the greatest enemy  Sedevacantists have is themselves. A few years ago a man posted a Tweet that I thought was  stupid but largely inoffensive. A sedevacantist-minded woman  replied by implying that the man's bedroom activity was unnatural and she got so scatological that I decided to mute her. Up until that day I enjoyed reading her comments but this was shocking and completely over the top. It was like dropping a bomb on a raccoon digging through the trash. 
  
  A few weeks ago a Sede insulted the appearance of a man's family member on multiple occasions. This had nothing to do with the belief that there has been no valid pope since the death of Pius XII and was completely uncalled for.  Where I come from, you don't talk bad about somebody's wife or their mama unless you're prepared  to lose blood in a fight.
  
  Just  a few days ago I read the comments of  a self proclaimed Sede who went off  on a guy for posting a weak theological opinion and called the man pedophile adjacent, ugly, Hell-bound  and said the guy had a sub-normal IQ. 
  
  There are a lot of people who have been looking around their parishes, and at the bishop and the stuff coming from  Pope Leo's mouth and they're are wondering what the Hell is going on. These people may or may not accept the Recognize and Resist  or the Benecantivist arguments  but they won't ever listen to anything the Sedes have to say because too many of the online adherents go for the jugular vein with a rusty razor  when a rhetorical slap would have done.  It's distasteful. Regular Pew Sitting Novus Ordo or Traditional Catholics aren't going to listen to you if you come off like a rabid dog.

Pope Leo's Gambit in West Virginia

•  Pope Leo is sending West Virginia a new bishop, a man who came to America by hiding in a car trunk.  After living here as an illegal alien he gained citizenship in 2006.  He  was ordained in 2004, by Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.  That  alone could potentially be a huge problem. We know that McCarrick was very fond of his Latin American seminarians. It' s not unfair to ask Bishop Menijar-Ayala if he  ever saw or heard of any unsavory behavior from the cardinal and how he chose to deal with it. 
  
  Some people are guessing that this curious appointment is a political move from Pope Leo. If so, it was a mistake.  People are going to be watching the new bishop very closely  for two reasons: the McCarrick connection and to see what comes out of his mouth. Should he decide to champion illegal aliens, it's going to get messy.