Paulie Pelosi probably isn't the only restless drone to a queen bee

Being a politician's husband is not easy or normal. Even if he's a successful, mature man it's faintly emasculating. Sometimes the husband files for divorce but usually he sticks around  with either a frozen smile or a sullen expression and an ever present full shot glass. At best he finds something else to fill his hours. If the woman politician is lucky the something else is running the family business back home or hanging with his buddies. If she isn't lucky  the something  else makes the local rumor mill and occasionally, the news. It's actually almost impressive that Nancy Pelosi's husband hasn't embarrassed her before this year.

On Fr. Jackson

I just listened to Ann Barnhardt discussing Fr. James Jackson on her podcast.  It's disturbing and I think at a few points she said things that should not have been said. I've largely ignored most of the commentary and gossip about the case because I just went straight to the docket, USA v. Jackson, docket number, 1:21-mj-00109, in the District of Rhode Island and read the indictment for myself. To the people who still think Fr. Jackson was set up I can only tell you that after reading what his parole officer had to say I'm thankful I didn't even consider donating to any fundraiser on his behalf. 

Fr. Jackson was staying in Kansas with a relative while awaiting trial when he was re-arrested for violating the terms of his parole. While it is possible that something could have been planted in the rectory back in Rhode Island, he did not live and work there alone after all; I don't see that happening in his safe harbor in Kansas. People's hearts will be broken by this when it goes to trial but don't lose your Faith over this. Judas will lead you away from Our Lord and straight to the company of those who scourged and mocked Him. Don't join them.
  

Random thoughts on a Friday night

•  I did not know this but I was aware that with the exception of the SSPX most of Catholicism's bishops failed during the Great Sick aka The Rona. It was mostly Protestants who fought in court. That is our shame. 
  
  
  
  
• I've been seeing some well-meaning and hopeful folks say to the DC attendees of the TLM that they should come to Virginia. When I remind people that the Diocese of Arlington is only permitting the traditional Mass for two years I'm told that a lot of things could happen in two years. True. When I press the person responds with a version of  "You know, Francis could die,". Well, unless a person is  on his deathbed it's not a good idea to count the sands in their  hourglass.   
  
  I remember my  family's insurance agent who gently chided fat customers and pointed to his own athletic lifestyle. When he died suddenly in the prime of his life I saw many of his fat and elderly customers, who all obviously outlived him at his wake. Francis could live another ten years and even then, unless we get a miracle, the next man up could be even worse. So, for all practical purposes the Arlington Diocese TLM is on borrowed time. People need to face that and start making contingency plans.
  
  
  
• Maureen Mullarkey is a smart woman.  I hope she's wrong about Shia LeBeouf. I hope I'm wrong but I think a lot of people are going to end up with egg on their faces. 
  
  
  
• We don't want to go to war. God have mercy. We are ruled by Orcs.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Our Lady of Good Help, pray for us. 
  
  
  

Youth Mass

Mass at the Arlington Cathedral was ....not great this week. Rocky and I knew something was up as soon as we hit the door. Most of the regulars who are seated when we usually arrive weren't there. The flower arrangement was noticeably restrained and more tasteful than usual and there were three extra chairs for priests. The tall microphone was at the bishop's chair so we guessed he was going to be the celebrant.  There were more candles than we normally have and the nicer Christmas and Easter tall candlesticks were out. The sacristans had on suits. The Youth Minister was flying around with a look of intense concentration and then I understood why when  I noticed the little red programs. "It's the youth Mass, " I whispered to Rocky. "How'd we miss it?" Was the answer.

 I sighed. The one week I didn't read the bulletin is the week with the Mass we try to avoid. The youth choir came in.  They were happy to see each other and their chatter and laughter was so loud  that a priest had to shush them. Instead of the scheduled  elderly lector, who apparently wasn't told this until she arrived;  a teenager did the readings. Instead of the usual cantor who is in his twenties, we got one who was younger and had  bright Joker green hair. 

The noise from the boisterous choir got bad again and I gave up trying to pray because even with closing my eyes and  whispering my prayers I couldn't concentrate. I wasn't the only one and I noticed that the few regulars who did come  were looking up at the choir loft with displeasure. This has nothing to  do with the age of the choir members. The children's choir are obviously much younger and somehow manage to behave far better. 

The bishop gave us a homily where he mentioned  the new immigration center in Woodbridge, Virginia and the lovely chat he had with two Afghan men who are being helped there. The choir was mostly very good but when they tried to pull off "Most Beautiful" as the Communion song it was embarrassing. 

The young attendees were invited to a reception downstairs  and I found it mildly amusing looking at the regulars with their puzzled or downright grim expressions as they went to their cars. As for me, I had a headache after Mass but Goody's headache powder, coke from McDonalds and a weiner schnitzel dinner at a new restaurant took care of it. 

Are we ruled by livin' men or monsters?

 

Life is so very beautiful. Last night Rocky and I sat and listened to the cicadas and looked up at the moon. Beautiful.  Last week I stood by a river in Southern Maryland admiring the birds and loving the smell of rain. Beautiful. How perverse that our leaders, who already have everything money can but still can't find joy in that;  seem determined to ruin and kill innocent people because they think it's worth it to create the world they want. Whether you trust Fr. Malachy Martin or not, I think his term "perfectly possessed," describes a lot of the men and women who are in charge. 

The song in this video is from the Twilight Zone episode "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge". Peyton Farquhar, has escaped from a hanging and near drowning and the stunned, exhausted man revels in the joy of being alive. His fierce love of life and his family gives him the strength to stagger 30 miles back to his home. He doesn't make it.

Two thoughts on a Saturday night

•  Actor Shia LeBeouf has converted. I'm not running around shouting hosanna because let's face it people, the man is an actor, and one who is promoting his new movie. He's also been a major flake in the past and this could be a phase or he could be harassed out of it.  Actor, Chris Pratt used to thrill the Evangelicals by claiming to be a devout Christian but he faced a lot of nastiness about it in Hollywood. In a recent statement he now claims that he's really not all that religious. Lionizing celebrity converts is not good for them or the foolish lionizers. If the fact that such and such notable person is Catholic is the thing that really makes you proud to be Catholic then you have a problem that could make you lose your Faith one terrible day. I hope that LeBeouf is genuine and remains in the Faith but it doesn't affect mine in any way, shape or form.  St. Genesius, patron saint of actors, please pray for Shia.
  
  
  
  
  
• On September 17th there is going to be a walking pilgrimage from the cathedral in Arlington, Virginia to the cathedral in DC. The pilgrims will be praying for a restoration of the traditional Mass. That's wonderful and I commend those who will be walking and praying but I really hope that plans are being made for helping people who don't drive get to Mass once the restrictions go into place.  I was born and raised in DC and there's no way I'd take a bus or the train to get the Franciscan monastery. The area you will need to travel through  gets rough and I'm putting that mildly. Things are better now but you can still get mugged or see some drug deals going down as you pass by. St. John the Evangelist is in Silver Spring and a lot of Silver Spring isn't all that nice. St. Dominic's mission is too far for most folks.  People who can't drive will need rides. 
  
  The situation in Virginia is better as far as the number of places that will be allowed to offer the TLM but in the long term it's all supposed to end in two years. Logistical and financial back-up plans need to be ironed out now. I hope somebody is thinking about this and I hope people are talking about getting together to pay for renting spaces for Mass which is what most folks had to do in the 70s and 80s to attend the TLM.

Random thoughts on a Saturday afternoon

 I read a Twitter comment from someone who wrote that traditional Catholics have nothing to fear as far losing the ability to go the traditional Mass in their own parishes if they are docile to their bishops and don't cause any trouble. After Chicago, Savannah, Fargo, DC and the Arlington diocese stories I had to laugh at that comment. I was tempted to  ask the guy if he was a Pod person or if he'd been born yesterday.  Either he was being a jerk or he really is that foolish. 

"The most evident mark of God’s anger and the most terrible castigation He can inflict upon the world are manifested when He permits His people to fall into the hands of clerics who are priests more in name than in deed, priests who practice the cruelty of ravening wolves rather than the charity and affection of devoted shepherds. Instead of nourishing those committed to their care, they rend and devour them brutally. Instead of leading their people to God, they drag Christian souls into hell in their train. Instead of being the salt of the earth and the light of the world, they are its innocuous poison and its murky darkness. St. Gregory the Great says that priests and pastors will stand condemned before God as the murderers of any souls lost through neglect or silence"…. Saint John Eudes 

Pray for us, St. John. 

• Don't send any nasty e-mail or angry letters to Bishop  Burbidge.   It probably just makes him feel righteous with pretentions of being a martyr. Instead wash your hands of the diocese and start thinking about where you are going to put your money and where and how you are going get to Mass. 
  
  
  
•  A few years ago I was listening to a podcast and the speaker presented a theory that was startling. What if the many of the German scientists who were rescued by the US at the end of WWII were lying about their research? That seemed farfetched and I almost dismissed it  until I actually gave it some thought.
  
  Imagine you're a German scientist in the last days of the war. You joined  the Nazi party because you truly believed or you just wanted to keep your job. Neither reason matters now because in a matter of weeks or days the Red Army is going to arrive and you don't want yourself or or any female you love to be around when that happens.
  
  Your best friend at the lab, Wilhelm has quietly told you that he's made contact with the OSS and tomorrow he and his family are going for an after dinner walk. They aren't coming back but will be picked up and flown to England. Wilhem has told his Allied contact about you and the Americans are interested enough to arrange a meeting. You have a chance to get yourself, your wife and her elderly parents out of Germany and to a new safe life, so what do you do? You tell that American the tallest, wildest tale you can possibly think of about your run-of-the-mill work.
  
  Some disgusting things happened in the 50s to the 70s because our leaders believed that the German scientists had made advances in things that mankind would have been better off not knowing about  and if we didn't get "there" first the Soviets would, based on what they were getting from the German scientist they snatched. This does not excuse America's leaders at the time but the idea that those terrible things may have been based in part on the lies told by  desperate men is almost too much too terrible think about because it sounds exactly like the sort of sly, vicious joke that the Devil would make. 
  
  
  
  
• Despite the horrors being visited on Nigerian Catholics  Francis, whom we know likes to talk, has nothing to say. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Psst. Don't let your daughter participate in gymnastics beyond the local level and never let them move to a gym. 

Vacation

 Rocky and I went to Pennsylvania for our vacation and took my mother with us. It was wonderful and I noticed something. The people were so normal. When I got back to Northern Virginia it was startling how many people walk about looking like they're attending a mad costume party. People deliberately pay a lot of money to look ugly and weird. And so many people seem angry or half a step from getting really nasty. It's so omnipresent that you don't notice it until you get away for  a few days. Once again, Rocky and I were reminded that when he retires we have to get out of here. 

We went to Mass at a Redemptorist parish.  The Mass was about as nice as the Novus Ordo can be and while the cantor got a little out of control and even cut the priest off, the people were very friendly. We needed to fulfill our Sunday obligation and it was okay.

Giving credit where it's due

 A few weeks ago, Fr. Z. said that something terrible was about to happen. Most people who commented on it seemed to think he sounded hysterical. I figured it was about the diocese of Chicago and didn't see how that was going to affect everyone and because I've been terribly disappointed in his judgment before,  I dismissed it as Fr. being overly dramatic again. Well, right after that warning, the DC Cardinal struck down the TLM to three places, the bishop of Savannah made his move and now my bishop has taken 21, traditional Masses and reduced them to 8, with only 3, being in an actual consecrated church. Who's next? I guess this is all part of a plan. It looks like Fr. Z. was on to something after all. 

My old parish is one of the 8, that has had a temporary stay but St. Francis DeSales in Benedict, Maryland will not be able to continue. Rocky and I drive from Virginia to Benedict every week because Mass there is so beautiful and the preaching is so sterling and unlike Northern Virginia, the people are not snooty.  We also enjoy the ride in the country. What a sad, cruel blow to the fine people who have worked and sacrificed to make that parish so dear. 

The hirlings care not for the sheep

 Cardinal Gregory has finally released his Traditional Latin Mass decree. The Mass will be reduced to only three places: the Franciscan Monastery, (I've read some statements from people saying the Mass won't be in the main church but only in the Blessed Sacrament chapel) , St. John the Evangelist in  Silver Spring, Maryland and St. Dominic's Mission in Baden, Maryland. 

Random thoughts on a Tuesday afternoon

• LARPing Catholics who pretend to be English lords and post ridiculous photos of themselves and their Disneyfied version of a castle home probably repel untold numbers of people who might have discovered a love for the traditional Mass.
  
  
  
  
  
• Before Rocky and I got married we were miserable when we were apart. Rocky's mother once told me that he  was so grouchy when he wasn't out with me that although she was not happy about our marriage she had to admit that once we were married he was all smiles again. I cannot imagine being forced to wait and take expensive marriage prep classes for a year before we could have been  married.
  
  
  
  
  
• I've always been somewhat lukewarm about FSSP and ICKSP because neither order has a parish or chapel near me and both serve at the whim of the local bishop. It looks like ICKSP will be effectively destroyed in Chicago starting August 1. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  My Jesus, mercy!
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random thoughts on a Sunday afternoon

• The Good Samaritan
  
  
  When Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan it must have been stunning to His listeners. The Samaritans were a despised people.  They were descended from the country folk who were left behind during the Babylonian captivity and because they had intermarried with pagans the Jews considered them to be apostates and worse. The Samaritans for their part, thought that their Jewish cousins had ingested too many Babylonian religious ways and weren't true Israelites anymore. The Jewish temple was in Jerusalem and the oft attacked Samaritan temple was on Mt.  Gerizim. 
  
  The road to Jericho was very dangerous. Robbery and murder was common and people didn't travel it alone. The priest and the Levite, the tribe from which priests came and who were charged with special temple duties passed the robbery victim by but a disgusting Samaritan   stopped, provided aid and spent a large sum of money to take care of him. Traditionally the Church teaches that the victim is mankind, foolishly going our own way and falling into sin which brutalizes our souls. The priest and Levite are the Old Law. The Good Samaritan is Our Lord and great cost of the rescue is Our Lord's Passion and Death. 
  
  
  
  
  
•  “Our Country won’t go on forever if we stay soft as we are now. There won’t be any AMERICA because some foreign soldiery will invade us and take our women and breed a hardier race!” – Chesty Puller

After WWII, German mystic, Therese Neuman was visited by many American soldiers. There is a story, and I'm not sure if it's true or not-- that one man asked her if America would ever be conquered  by an invading force. She responded for the sake of the kindness of the American people, this would never happen but America's fall would come from inside decay. Frankly, the decay has gotten so bad in certain places that millions of the very people who are cheering for it might be secretly relieved and would turn on a dime if  Puller's prediction were to come to pass. 

 God help us. 

• Americans have been taught for two hundred years to revere college professors and to see college graduates as superior--the best and  the brightest. That conditioning turned out to be disastrous. Some time around WWII, the universities were conquered. Academic rigor has been falling for decades and even the standards of the last fortress, STEM is falling. Now, every time some whack job with a PHD spouts off the media reports his or her comments with respect. For as long as I can remember, most folks seem to laugh and say that what goes on at the campuses has no bearing on real life but it does, like arsenic in the well water we all drink.
  
  Why do politicians and activists go to campuses to speak? Why do we simultaneously treat college students like kindergarteners while encouraging  them to enjoy four years of hedonism as long as they don't have any permanent damage? I've known parents who worked two jobs, mortgaged their homes, never went on vacation or bought a new vehicle until the old one couldn't be repaired anymore because they believed that Water Color Fine Arts degree was going to be their kid's golden ticket. Of course they made those sacrifices for love but have we all been sold a bill of doubtful quality goods? It's probably too late to reform higher education especially Catholic higher education which is hollowed out of any Faith and is just as faddish as secular schools but there are tiny spots of hope here and there. A few people are realizing that the student loan/obscene tuition game is rigged.
  
  
  
  
  
• Have you noticed that except for the Vegas man, mass shooters all seem to be disturbing to look at? The eyes are wrong somehow as if they're victims of fetal alcohol syndrome or terrible early childhood trauma. The expression either seems dead or final stage rabid. The bodies seem to be skinny to the point of emaciation. They are weirdly dressed in photos as if they desperately want to be gawked at or they appear to have slept in a dumpster. All of them seem to be displaying a warning in their appearance like poison frogs that they're dangerous and you'd best leave them alone. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Truth is beautiful. Even if it's hard to face. 
  
  
  
  
  

Love, loss, and forgiveness : Uncle Junior's Tale

 About 50 years ago my uncle Junior had a short but at the time, life-threatening illness. While he was recuperating  he learned that the teenager who lived a few houses over, frequently babysat his son while his wife worked her night job.  This was an unpleasant surprise to him. My uncle worked the night shift. His wife, a bank teller, most certainly did not. Junior remained calm but searched his home. He found love letters to his wife that were not from him. After his divorce, he and my grandmother did a fine job raising my cousin. 

Rudyard Kipling wrote a poem called "The Vampire" about a man who falls in love with the wrong woman. It includes the line," So some of him lived but the most of him died," and that describes Uncle Junior after his divorce. I do not  remember him ever smiling when I was young. I never even heard him speak his ex-wife's name until I was in my 30s. Hearing him laugh, joke and show zest for living is normal now but I'd say he didn't start coming back to life until my cousin was in college.

Junior's ex-wife went on to lead a tragic life. Her lover didn't  marry her. I guess he was just fooling around. Since she didn't have custody of her son, she was free to do as she pleased. She left town, traveled, had a career, "had it all" as the feminist's say but nothing ever seemed to satisfy.  She returned to her parents' home in her 50s seeking peace and rest. She became active in her family's church and even taught Bible Study. Now, her body is shutting down and the doctors say her next move  will be to hospice care. When my cousin told my uncle this he did something astounding. Junior went to the hospital to see her. He promised that when the time came he would sit by their son at her funeral and that is just what he did yesterday. I am in awe.

Sursam Corda

 

random thoughts on a Sunday afternoon.

•  Every week at the prayers of the Faithful  I hear "For the people of Ukraine facing tyranny..." but so far the liturgical committee has not noticed what's been going on in Nigeria where people are being slaughtered and kidnapped at Mass and priests have been murdered. Considering that this diocese has a large number of Nigerians this is odd and disappointing. 

• I've said it before and I will say it again. Have you noticed that nobody, not one rabbi, or Protestant preacher  has publicly offered to stand by Catholics as our churches are being attacked? The Mass was changed in part, to appeal to Protestants and there are Catholics who have spent their entire church careers for lack of a better term, working feverishly on Interfaith causes. We certainly are seeing the worthlessness of those efforts.  
  
  
  
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Spot the quisling

 A lot of people who we thought were pro-life actually aren't and were just giving lip service to the cause. They enjoyed getting paid for speeches and essays but in their hearts they were perfectly fine with Roe and the money it brought them. I've been very surprised by the tepid response from a number of priests and bishops. One professional Catholic hates President Trump so much that he can't bring himself to be happy. He's the worst of the bunch but most of the professional Catholics have not responded with joy. I hope people are taking note. 

Dobbs

 I am a  GenX baby, the last generation to be born before Roe v. Wade and I have lived to see Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. God be praised. All glory and honor to God. 

random thoughts on a Thursday morning

• This piece on Old St. Mary's in DC is interesting but left me a bit unsettled. My godmother, was one of those little old ladies who attended the Monday novena and one of my earliest memories is going to St. Mary's with her and looking up at the Pieta statue with awe. The author of the essay says everything was gray and depressing. I thought that old church was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. Old women like my godmother and the Chinese parishioners who kept the parish going deserved more respect than the essay gives. They weren't famous or rich but they had souls to save and they faithfully attended back when walking alone in Chinatown in the morning or night was dangerous. Cardinal Gregory, it's been whispered has turned a jaundiced eye towards the parish and in the end, it must might be those frumpy, uninteresting, old nobodies who save the parish again.
  
  
  
  
  
  

•  If you are a prepper it's time to go dark about it. If your family and friends haven't learned to plan for emergencies by now, they won't. 
  
  
  
  
  
• I have found that it's best to skip reading Fr. Z.  unless I want a pasta recipe because I just end up irritated and a little sad but I noticed on  Canon 212 that Fr. blasted Gloria TV for  reporting  a story about a confraternity that turned a  church in Rome into a dinning hall for a few hours in order to feed the needy. Father Z is in Rome eating and drinking and posting cute travel videos. Why he got upset with Gloria TV, which is not a minor Trad site , by the way, for noting while yes, we should and are commanded to care for the poor, reducing the house of God, which should be for His worship, to a feeding station is a mystery to me. My only guess is that Fr. feels this way  because the confraternity is affiliated with the FSSP and you're a bad Trad if you don't cheer for absolutely everything any FSSP priest does. I think that's baloney.  Also Rome apparently doesn't have any parish halls or civic centers the confraternity could have used to do this. Sure..... 
  I hope the Blessed Sacrament was removed for the event but neither Gloria TV nor Fr. Z. said so. 
  
  
  

Pentecost

 

Random thoughts on a Saturday afternoon

• Nigerian Christians are being terrorized and nobody seems to care. Priests and seminarians have been kidnapped and murdered. A church was attacked on Pentecost Sunday and the estimates are 50 or more people were slaughtered. Villages have been burnt, a young woman was lynched...Where is the Catholic media? 
  
  
  
• Is the new Obi Wan show so bad that Disney/Lucas Film is ginning up a faux controversy to fool people into watching it?
  
  
  
  
• Why are people so gleefully evil towards sedevaticantists? Is it the group-think need  to have someone on the outside to hate? I don't agree with them but they are Catholic and deserve civility. If you can plop yourself down to a seder at your parish or  say not a word of protest when your priest hands over your parish hall  to Muslims, while they build their mosque down the street then why NOT do the brotherhood of man song and dance in regards  to a Sede?
  
  Your archbishop has a woman's nick-name. There haven't been ten men ordained in one year for decades in your diocese.  You can't recall the last time you saw a real nun on the parish grounds, much less at Mass. The "Catholic" high school is celebrating sexual sin  and Confession is about 30 minutes once a week at your parish--if Fr. isn't busy Tweeting or doing his You Tube videogame review.  There's less than 50 people at Mass but you have two Eucharist Ministers.  The head of your RCIA program is loudly pro-abortion and not one thing will be done about it... Are things so wonderful that you can cheerfully damn a Sede on the Internet, whom you don't even know, to Hell for looking at all this and trying to find an answer? Would you ever even dream of treating  a Lutheran or Mormon the way I've seen Sedes talked to in Catholic social media?
  
  Are there annoying Sedes? Yes, but of course.  Some are downright obnoxious. Some have been driven mad and you just can't talk to them. There are also calm, erudite sedevaticantists who are able to make their argument with dignity and clarity. Again, I don't agree with them. If there hasn't been a pope since 1958, I don't see how we can ever have one again. The last cardinals made by Pius XII must be over 100 by now and may be in their dotage.  I can make that point without going, "Shut up you stupid, sub-human Sede and go to Hell." 
  
  
  
  
  
  St. Charles Lwanga, pray for us.