Hey US Bishops, Could You Spare a Thought for the US?

 The United States Conference of Catholic Bishop's had their  Baltimore meeting and among other things, they  voted 216–5 to condemn our country for deporting illegal aliens.   As soon as I read about it, I remembered two stories from the past. 

The first was from  a young priest who lived in one of the worst parts of Mexico. He  wrote about  four young thugs who ran afoul of their gang for beating and robbing a man who was already paying the gang protection money. They acted without permission and presumably took profits for themselves. The punishment was supposed to be execution, but due to the priest's pleading it was reduced to exile. They were told to get out of Mexico and crossed the Rio Grande that night. It's a dramatic story and the priest's sympathy was for the young men, but I have wondered what happened next. Did those violent men throw themselves at the foot of the Holy Cross and go straight, or are they now victimizing Americans?  

Here's another story for the bishops. One weekend afternoon,  a former co-worker of mine went jogging in a park that was close to her neighborhood.  At some point she realized that she was being closely followed by two men in a truck. She ran faster and they picked up speed. Finally, she came to  a side trail that had two steel bollards that may have saved her life. The driver couldn't follow her without damaging his vehicle and both men, who appeared to be from some country in Latin America, were either two lazy to pursue her  or simply realized that this  American woman was not going to be an easy victim,  chose to let her go.  She ran for her life on that trail until she made it to the parking lot. From there she ran home. If my old co-worker hadn't been fast, what would have happened to her? 

The USCCB  wrote about a "climate of fear", but ignore the fear American women and girls have had to live under for too long. We've gotten to the point where going for a walk or going to the gas station could lead to rape and murder and our bishops just blow off as if we are nothing. 

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. 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 teen aged 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:

Okay, so the benefit of the doubt stage is officially over....

 Pope Leo has been on St. Peter's throne for more than 100 days and nobody has been fired.  Instead we got this:

and then we got this:

Our Lady of LaSalette, pray for us.

St. Paul, pray for us.

St. Peter Damian, pray for us.

St. Charles Lwanga, pray for us.

Venerable Emil Kapaun, pray for us.

Fr. Vincent Capodanno, pray for us.

Thanks Frank

 Thank you, Frank Walker, a true Catholic gentleman.

The Rise of Lila Rose is not a good sign

 Lila Rose shamed herself and her husband and behaved very badly by rhapsodizing about Fr. Mike Schmidt's physical attributes on her August 8, podcast. First off, I will acknowledge that yes, after decades of watching  incredibly feminine acting Fr. Skippys prancing around far too many parishes, it is a blessed relief to meet a priest who comes off as a normal man. Full Stop. Say no more. Ogling a priest and speaking boldly about his good looks and body is in my mind, the same as picking up the chalice that holds the Precious Blood and filling it up with Coca Cola for a quick drink and a sick thrill. I believe looking lustfully at a priest is a sin. For a married woman to publicly admire the handsome priest and tell the world about her husband's " amazing (sexual) self control,"  is shameful and shows a shallow, worldly mindset. I'll bet you that even some of her husband's friends blanched at that and snickered privately. We will never know it but he's probably been mocked to his face by now by at least one buddy. Ladies, for the love of God let's remember what Proverbs 11:22 says, "Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion". 

That's all I have to say. Chris Jackson on his substack says it much  better than I ever could.  

vacation and other random thoughts

•  Rocky, my mother and I went on vacation last week and it was great. For Mass we went to a pleasant parish. The priest and deacon were lovely. The people were friendly. I was struck by one thing  while sitting in the pew. The Novus Ordo is a different experience at every parish. At this parish they did something that I've never seen before. They weren't particularly offensive, certainly nothing as bad as I've seen in my own diocese but the bizarreness of anyone objecting to the TLM seemed even weirder to me. If every parish does it's own thing why not let traditional Catholics have the traditional Mass? If we have the Mariachi Mass, the 1970s Mass, the Autistic friendly Mass or the Gospel music Mass why not a TLM? If the priest can do a joke monologue or warble a depressing Leonard Cohen song they why can't we have a sequence in Latin? It just seems like obvious mindless malice on the part of the bishops. 
   
  
  
  
  
  
• We killed a bunch of Spotted Lantern flies on vacation. They're so interesting looking it's a pity they are a such a pest. Their legs are ridiculously long and thick by insect standards and their heads are so tiny you can't see them if you're looking at them from the side. Their flight is not graceful, they are almost as unconcerned about their personal safety as cicadas and the gravid females are easy to step on. They do have very pretty wings. Sometimes they appear gray and red and sometimes more of a salmon pink and gray. 
  
  
  
  
  
• In the 1920s Sr. Lucia of Fatima was quoted as saying with sadness that another world war was coming, millions of people would die and that most of them were going to Hell. While it's true the 20s was a very wicked time, can you imagine how much worse common people are now? It's an incredibly sobering thought. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• While we were on vacation I avoided the news and stayed off of Twitter. I did check Instagram when we got back to the cottage each night. My cousin's granddaughter (!) is on Instagram. I won't say her name of course but you're going to see her at the Olympics one day. She's in the running for Youth Athlete of the Year. After looking at her photos and video I sometimes read comments and it's pretty clear to me that the future is not bright for the world. So many people seem to be disintegrating  into idiocy. They can't read, they can't think and they can't express themselves in any way  beyond that of a dull witted, feral child. 
  
  
  
  
• This is going to piss off a lot of people but I'm saying it anyway. I don't think most Americans have any idea of Japan's geography. It's a country of  14,125 islands of which 260 are inhabited full time. If Hiroshima and Nagasaki hadn't happened US soldiers would have had to go to each and every Japanese island and kill men, women and children, not just soldiers. It would have been a blood bath and would not have been over quickly. The bombs allowed Japan to surrender with their honor intact. They could say to themselves that they didn't lack fight or courage. They were simply up against something inhuman and listening to their emperor when he said stand down was the only option. The bombs also got Japan off the eternal hook. Hollywood churns out a WWII movie every year and the evil German is a classic trope. When was the last time you saw a movie about what the Japanese did to their POWs?  Have you ever even heard of  Unit 731? Out of all the victims who were tortured there, not a single person is known to have survived.  Outside of Korea, nobody even talks about Japanese WWII atrocities. I'll bet you on Pearl Harbor day Japanese social media isn't full of comments like, "Y'know what was a really bad idea? Pearl Harbor!  That turned out to be a disaster for us!"
  
   I wish that there could have been another way to end the Pacific War other than employing Fat Man and Little Boy but it happened. Does the obsessive display of apologizing for winning the war  really do anything constructive?
  
  Eternal rest to all the lost in Nagasaki and Hiroshima and may all the Catholic martyrs pray for us. 
  
  
  
  
  
• A lot of people are shocked that the Cynthia Erivo was hired to play Our Lord in the blasphemous musical, Jesus Christ Superstar. Her casting was intended to shock and offend but the musical itself is something Christians should flee in disgust from, no matter who is in the cast. 
  
  
  
  
• Years ago I thought that canonizing Cardinal Newman was a bad idea.   I have a feeling that it was a weapon and a trap and would lead to some messy stuff. 
  
  
  
  
  
• Sorry Santa Fe. Your bishop knows that you know and doesn't care, and Pope Leo probably isn't going to do anything about it. 

On hazing and other random thoughts

•  I read about the weird hazing (at best), incident at St. John Vianney Seminary in Denver, Colorado and it's very disturbing. I've seen reactions to it that say, it's no big deal and men need stuff like this. Really? Hazing is a humiliation ritual that typically involves emotional or physical pain.  I know of one man who is in his 60s now but still becomes upset when he talks about the hazing he received at the hands of his hockey teammates, which ended with him going to the hospital.  Every now and then, year after year a victim dies and it makes the news.  There is almost always an element of occultism, and frequently has at least a hint of homo-eroticism.
  
  I know I'm not a man, thank God and I can't fully understand male bonding but do you really think playing with knives, blood, covering the mouths of seminarians, and taking them into a room with a dude dressed in a Yeti costume is the way to make boys into men? Fr. Nepil, who organized this whole thing  was the Vice Rector of the seminary and says the "prank," was ill conceived and a mistake but not hazing, which is illegal in Colorado..  Out of the 15 young men who were "pranked", only one refused to play along. He contacted the police and he--not Fr. Nepil,  was the one  told to take a year off from the seminary. Why?
  
  If St. John Vianney were to walk into this seminary he'd give everyone involved a good smack. As for the seminarians, it's frightening that only one young man said no. I would not want any of the 14 who apparently were "good sports" and went along with Fr. Nepil's little "joke," to be my priest. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Some man, somebody devout, erudite, happily married with many children please talk to Tim Gordon. He's gone from being interesting but incredibly callow to nuts. The boy is half a step from advocating Catholic purdah.   
  
  
  
• I don't think the average Catholic has any idea how much Evangelicals hate us. 
  
  

So they got John Henry

 

I haven't cared for John Henry Westen since he posted that weird video of his sick daughter. I rarely read LifeSite but it was shocking that the man could be ousted by the board of the organization he founded. If that wasn't enough, LifeSite flunkies are now turning on him publicly as Chris Jackson discusses on his Substack.

Uncle Junior

 My uncle, Junior,  my mother's only surviving brother, fainted on Sunday. He was dehydrated and malnourished. He has such a fear of getting fat that he only eats one meal a day and doesn't fully digest that. He has a stocked pantry and fridge. This is not a matter of money. He worked had and was shrewd so he has an excellent finances. My mother, his son and cousins have all given him a talking to and he's promised to eat but....he has an eating disorder that I suspect is a form of bulimia,  and I don't know what to do.  None of us do. Please pray for him. 

The West is a Sick Place

 Look at this face.

Now read this  and this  and NEVER consent or approve or give the slightest encouragement to this situation again. Sure, it may cause you social ostracism  but at least you'll have a clean conscience. Every  social worker, judge, neighbor, boss, or co-worker who gave legal consent or just were so gutless that they voiced approval when this innocent baby was handed over to monsters  has his  blood on their hands.

The West is sick.  Are we any better than Carthage or the Moloch worshipers or ancient Rome with it's unwanted infant exposure to the elements?  Our judicial system hands children to abusers and pretends to be shocked when the inevitable happens. 

Trads, it's time to face facts

 I think it's long past time for traditional minded Catholics to face three facts. First, no matter how much you grovel and plead, if you go to a diocesan traditional Latin Mass you are living on borrowed time.

 Second, while you still have that Mass it is an act of utter folly to spend money on restoration projects. Yes, fix the roof if there's danger, and get  the boiler tended to but don't go beyond maintenance. Two times now I've seen good people  take a run down church and lovingly restore it only to have a Cardinal, in one case, and a bishop in the other decide that they aren't allowed to have the TLM anymore. Essentially, these dear folks spent their time and treasure fattening frogs for snakes. 

The third fact, may hurt the most. Your Novus Ordo attending acquaintances and family, be they wild liberals or do nothing conservatives will mock you in your grief at losing the Mass and the community you found at the TLM. They will also tell you to be silent.

Even if you have a benign bishop, and you can go to the TLM daily, he will retire or die one day and the next man up could gut you. Don't despair and don't become bitter. Talk to your spouse and friends about the worst case scenario now. If you were planning on moving across multiple states to be near a particular parish you might want to hold off and watch how the winds are blowing. You should take a road trip and see how far you can reasonably travel to get to Mass. You may have to content yourself to traveling to the TLM once or twice a year and going to the best Novus Ordo you can find for the rest of the time. This is what Rocky and I are doing and no, I'm not satisfied with it but it is the best we can do right now.

 Admittedly this is going to be hard or impossible for people with small children at home  or  for those who can't drive anymore. While none of this is a fun mental exercise, it will keep you from being blindsided when one day your priest announces that the bishop is forbidding the TLM to be celebrated anymore.  Like Our Lord, set your face like flint and go forward. 

Random thoughts on a humid Sunday afternoon

• Some very bad storms swept though my area this weekend and we lost power from Friday evening to Sunday morning. When the power did come back Rocky and I both woke up and I sang a verse from "Witchita Lineman". The freezer thermometer read 40 degrees and the fridge thermometer showed it was in  the danger zone. I had throw everything out. Modern life is very fragile. 
  
  
  
•  I am very cautious about Leo XIV. He's not Francis, I mean he's polite, dresses like the pope and I'm sure he won't be smacking women in public but c'mon, you know the pope is more than optics. Time will tell if he's going to be okay. What will he actually teach? Will he get laicize Rupnik? Will he make an effort to get the bishops in Germany to act remotely Catholic?  I don't blame anybody who's wary and I don't take the hosanas from the Trad Inc. folks seriously either. 

• The Vatican is reportedly in bad financial shape. I read one report that claimed donations were down by 50%. Since most of the money comes from American Catholics, this means that even the Catholic who just comes to Mass on Sunday and not much else, even these folks were sick of the Francis show and ignored the usher when the Peter's Pence collection was being taken up. Possibly, Leo XIV, a middle of the road company man technically from America will be just the ticket for getting the coffers filled again.
  
  
  
  
• Speaking of money, after Sunday Mass, a member of the Finance Committee made a speech. She came to the point quickly, thank goodness. Unless offerings increase cuts are going to have to be made. A lot of people did not come back to the parish after Covid. You can insult them by calling them  lazy and weak but they were coming to Mass before and after being told that their spiritual lives would be just fine without Mass, I guess they believed it. Those live streamed Masses just didn't cut it. I remember feeling abandoned when my plea for a written religious exemption from the vaccine was ignored. How do all the people who had to watch their loved ones die with no priest to offer to  Last Rites feel? Every time I hear a member of the clergy or a parish official chide, however gently the people who didn't come back I feel myself becoming furious. 
  
  
  
  
• I try to buy from small Catholic businesses but some business owners don't make it easy. A while ago I bought a veil that, when I received it, did not look like what I ordered. The customer service was so bad it was insulting. I won't buy from that woman ever again. Two weeks ago, I bought a rosary and what I got was a disappointment. Whoever made it strung all the beads closely together with nothing to distinguish the Pater Noster beads from the Ave beads so if you pray in bed with the lights off you can't tell where the decade ends unless you were keeping count. Instead of metal the crucifix is very cheap and plastic. When I answered their survey and said that no, I'm not thrilled with their product and sent photos, they offered me no refund but did say I'd get 20% off my next purchase. No thanks. I think I would have done better if I'd purchased from a secular company that gets rosaries from China. 

Habemus Papam

 Okay, white smoke just came out of the chimney. I remember sitting at work when Benedict was elected and letting out a cheer. Now I actually feel my stomach clinch. I don't have any great expectations. I just pray, Dear God let this man be actually Catholic. 

................And it's Cardinal Prevost, Leo XIV. If it's true that Fr. James Martin was rooting for him then we are cooked.

Francis is no longer in control

 I woke up this morning planning to write about the Easter Vigil Mass at some point today. That plan went out the proverbial window as soon as  I picked up my phone and saw a RIP Pope Francis notice on Instagram. I didn't believe it  because it was  from an up and coming Catholic "influencer," whom I consider to be sweet and enthusiastic but gullible. My first thought was, "Not this crap again. Cool it with the fake reports." Then I saw a post from EWTN  and realized the story was true. To my surprise,  I felt...nothing. Not sorrow, like when Pope John Paul II, died, not pity as I did when poor Benedict died and certainly not satisfaction.  There was simply nothing. Later I checked Twitter and was revolted by some of the gooey, sniveling posts, including a horrible AI rendering of Francis being held in the arms of Our Lady. I decided that in the the coming days since I have nothing nice to say I'd restrict my remarks to vague platitudes and that's what I'll do with the folks at work. 

 Jorge Bergoglio is dead. Many are sad. Many are relieved but none that is what matters now. What matters is eternity. We all die and have to face God and give account of ourselves. There's no weasel room. There's not arguing your case. They'll be no  appeals to a higher court. On the day of our particular judgment we get exactly what's coming to us.  That is a truly terrifying and awesome thought. 

One more thing,  Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell is the camerlego. Theodore McCarrick's roommate of five years is running the Church until there's a new pope. As I've said before, the death of one man is not the end for those left behind. Whoever is elected at the conclave just might be one of McCarrick's "nephews" or at least will be someone who was a friend of a close friend.