Where did Theodore McCarrick come from?

 Susan Matthiesen at the Les Femmes blog wrote back in January about how young Ted McCarrick was expelled from high school at age 15, and was apparently was a ghost for 16 months.  That post deserved a lot more attention than it got. Where was he?  Did the boy sit in his room sulking? Was he with his late father's family in Virginia? Was he running the streets? Who was advising the boy and his mother? I don't know what the truancy laws in New York were in the 40s but surely there must have been some busybody neighbor  or agent of the court who wanted to know where this kid was.

Young McCarrick started high school again at 17, and attended Fordham Prep on scholarship. McCarrick has said that his indefatigable  mother talked to a Jesuit or an family friend alumni, (exactly who has been lost to time), about her bright son and got him into Fordham and that may be true.  I remember reading a speech by a man who said his success began because his father who was a West Virginia miner walked into a rich man's office and told him about his son and the rich man was so impressed by the nerve and devotion of that poor man that he arranged for the boy to be educated at a very good school. At any rate some important person made it possible for young McCarrick to attend Fordham Prep despite his having been expelled from Xavier High School. When I went to high school every girl knew that if you messed up and got expelled that was it. Unless your dad could pull some long strings no other Catholic school in the diocese would take you.

Theodore McCarrick graduated from Fordham prep and although he was a poor boy on scholarship with a widowed mother he was able to afford to go to Europe with a friend on what we now call the gap year. At one point, according to McCarrick  he was in a Carthusian monastery in Switzerland discerning his vocation.  Before James Grein's testimony one could only assume that Mrs. McCarrick was doing quite well at her factory job. Grein, who is believed to be McCarrick's first victim says that his wealthy family took young Ted to Switzerland with them on their vacations so that could be how the plane and train tickets, food and accommodations were taken care of.

After his gap year he comes back to the States goes to Fordham University and then to St. Joseph's Seminary. From there he takes off like a rocket. Les Femmes concludes that young Ted caught some influential perverts eye early on and he used that to further his career and because one or more of his superiors were already compromised nobody was in position to say anything when he began preying on the innocent.  Church Militant and Complicit Clergy have proposed another theory.  What if young Ted met some nasty old perverts and joined in ,but these particular nasty old perverts were part of the school of darkness with Bella Dodd?  As you may have read, Bella left the Communists and converted thanks to Archbishop Sheen. She said that her job in the party was to help with the seminarian project. The project was to get rotten young men into the priesthood, create a network that would serve the party and degrade the Church from within. The young men were promised all the sex they wanted and protection so long as they served. A match made in Hell. No matter who McCarrick's sugar daddy really was it's clear that he had one or several and in turn he played that role for others. This is distasteful but every Cardinal, every bishop and every priest who owes his position to McCarrick has got to be asked two questions: What did you know about McCarrick's beach house and why did he like you so much?

Stella Maris

Our Lady, Star of the Sea, pray for us. 

at prayer

A Woman to Admire

Chief Warrant Officer Oscar and Mrs. Grammer 

Every war leaves a mess of immorality for decades to come. The black children of American soldiers stood out and suffered in Germany. A good Catholic woman named Mabel Grammer tried to do something about it and found homes for 500 of them.

In the Closet of the Vatican and other random thoughts

1. A number of people in the office were gleefully talking about this book. Last Ash Wednesday Catholic co-workers heard some jokes from  non-Catholic co-workers. Heaven only knows what it's going to be like this year.  I am not complaining. A few just on the edge of louche remarks  are nothing compared to the Know Nothings attacking Catholics in the streets or burning convents but it is just a little unnerving. Between the  the pedophile scandals the perception that the Church supports  illegal immigrants whether the locals are happy about strange men wandering around the neighborhood or not, the jokes are going to get worse and I have a feeling that the day is coming when complaints to HR about it will fall on deaf ears.

• An anonymous homosexual priest says to the New York times that he's not in the closet but a cage since he doesn't dare tell his parishioners about his sexual interests.  I'm guessing this priest is so self observed that he does not even dream that many of his parishioners already know about him. He also would probably be surprised to know how many young males in his parish were completely turned off of parish life because of him and his gushing fans. 

• She and her daughter, Queen Catherine will never be canonized but there is an open cause for Queen Isabella of Spain's canonization.
  
  
• Yes, that is Theodore McCarrick in stained glass to the right of John Paul II. As my father-in-law once said, never make a memorial to a man until he's dead. I would add that  even then you might want to wait a few years in case something embarrassing comes out about him. 

The end of a dirty game or have the cards just been reshuffled?

The ever charming, ever smiling Cardinal McCarrick is now Mr. McCarrick.  His former roommate and protege Cardinal Farrell, (who claims that he NEVER saw anything freaky or suspected anything untoward about Cardinal McCarrick the whole six years he lived with him),will be in charge of the entire Church in the event of the pope's death until the end of the conclave. His favorites are still in charge of the Church in America so McCarrick-ism lives on. 

Is this the end of Teddy?

There are reports from foreign sources that Archbishop McCarrick going to be cast out of the priesthood. I'll believe it when I see it.

The higher the monkey climbs

The higher the monkey climbs the more he exposes..... If Dr. Ralph Northam had stayed out of public life and hadn't chosen to use his power to try to kill babies  this never would have come to light. 

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.

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.

Darkness over Virginia

I'm living In this world, of hell that I made (chorus) 

When darkness falls, I fall with it Into the dark abyss, dead I fall I've got no limit, 

I walk alone When darkness falls, I fall with it)  from Darkness Falls

I’d advise you not to look up the full lyrics to this song because it's from the psycho-billy genre and grim doesn't even begin to describe that music but I heard the song once and it’s the only thing that came to mind when I think of Governor Northam and all the people who supported the infanticide bill. Mary Anne at Les Femmes has done an excellent job showingwhat really motivates my state’s governor. Lord have mercy on this country. In just my life time we've fallen so far it's shocking. 

The Conversion of St. Paul

This image of St. Paul being knocked off his high horse isn't famous like the great Caravagio painting but I like it.  Paul looks completely shocked, completely helpless and when he gets up from the ground after having heard Our Lord he will completely converted.

Random thoughts on a Sunday afternoon

• All the priests and Catholic influencers who Tweeted condemnation of the kids from Covington High School should be ashamed.  I'm really disgusted. They were so eager to go with the crowd that they disengaged their brains.  Don't completely trust an initial media report. Good grief! My father told me that when I was eight! When Princess Diana died, my local news reported that she was okay and then 15 minutes later they said she was dead. A few weeks ago, we were told that a middle aged white man in a truck shot a little girl in Houston. It turned out to be young black man in a car.  In my town we read an initial report that there was an unattended death  (these are usually illness or accident related) in an apartment near me. A week later the report is that it was the first murder of the year for my town.  Not only are initial reports are almost always wrong but the smart person ALWAYS considers the source. 
  
  
• That thought reminded me of something I wrote years ago only now I have include Twitter priests:
  
  Should Priests Blog Pt. II 

• 

  Fr. Pinot, French martyr

  
  
  I've said before that priest's really shouldn't blog (or Tweet several times a day about  worldly matters such as what food he's eating right now, politics, movies, gaming) unless it's strictly their homilies and catechetical or apologetic material or posts about parish events. I've seen blogs by priests that were downright scary. A priest is an alter Cristus. He should not seem like a pop star tossing PR tidbits to his fans or a guru communicating his wishes to his groupies. His blog should never  leave readers wondering about how his lifestyle is financed or speculating that Father has too much time on his hands or if what they just read was written by a real priest at all.
  
  

  Blessed Fr. Pinot, of France courageous example for priests and us all, pray for us.

  Mother Vogl, pray for us.

  St. Pio, pray for us.

  Blessed Fr. Pro, pray for us.

  Blessed Fr. Popieluzko, pray for us.

  Cardinal Mindzdenty, pray for us.

  St. Fr. Edmund Campion, pray for us.

  Priest martyrs of Nagasaki, pray for us.

  Priest martyrs of Gorkum, pray for us.

  
  

Catholic parents, it's past time to rethink the whole way you play the college game

Catholic blogland has been discussing reports on the professor and head of the English department  at Franciscan University at Steubenville who assigned a mandatory reading assignment of a blasphemous and pornographic book, which I will not name, to his students. At first the university defended him. Now, after parents and alumni said they were closing their check books the professor has been fired and replaced. The school president has apologized.  Steubenville was once considered to be a safe, solid Catholic school.  Although the Newman Society says things at the university are still pretty much okay  people are beginning to wonder about that.

Supposedly the  "safe" schools are what? Christendom, Thomas Aquinas, Wyoming, Steubenville  and Ave Maria? Except for Wyoming and Aquinas I've read complaints that didn't seem frivolous or stupid about all of them.  College is not required to keep your Faith and there are devout Catholics who never went to college or who chose went the two year route. Frankly, unless your kid is majoring in a hard science or technology program  like biology, nursing, architecture, engineering, etc., you are probably paying a fortune and running up a massive debt for a useless degree that won't lead to a good paying job.
 I read the suggestion of one writer who plans to have his kids go to the state school but live at home. His argument is that his son will probably be able to handle the nonsense at the secular school better than the sly Faith undermining that would take place in a Catholic school with an impious faculty. I think it's time for Catholic parents to stop being sentimental. Your grandpa may have gone to Notre Dame and you may have gone to Trinity but you can't just send your kid off to a "Catholic" school and think that everything is going to be okay. As it turns out the professor has an agenda and is looking for victims at a Catholic school so he may be worse than he would have been at a secular school.

What kind of untity are you talking about?

 I keep seeing all these dreary posts on Catholic Twitter demanding that people be nice and stop disagreeing with one another in the name of unity. Unity ofwhat?  If you're going to call people stupid, weird, uncouth, and so far beneath you that it's not even worth being civil to them because they dare to disagree with you on a non dogmatic matter then you're way too much like the initially bland but ultimately vicious pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers screaming at some survivor who managed not to get assimilated into the alien union.

 Think how boring Catholic Twitter and Catholic blogland would be if everyone was the same. I don't want unity with the pod people. One person that I really liked became downright ugly towards anyone who has questions about Pope Benedict's abdication. I lost respect for this person and just feel a bit sad when I see this individual's posts, articles, and Tweets. It's rather like the moment when Nancy in Invasion realizes that Donald Sutherland didn't make it and has become one the aliens.

Pray for us, Holy Mother!

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.

Holy Innocents, pray for us

Merry Christmas

Fiat

The Promise of Ages

I wish Bishop Barron would say something like this....

Contrary to what some may say, the god of Islam & the God of the Christian faith are not the same. The God of the Christian faith is Creator of the Universe & sent His Son, Jesus, to earth to save us from our sin. He can change every heart who will put their faith in Him. 2/2

— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) December 15, 2018

So let me get this straight....

The pope has been  openly meddling in the secular affairs of Western nations by telling us that we should cheerfully accept millions of Third World migrants but Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Parolin says when asked about Catholic Asia Bibi and her family said, “It’s an internal question that regards Pakistan, I hope it will be resolved in the best ways possible”. 

The Annunciation

Thanks

Thank-you to everyone who prayed for Rocky before his surgery. It went well and he's home.

Pray for us, Mother

It aint about the gingerbread

These are  St. Meinrad seminarians

St. Meinrad's seminarians put on an apparently annual show for their professors and the lay professor's children. This year they also got together and  had a decorated gingerbread house competition either before or after the show. Taylor Marshall, has objected to the sight of grown men engaging in a kindergarten activity and  and was  crude about it.


My father was a cook and I learned the fundamentals of baking and cake decorating from him. Cooking is hard work. It gets noisy and hot and profane in the professional kitchen and since it's a high stress environment, tempers can flare up. It takes a tough man to turn out hundreds of tender baked goods everyday.  Marshall mocked the gingerbread decorating but that's not the problem. Decorating a gingerbread house kit is a short cut that I wouldn't make in my kitchen but  is in itself no more effeminate than when my great uncle and his friends got together to make moonshine, or when my grandfather and his friends got together to do a hog roast fundraiser  or when my father and his friends got together after culinary school to make omelets.

 The problem is that this whole event in this day and age seems socially tone deaf.  I'm guessing that the seminarian who posted this photo  is too young to have heard the stuff that was whispered about St. Meinrad's past.  I've read multiple accounts from men who said they were seminarians there in the 80s and left in disgust, never to be ordained.  Perhaps he's unaware that the Church in America has paid out something like a billion dollars in settlements to mostly males who say they were used by priests for sexual gratification. The seminarian  who posted this photo may not have any idea how nervous parents are right now. It's not uncommon for people to ask a priest where he went to the seminary in an attempt to figure out if he's going to be trustworthy or not. They may not say anything on social media or out loud but I bet that there are people who saw this photo and who will be watching with extra critical eyes when a seminarian from St. Meinrad's shows up at their parish. The 70s and 80s are over. Things that once seemed like light-hearted fun now make people's stomachs twist and turn. You can argue all you want about whether that's fair or not but that's the way things are right now and how things will be for many years to come.  The photo of the seminarians isn't inspiring. If I was kid I would not want to follow these guys.

  St. Paul Miki and,Blessed Rolando Rivi seminarians and martyrs, pray for us.

DIABOLICAL NARCISSISM in a snapshot

Look closely at this photo. I saw it on Complicit Clergy via The Remnant. Then Cardinal McCarrick has his arm around a younger priest or seminarian. Ask yourself this question: Did you ever see your Dad put his arm around any of his friends and embrace them at the waist? When you saw your Dad embrace somebody like that it was your Mom or there would have been trouble.  McCarrick really wasn't hiding his predilections at all. Looking back on it, he must have been terribly amused by these displays. He knew that none of the men  present or anyone viewing the photo had the power touch him. That's pure, undiluted narcissism.

I am the Immaculate Conception

Mary, Seat of Wisdom, pray for us

St. Edmund Campion, Pray for us

Dear Priests,

Don't be afraid of getting a crappy assignment. St. Edmund Campion worked undercover in Elizabeth I's England. Elizabeth is a feminist saint these days but she was a great killer of Catholics. St. Edmund knew that he was risking death being a priest in England but he did it. His feast day was December 1.

Judgement day

"Why wasn't he natural in his lifetime? If he had been, he'd have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with Death, instead of lying gasping out his last there, alone by himself."  "It's the truest word that ever was spoke," said Mrs. Dilber. "It's a judgment on him."'

---A Christmas Carol

  Those who were careless in their youth will be made to care in their helpless old age. I think a lot of people who chose sterilization and abortions are going to have a Scrooge Christmas Future experience on their deathbeds.

Get hold of yourself

Pope Francis may break your heart but don't let him and his flunkeys break your Faith. Our Lord and Our Lady both said that things would get foul in the Vatican one day.

More and more people have quietly decided that if Francis is right, then Catholicism must be wrong and they've gone to the Orthodox or Protestantism. A few days ago I even saw a tweet from someone who was so disturbed by Francis that this person wondered if the Vatican I Council, (1869–1870),was wrong. If you feel yourself starting to panic take heart in the words of Pope Pius IX and get hold of yourself. 

St. Francis of Assisi was not soft

Forget those horrible, sentimental but very popular images of the seraphic St. Francis. He was not skipping and twirling around Italy while petting St. Bernards and parrots.

Pray for us dear Mother

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.

Saint Peter Martyr, pray for us

Some priests have said that they would speak up on a particular subject but they fear that their bishop will punish them by sending them to a crappy assignment. If only they could spend time staring at this painting of St. Peter Martyr. He got a crappy assignment. He also persevered and preached and taught and bore all for the love of God. Is being sent to a parish in a lousy neighborhood or being a chaplain at the mental institution as bad and being hacked to death? Nope.

Pope St. Pius X, pray for us

Christ the King

Random thoughts on a Sunday evening

• Rocky's hip pain level has gone from two Tylenols and a good dinner to Tramadol and a cane so he's having surgery next month. St. Alphonsus Ligouri, patron of arthritis sufferers please pray for him.
• Bishop Morlino died of a heart attack last night. He seems to have run a decent diocese which is far more than many bishops in the US can say. May he rest in peace. Let's pray for his diocese because Cardinals Wuerl and Cupich will almost certainly have a say in who becomes his successor. 

• I was reading the Complicity Clergy site and paused to study the faces and body language in this photo. Even if I didn't know who this is I could see that something is clearly wrong. Men don't embrace each other around the waist. The  kid looks defeated and now as a 60 year old man he still appears to be haunted. Once again, I'm stunned that anybody who worked with Uncle Ted can say with a straight face that they had no idea what he was.
  
  
    

• Monsignor Nicola Bux is the theologian consultor of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints in Rome but if you want to make him some stationery with his title on it I suggest you hurry because he probably won't be there much longer. Msgr. Bux is questioning the validity of Pope Benedict's abdication. He's not the only one but instead of just moaning about it in private he's made his query in public. 
  A number of public Catholics (Ann Barnhardt uses the term "thought leaders") have reacted poorly to Monsignor's  doubts.  Some of them say there's no point in talking about  Benedict anymore because the reality is that the St. Gallen mafia won and the Church lost. These people say that the only thing we can do is wait for Francis to die and try to keep our Faith. They may have point but they go too far when they  the hurl the epithets, "rad trad", "stupid", "schizophrenic", "weird" "unhelpful"  and "sedevacantist"  at people for not believing  or daring to doubt that  Benedict's abdication was valid. When I think of all the heretical garbage  I've heard seen freely spewed about in these last few years alone I don't see why this subject is taboo. Monsignor. Bux may be wrong but I've had enough of people telling us what we can't even discuss in public.
  
  
•  To the impure all purity in others must be destroyed.  They will not leave the innocent in peace. Sometimes they are violent. Usually they are sly and degrade the general culture. Earlier this year someone posted a video of her little granddaughter's dance recital. One little in the girl in the group abandoned the choreography and began gyrating and thrusting her chest and pelvis. The other three girls froze but the audience filled with parents and relatives cheered.  People in the comments section thought she was cute but one person said a six year old performing like a stripper wasn't cute at all. It was like a damn bursting. Some people wrote things like,  "it's harmless" and "lighten up," but they were overwhelmed by other people saying that they agreed that the dance number was distasteful and wondered where this child, not even a good three years out of diapers had learned to bump and grind like this? Where indeed?
  
   Several years ago a pervert  carrying items usually found on serial rapists walked into an Amish school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, and  murdered multiple young girls before ending his own wicked life. On November 19th, an armed man in his 50s walked into the Catholic Supply Store in St. Louis. He forced himself on the all female staff and murdered a customer who refused his lust.  Who knows what story he's telling the police now but I think he chose the Catholic Supply store because it would be a soft target and he probably got a thrill out of defiling what he perceived to be good churchgoing women. 

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, pray for us

St. Vincent Ferrer, pray for us

St. Vincent was one of the wonder worker saints. He healed lepers, raised the dead and preached to multitudes.

Saint Gertrude, the Great

This holy nun is the only female saint known as "the great". She did not sell herself into a kind of prostitution in order to be a star in music or the screen. She did not crave power. She did not rush hither and yon demanding that other people turn their countries and homes into freak shows or she'd screech at them. She did none of the stuff that pop culture tells women that we have to do.

Does your bishop support an investigation of Cardinal McCarrick or not?

"I know Archbishop Vigano.... We need to review Archbishop Vigano's letter carefully, comprehensively, thoroughly. Evidence needs to be given. But the bottom line is we need to know the truth. What is the truth? It demands a comprehensive review. All the faithful need to hear the answer to those questions. Who knew what and when?"

                                                                                           Bishop Michael F. Burbidge

I'm very pleased to say that my bishop said he was for an investigation of Cardinal McCarrick's filthy activities and how he got away with it for so long. Cardinal Wuerl is against an investigation as one would expect. If you want to see where your bishop stands you can look it up at the Church Transparency site. God bless the anonymous Texan who took the time to put this together.

RICO time?

George Robert Blakey

The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, 84 Stat. 941, commonly known by its  acronym,  RICO, is the Federal law  that attacks organized crime with extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.  It was originally drafted by George Robert Blakey, an Irish Catholic government attorney who graduated from Notre Dame and began his career under then Attorney General Bobby Kennedy. 

Originally, people thought RICO was only a means for going after the mafia, particularly the Five Families and some Italian Americans feared that it would be used against any Italian businessman who had more than two nickles to rub together. Blakey stoutly argued that this was not the case and anyone, whether his ancestors came over from England in the colonial era or he was fresh off the boat last week was subject to RICO if they were running or part of a organized criminal venture. 

Today, many people are saying that the only thing that is going to get men like Cardinal McCarrick out of our seminaries and rectories is an application of RICO to the Church. I've read comments from a few nervous people who say that the enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend. They fret that the state attorney generals just want to attack the Church any way they can and there will unforeseen consequences for all of us. After the pathetic performance of US bishops at the annual Baltimore meeting I think it's going to have to come to down to RICO. God help us!  Our bishops will not and since many are probably being blackmailed, they can not police themselves.  It's incredibly ironic that a law drafted by a Catholic man just might be one of the tools (along with this one)for cleaning up this sewer.

St. Athanatius, St. John Eudes and St. Peter Damian, pray for us. 

A neuralgic kind of Cute Catholicism

“As Leviathan’s lions begin to roar, the nominal Catholics will skip out of the arena. Roman Catholicism has become for baptized pagans a neuralgic kind of Cute Catholicism, with leprechauns, mariachi bands and Santa Claus instead of confession, prayer and fidelity to doctrine. But behind each leprechaun St. Patrick stares, and behind every mariachi band Our Lady of Guadalupe weeps, and behind every Santa Claus Christ himself judges.”

                                                      Fr. George Rutler

The mask slips

On November 6th I was walking down the hall at work. A small group of people were watching the TV. One man, an individual of some importance at this job said that he wished that people who vote against his party could be put into "re-education" camps and that the US could be China for just one day. This man is not ignorant. He's a world traveler and highly credentialed from Ivy League schools. He knows damned well what China does to inconvenient people.  Except for one man, everyone either smiled or laughed. The one man who remained silent glanced away but I saw that he had a grimace on his face. Was it because he was shocked or was it because he was concerned that Ole Mr. Nasty was being careless in saying this out loud in front of the staff? At any rate I'm glad I heard that and glad I saw who laughed. It helps to know who is a decent person and who most definitely is not.

Pray for the Holy Souls in Purgatory

Eternal Father, I offer Thee the most precious blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere, for sinners in the universal church, for those in my own home and in my family. Amen.

I agree with Julie

Julie at Connecticut Catholic  is a sweet, gentle lady so if you get her riled up you must be a real piece of work. She sums up quite well my feelings about Father Longenecker. I used to read him years ago and came to the conclusion that he is an example of why priests should not blog about anything but apologetics or parish doings.  I don't think the man ever should have been ordained and he probably would be a lot happier if he was still in England. If the Church is going to allow married Protestant ministers to become priests then the  rigor of the vetting process needs to be vastly improved.

A Tale of Two Nuns

When I was a young girl we had a nun who struck me as odd. Sr. X wore her skirt shorter than the other sisters and her veil was smaller. She also preferred the boys to the girls, particularly shy, lady-like girls which I was. Thankfully, some wise person kept her in the office so she had little to do with the kids. Years later she got a job at one of the boy's high schools and the last time I saw her she'd stopped wearing her even modified habit and was sporting the suit, almost buzz cut short hair and sour expression of most modern nuns.

From second grade to eighth grade I never saw anything  about Sr. X that struck me as holy, pious or admirable.  I didn't want to be like her.

My school had another nun who was remarkable. Sr. Jane Mariae was a serious nun. She wore her full habit with her skirt hem to her ankle and her rosary on her belt and nobody, not Paul VI, not Mother Superior or any mocking fellow liberal nun at the convent fazed her one bit. She never tried to be my big goofy adult friend. We all adored and admired Sr. Jane Mariae and we were sure that she loved us. I wanted to be like her. Her pious example and the examples of my other good nuns are among the reasons why I'm still Catholic.

A ghost tale ---Say a prayer for mad Fr. Lesches

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 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 also overly emotional, insubordinate, and felt that the bishop was persecuting him. He'd failed at parish assignments and now the annoyed and apparently unsympathetic bishop was keeping a close eye on him by removing him from parish life and bringing him back to the chancery to live.  

 Bishop Hefron's vestments, orneriness, and his great physical shape probably saved his life.  Instead of dropping dead or swooning he yelled at his now panicked attacker and chased him out of the chapel. Fr. Lesches was captured and spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital.

 Students have been claiming to see the anguished ghost of Fr. Lesches on campus for many 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.

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.