A ghostly tale for Halloween

 Years ago when I was still in high school I read a collection of ghost stories called "Haunted Heartland." Most of them weren't a bit scary and were presented in  the dry  businesslike fashion of a folklorist who is merely collecting materials for a dissertation, but one tale stuck with me. It was the story of Fr. Louis Lesches, a priest assigned to St. Mary's College in Minnesota, who tried to kill his superior, Bishop Patrick Hefron. The bishop was saying Mass in the seminary chapel one morning when he turned around and saw Fr. Lesches standing behind him. To the bishop's surprise, the priest was wearing a Prince Albert suit instead of his cassock or clericals. To add to this surprise the bishop quickly realized that  the priest was packing heat. Fr. Lesches fired a gun three times, hitting the bishop twice.

At that time Fr. Lesches was already the number one problem child of the diocese. Although he was said to be brilliant and had done well in the academic part of his seminary studies, he was judged to be overly emotional, and  insubordinate. He'd failed at all of his parish assignments and now the concerned and probably a bit exasperated bishop had recalled him to St. Mary's to keep a close eye on him.  Fr. Lesches became convinced that the bishop was persecuting him. 

 Bishop Heffron's  great physical and mental toughness probably saved his life.  Instead of dropping dead, hiding in the pews, or swooning, he yelled at his now panicked attacker and chased him out of the chapel. Fr. Lesches was later captured by the police and spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital.

 Students have been claiming to see the ghost of Fr. Lesches on campus for decades. It's a spooky tale but I hope everyone who hears or reads it will stop and say a prayer for this poor, strange, unstable man who never should've been ordained but is a priest forever and one who probably really needs our help now. 

Random thoughts on a Friday morning

•  I think somebody told poor Cardinal Burke that there were videos purporting to be of him denouncing Pope Leo and he panicked.   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I think Will Knowland has missed something in his analysis.   If a man is hooked on, oh say, anime porn or any of the more unspeakable forms of visual carnality, no living woman can compete with that. His wife may be dutiful, but she does not have four foot long blue hair that levitates, a bosom that defies gravity and the limits of  human bone and musculature  or a 15 inch waist. 
  
  I know a woman who has 8 children. She's divorced. To put it delicately, she and her husband were clearly doing what it takes to beget and bear issue within their  marriage but it wasn't enough to keep the marriage in tact.
  
   Is a wife to blame for a pornography addiction that began when her husband was a boy? Is she any more responsible for his sin than the woman who found herself married to a man who chose her in hopes that she would magically change him?  Mr. Knowland, may not recall this part of the Bible, but when Adam tried to weasel out of trouble by going, "God, it was that Woman, You sent me that made me sin," Our Father had none of it. Eve was justly punished for her own sin but Adam had to face up to his as well.
  
  
  
  
  
•  Henry VIII left the Church in order to marry his mistress. 500 years later Charles III comes to the Vatican with his concubine to pray with the pope. History with all its tragedy and farce is amazing.
  
   St. Margaret Clitheroe pray for us.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• If you're Gen X, pat yourself on the back. You survived the Satanic Panic, the Backmasking on records obsession , the D&D suspicions, the Everybody is Going to Get AIDS hysteria, the Swine Flu and Legionnaire's scare, Acid Rain, Killer Bees, the Computers Are Going to Destroy US,  and the Nuclear Power Is Gonna Kill Us All fears. 
  Brothers and Sisters, if you've ever had to talk a member of the elder or younger generations down because they're freaked out over something they saw on CNN, I salute you. 

You need to read this

•  Chris Jackson is on fire.  I've been enjoying his crisp, unflinching writing  and I have learned much from reading his Substack.  To my knowlege, he is the only one who really dug into the unpleasant details behind one the most recent papal blunders.   On October 11, Pope Leo gave a public address lavishly praising the late Fr. Lorenzo Milani.  He was following in the footsteps of his predecessor. Back in June, 2017, Pope Francis visited Fr. Milani's grave and called him a role model for priests. Who was Fr. Milani? Chris Jackson answers that question and it's really bad. 
  
  If you read up on Fr. Milani, I suggest that you have an Alka Seltzer packet near by and remove any children who might be reading over your shoulder from the room.  I don't think I can be shocked by anything Vatican related anymore but I certainly can be disgusted and I definitely was when I read the quotes from Fr. Milani's own writings.
  
  In recent days I have  read people's defenses of Pope Leo saying that since Milani has been dead for 58 years, Leo didn't know about his private life and was praising his public ministry.   
  
  Phooey!
  
  When my bosses go out to make speeches they have me do research and send them a thorough background report on their  topic so they don't make fools of themselves. You can't tell me there was not even  ONE librarian in the entire Vatican who could have looked up Fr. Milani's putrid writings and sent a bunch of PDF attachments to Leo's assistant. Either the Vatican research staff is incompetent and failed to  let Leo XIV,  know that he'd be praising a vicious minded, nasty old communist who longed to prey on boys or that part of history was ignored by the very personage who gave the public address. The people who are still making excuses  will probably be the same ones making pitiful  excuses five years from now. 
 

Depo Provera- no birth, no control and apparently, cancer

I  read yesterday that over 1,000 women are suing Pfizer. Their complaint is that Depo Provera, which has been around since 1954, and was approved for use in the US in 1992, caused their brain cancers.  On Twitter the comments, particularly from young men, were not kind. It's true that dosing with chemicals to shut down your  reproductive system is dangerous. I'm sure that privately many of those women wish now that they had chosen either the baby who might be their comfort now or shown self control but guys, Depo wasn't just marketed towards  feminist Western middle class married and single women. In 1967, it was tested on poor black women in the South. These women weren't able to give informed consent because  they weren't honestly told what the shot could do and since the company "lost" over 90% of the patient medical records we don't even know how many deaths and side effects there were. For all we know, a few of the women who are suing might be in their 80s  and from that original cohort of test subjects.  In the Third World it was tested on Kenyan, Thai and Mexican women. It's still pushed heavily to African women.

I remember hearing a friend tell me approvingly, that one of her friends, who worked in the foster care system,  planned to start her teenaged foster child on DP because the kid was flirtatious with grown men and pregnancy was inevitable unless something was done.  Was that really true or was it just what the foster mother was saying? I'll never know. I just hope that poor kid is okay today, wherever she is. 

Depo Provera has always reminded me of Norplant, which was first developed in 1966, by scientists working for an outfit called the Population Council. The name alone should cause raised eyebrows. Norplant was tested on Chilean women and pushed heavily towards poor black teenagers and women on welfare. In Baltimore, girls could get Norplant at school, and without parental consent. I can still recall my shock and suspicion when it was announced that Norplant would be offered to girls in one high school located in the poorest section of my home town of DC. Eventually 50,000 women sued and Norplant is no longer available in the United States. Wyeth, the manufacturer of Norplant never lost a single lawsuit but it sure paid out a lot of out of court settlements.

 In the case of DP, many foolish, selfish women took the shot and many young girls were pressured/encouraged into mortal sin by authority figures telling them DP was "for their own protection," and now apparently many are suffering. Perhaps we are witnessing the beginning of the end of DP being sold in America. We'll see how the class action suit goes. Lord, have mercy!

Cardinal Burke is not that guy....sorry

 Lately I have seen a number of posts and essays expressing disappointment in Cardinal Burke. He's a nice man but he's not coming to save traditional Catholics.  I'm not doubting his piety in any way, but he's timid. Maybe he always was. Maybe, the only reason he was able to get the nerve to put forth the Dubia was because the other cardinals were standing with him.  On top of that, his judgment isn't always the greatest. Remember all those rumors about him backing a nun who turned out to be a man?  When I first heard that story I thought it had to be a lie... and then it turned out to be true and incredibly embarrassing. 

When Pope Francis mocked him as he lay sick in the hospital and later threatened to throw him out of his retirement apartment in Rome, that seems to have terrified the poor man.  Although I was certain that American Catholics, if no-one else, would not have allowed him to be put out on the street and later heard Anne Barnhardt report that people immediately told the cardinal that his rent would be covered by them for the rest of his life, he reacted with even greater tremulousness than before.

 I'm not being mean when I say that I don't think he's made of the same stuff as St. John Fisher or St. Athanasius. I'm not mad at him. He's old and some old men become fearful in their great age. I had a relative who in the last decade of his life became a hoarder and reclusive, only going out when he had to because he was unable to cope with age, sickness and a the loss of control over his family. It should also be remembered that many priests all over the world, much younger than Cardinal Burke admit that they feel as though they've endured PTSD under the reign of Francis. 

Sure, I'd like the cardinal to stand up and start preaching like a lion but he's not that guy. He's not coming to save  the Faith as practiced by traditional Catholics.  Burke will get a Mass at St. Peter's in October. It will be lovely. Trad Inc. will trot out that, "We're back," nonsense and Michael Matt, bless his heart will get all red in the face and sweaty while bellowing, "Unite the clans!". Soon afterwards Fr. Martin will either get another visit to the Vatican or there will be another  event for those who are living in sexual sin. 

Random thoughts on a rainy night

•  I'll say it again. Some man needs to talk to Timothy Gordon. He's not going to listen to any woman. What he's talking about never existed in the West.  Peasant women, whether they were working in the fields or as domestic servants were not hidden at home, never venturing into the village or stepping outside unless they were escorted by a husband or male relative. Gordon is talking like he wants us to live in Saudi Arabia. Good grief.
  
  
  
  
  
• To all the Catholic e-girl "influencers"...Could you stop with the "Mass fit" posts? I'm 58, and have been dressing myself for some considerable time and am unimpressed with your poor imitation of model poses. Even if you have a veil on your head nobody needs to see you doing the lip pout, hip thrust  and the cleavage boost lean. It looks silly, cheap and attention seeking and doesn't appear to have anything to do with worshiping God. You aren't helping anyone and you make young Catholic women seem vapid.
  
  
  
  
• Rocky and I went to Deep Creek, Maryland for the Labor Day weekend. It was beautiful. The mountain scenery was just stunning. We went to the only Catholic church in the area for Sunday Mass. Obviously, the parishioners are used to visitors and were very friendly. The homily and music was....well, straight out of 1973, but these people were so sincere and gentle, Rocky and I just had to shrug and pray. Would we go back? Absolutely. We intend to visit Deep Creek again  and since we won't miss Mass we'll be at St. Peters on the Lake. 
  
  
  
  
• Know this:  From kindergarten to college, your children are probably being taught by a person who is going to try to teach them values totally opposite to yours. 

Dreadful days

•  Yesterday was a dreadful day. I saw the photos of that poor, poor girl, Iryna Zarutska after she was attacked and  was sickened. My throat felt as if something snapped inside and crumbled to dust. I grew up in DC and I know public transportation can be dangerous. From my childhood I was trained to scan for possible threats and to get off the bus or train if I realize that a potential threat is too close to me. Seeing that tiny young woman with no chance at all be cut down reminded me of every wise thing my parents and neighbors ever told me about my personal safety.
  
   Some hours later I saw that Charlie Kirk was murdered. I was never a fan of his. I'm too old for his audience group but I knew who he was, and you don't have to be a fan to be disgusted at cold blooded murder. 
  
  We live in a country where crazy people and evil people are allowed to be on the streets and our elected officials just shrug when someone is slaughtered. We live in a country where a media personality  who wrote and talked for a living was killed for his point of view. If we've gotten to the point where we can't even express our political and/or cultural ideas without bloodshed then the next step is brutish violence on a grand scale.  God help us. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Today is 9/11. I remember waking up on September 12, and thinking that I'd had the most horrible dream and then the announcer on my favorite radio station spoke. He simply said that  the day before was not a nightmare, and then he played this: