A Word to Parents

Mary, St. Joseph, pray for us. Jesus, mercy!

Every single thing you do in front your children  is like shooting off a gun and for good or for evil, the bullet travels through multiple generations. My father-in-law made a bad decision in the early 90s and it hurt my brother-in-law's mental state. He was so unhappy that he was easy pickings for the Jehovah's Witnesses.   In December my brother-in-law's son will be 18 years old. If he chooses to go to college without permission of the elders he will be excommunicated. 25 years ago my father-in-law said "Go to this college and stick with this major or I wash my hands of you." Today my brother-in-law is saying,"Go to this college and I wash my hands of you."


50 years ago a woman had an affair. Her husband went to work and her lover sneaked in through the back door as soon as the poor husband left.  When her husband died she quickly married the lover. Years  passed and when her daughters were teenagers and scandalously promiscuous the woman tried to rebuke them. One girl angrily asked who was she-- an adulteress who betrayed their father and shamed her family--- to tell them anything about decent behavior.  Those girls went on to rocky lives and some had children out of wedlock. As they saw it, they may have made mistakes but at least they weren't hypocrites like their mother.

Thirty years ago a Catholic man left his wife for another woman. Today his daughter is an atheist. Her Catholic husband no longer goes to Mass or is doing so secretly and the kids are being raised as secular humanists.  Grandpa's lust was a wild bullet and his sins are visited on innocents who hadn't even been born at the time.

Parents, you have an awesome vocation. You have incredible society building or destroying power. The woman and the two men I mentioned here were all sorry when they got old but that just doesn't cut it when that sorrow comes decades too late. May God bless you with wisdom and sufficient grace.

McCarrick fallout

Years ago a co-worker of mine noticed that I was Catholic and happily told me that he was as well. He was an altar server at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception for high Masses and told me that Cardinal McCarrick was the most political man he'd ever met. I asked how so and he told me a tale. My co-worker was coming out of the sacristy and greeted Cardinal McCarrick in the hall. The cardinal asked him who was in the sacristy, what they were talking about and what kind of rings they were wearing. My co-worker told him and then the cardinal took a jewelry case or pouch (my co-worker may have specified but I can't recall that) from his pocket and picked from the collection an episcopal ring that most resembled the ones that the other bishops were wearing and put it on. He was ready and sailed in to charm everyone.

I myself, once met the cardinal on the street  near the DC Cathedral and  I was surprised to find him all alone. I'd read stories about the cardinal and the beach house by that time and found myself expecting to see some sign of it in his face and manner but of course I didn't. He did not behave anything like the white collar homosexual men I see everyday on the street downtown or any of the flamboyant priests I've come across. He is a remarkable, well trained chameleon.

What is interesting and hopeful is that the laity is not reacting to Cardinal McCarrick like most of us  did in 2002.  The bishops can hold another meeting and update the Dallas charter again but that won't cut it this time. People are not dropping this. They are asking awkward questions about who enabled Cardinal McCarrick and who rose high because they were close to him. I've also read a lot of discussions about protesting by withholding money, demanding lay oversight of known problem seminaries and  the feasibility of lay people buying convents and church buildings to keep them from being sold off to pay secret settlements.

Besides these there have been a few naive calls for married priests as if being forced to marry would actually keep a homosexual chaste. My mother's family are Southern Baptists. In the subset of their denomination no-one can become a pastor without having a wife. This is to avoid dating problems with young ministers. Interestingly enough, the deacons of my family's church broke this rule when they hired the current pastor. That caused a great deal of upset and later the reverend's search for a mate darn near split the congregation and resentments still simmer. One old man even told the reverend to leave when he showed up for a sick call at the old man's house with his girlfriend in tow. Sick calls with the reverend are a duty of the church's First Lady or members of the shut in ministry and the old congregation member was shocked and angry.

 To avoid all this hullabaloo many young ministers get married in the seminary. Not all of these marriages are love matches. It's not unheard of for a minister who wants to lead his own  congregation to get married to a woman who he thinks will make a good First Lady and hope for the best. He may come to love her later or he may find "comfort" elsewhere but he's not going to get his own church without her. A man who is determined to do something, will. If a predator has to get married to have a perfect disguise while he preys on the innocent, he will.

The important thing this go round is that people are talking amongst themselves and talking back to bishops and priests who try to smooth this over or act as if McCarrick was a complete surprise and a one time fluke.

Oh come on...

•  This is not my parish, thank goodness.  Rocky hasn't come across a used diaper yet but he and  the other ushers find some really icky stuff in the pews after Mass, particularly after weddings.

• Bishop Tobin of Rhode Island has deleted his Twitter account.  He couldn't stomach the blow-back that came his way after writing:"
  
  “Despite the egregious offenses of a few, and despite the faults and sins we all have, I’m very proud of my brother bishops and I admire and applaud the great work they do everyday for Christ and His Church”.
  
  He followed that unwise and offensive tweet with this little charmer:
  
  "If you find a perfect church out there somewhere, by all means, join it. But remember, the moment you join it, it will cease being perfect."
  
  Well thanks, your Excellency, I never thought I'd see the day when a bishop would say to the Faithful that they should leave the Church if they are upset by the scandals. Bishop Tobin seriously miscalculated how angry and more importantly, how sick with grief the laity has become, people let him know and he ran away. St. Peter Damien, pray for us.
  
  
  
  
• Cardinal Kevin Farrell finally has made a public statement about his old mentor, Cardinal McCarrick. He states, "I never heard any of this before in the six years I was there with him." So far, the response from the lay folk has been skeptical.

The Murmurings of This World

Random thoughts on a rainy afternoon

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

• Have you ever noticed how funny our so-called elites seem to find pedophilia? They flippantly wish the fate of rape on the minor aged children of enemies or even people who disagree with them on social media. The writer of the Guardians of Galaxy movies was tweeting for years about things that no normal man would find funny or even mention in public or private and Hollywood just chuckled. Disney probably only fired him  because they were afraid that too many members of the public would be turned off and the next Gaurdians movie's bottom line would be affected.
  
  
  
  
• Hilary White is on a roll. Bishop Thomas Tobin (NOT the Tobin in New Jersey) wrote something---well, tone death   in what may have been an attempt to pacify the laity and she gave some very good suggestions on how bishops can begin to earn the trust of the laity again. 

• Speaking of bishops. Is it not odd, that Bishop Farrell and Cardinal Tobin have not come out and boldly said, "I lived with/worked for Cardinal McCarrick and I never saw anything that struck me as suspicious?"

• I can't stomach reading the AKA Catholic blog anymore, not because of Louie Verrechio, whose insights I appreciate,  but because the comments. Louie will write about X and some people will respond and civilized discourse will take place. Then some tiresome soul will ruin by ranting about Y and when someone says, "Hey we're talking about X, he  (it's usually a he) will get belligerent. The comment boor demands that everyone else agree with him or they are must be heretics, evil  and/or  lacking in an IQ above 68. Why don't these individuals just write their own blogs? Why come on someone else's blog and try to take over?

At Prayer

If you still give to Catholic Charities...

The US Bishops have gotten so addicted to the government cash for immigrant services that it has come to dominate their focus. I recently read a few news stories concerning Catholic Charities resettlement offices  closing down because there are less illegal aliens and refugees and because the government grants are drying up. The employees were quite angry about all the collected clothes and home wares  just sitting on the shelf never to be used.  The sites that had these stories and who allow comments had some interesting responses. People asked why the office wasn't going to serve the homeless or poor American families?  Those comments reminded me of something an acquaintance told me about a lady in his parish. This woman had faithfully put money in the Catholic Charities envelope for  probably most of her adult life  and then in her old age,  after  her own finances tanked, she  found herself going to her local Catholic Charities office. The staff treated her rudely and she left humiliated and crying. Maybe she went to the wrong office but could not someone have said to this old lady, "Ma'am, the American services are at X street," or "I'm sorry ma'am, but your income is  above our cut off limit  but here are numbers you can call to see if you can get senior citizen utility assistance." I haven't willingly (remember, that government money is our tax money),  given Catholic Charities a dime in years. If you still do, take a good look at your local office's annual report and website, if they have one. Read for yourself where the money goes.

Holy Apostles, pray for us

I just read that there is a possibility that Fr. Pedro Arrupe, late superior general of the Jesuits is going to be canonized. Lord have mercy!

Did you ever wonder about those unaccompanied "migrant" kids?

Once, many years ago I overheard a woman attorney talking to a friend. She said that she was very angry at her husband because he procrastinated on fixing it so that their nanny could be a legal resident of the US and now they were going to have to let the poor woman go because of the husband's new job required a background check. This woman was making over 100K but she was too cheap to hire a legal nanny. When this woman left for another job I was very happy.

 Did you ever stop to wonder if your boss's or friend's illegal alien nanny gets paid a decent wage? Did you ever wonder who is taking care of the nanny's children since she works 6 days a week? Consider for a moment, the question of  how her children got to the US if they weren't born here? What horrors were witnessed or visited upon those children while being smuggled here?  Did you ever wonder if her children even made it to her place at all? How many of those unaccompanied children actually end up being sold at certain parties, truck stops, gas stations and on the streets? People shrug their shoulders and some joke but this is a horror.

July is the Month OF The Precious Blood

Litany of the Most Precious Blood

Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

God, the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God, the Holy Ghost, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us.

Blood of Christ, only-begotten Son of the Eternal Father, save us.
Blood of Christ, Incarnate Word of God, save us.
Blood of Christ, of the New and Eternal Testament, save us.
Blood of Christ, falling upon the earth in the Agony, save us.
Blood of Christ, shed profusely in the Scourging, save us.
Blood of Christ, flowing forth in the Crowning with Thorns, save us.
Blood of Christ, poured out on the Cross, save us.
Blood of Christ, price of our salvation, save us.
Blood of Christ, without which there is no forgiveness, save us.
Blood of Christ, Eucharistic drink and refreshment of souls, save us.
Blood of Christ, stream of mercy, save us.
Blood of Christ, victor over demons, save us.
Blood of Christ, courage of Martyrs, save us.
Blood of Christ, strength of Confessors, save us.
Blood of Christ, bringing forth Virgins, save us.
Blood of Christ, help of those in peril, save us.
Blood of Christ, relief of the burdened, save us.
Blood of Christ, solace in sorrow, save us.
Blood of Christ, hope of the penitent, save us.
Blood of Christ, consolation of the dying, save us.
Blood of Christ, peace and tenderness of hearts, save us.
Blood of Christ, pledge of eternal life, save us.
Blood of Christ, freeing souls from purgatory, save us.
Blood of Christ, most worthy of all glory and honor, save us.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord!
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord!
Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

V. Thou hast redeemed us, O LORD, in Thy Blood.
R. And made us, for our God, a kingdom.

Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, Who didst appoint Thine only-begotten Son the Redeemer of the world, and hast willed to be appeased by His Blood; grant unto us, we beseech Thee, so to venerate (with solemn worship) the price of our redemption, and by its power be so defended against the evils of this life, that we may enjoy the fruit thereof forevermore in Heaven. Through the same Our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. R. Amen.

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.

In your charity...

In your charity could you say a prayer for this good son, his devoted wife and his mother who is going through a great physical and emotional trial?

Question time for my pastor

I asked Fr. Hawk about the Eucharistic fast question that came up last week. He told me to be at peace.   I am free to do more than what the Church gives as a bare minimum but there is no shame or insult to the Lord on the part of average Joe or Jane Catholic in the doing the one hour fast. Father himself fasts from midnight but pointed out that  he also says Mass at 8:30 in the morning. 

TV chefs and tales from the hotel

 My mother was a hotel housekeeper and supervisor for thirty years. She got to see and hear a lot of things. Rich people and business people on expense accounts tend to let their hair down in various ways  when they travel.  While natural deaths in the hotel were not uncommon, suicides were so rare that it only happened twice in my mother's memory. One woman took pills and another hung herself. When  the houseman let himself in he saw her swinging. He staggered back and swooned from the hideous sight.

When TV chef, Anthony Bourdain  hung himself he left a horrible scene for the hotel staff who found him. Some poor person had see his discolored face and what was on the floor. Somebody had to cut him loose. Somebody had to cart his body away. Somebody had to clean up and as soon as the police say that the hotel can rent it out again some staff member is going to have to force themselves to go back into that room and carry on as if nothing happened there. According to the coroner's report there were no drugs in Bourdain's system so his embrace of self annihilation  came from a source  other than being high. Whatever his reasons were, there's nothing romantic in what he did or the mess that he made for innocent people, including his child.

JOHN, LIKE A SPEEDING BULLET..

 

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar,
when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea,
and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee,
and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region
of Ituraea and Trachonitis,
and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene,
during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas,
the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.
John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan,
proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,
as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:
A voice of one crying out in the desert:
"Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God."

When Father  read these words   an image suddenly popped into my mind of St. John sitting around minding his own business when he is told, "It's time." Did an angel come to him like Gabriel did to his father? Did he have a vision of God or did the Lord send Elijah to him? However the word of God came to John he had his marching orders. The boy who was born to Zachariah and Elizabeth in their old ages was a man now, a man with a mission and like a bullet he was off. He would not tarry, or stop or turn from his path until his death. 

A reckoning has finally come for Uncle Ted

Had I but served my God with half the zeal 
I served my King, he would not in mine age 
Have left me naked to mine enemies. Cardinal Wolsey

(Henry VIII, Act III, Scene 2) 

Well, the rumors about Cardinal McCarrick that have been festering for decades have finally come to a head.   There will be no more whispered sardonic quips about  Cardinal McCarrick and his "nephews." A lot of people-- seminarians who never got ordained, priests, and laity  have been waiting for this day. I hope it gives them some measure of peace.

Philip Lawler wonders how it went on so long. It's because when people like Richard Sipe , Randy Engel and Matt Abbott called the cardinal  out  publicly they were met with thick, smooth silence.   Julia Duin, formerly a religion editor for the Washington Times says that from 2008 to 2010, she investigated the allegations but couldn't find anyone who would dare go public with their accusations. Rod Dreher says he's known since 2002, when he was contacted by a priest who went to Rome with a group of laymen to protest the appointment of then Archbishop McCarrick to cardinal of DC because of his history of harassing seminarians and young priests. That protest was ignored or rejected when the cardinal retired in 2006, he was allowed to take up residence in the Redemptorist Mater seminary in Maryland.

Cardinal McCarrick is 87. He was powerful, not as powerful as Cardinal Wolsey in his prime of course, but having done such a miserable job of serving Our Lord and His Church he is now naked to his enemies.  If there is anyone out there reading this who was one the nephews or refused to be one, NOW is the time to speak up. McCarrick can't do anything to you. FIAT JUSTITIA RUAT  CAELUM.

St. Francis has something to tell you

“Keep a clear eye toward life's end. Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God's creature. What you are in his sight is what you are and nothing more. Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take nothing that you have received...but only what you have given; a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage.”

St. Francis of Assisi

At prayer and random thoughts

• Last night I ate something that fought back and I was sick from 3 AM to about 5 AM. I normally do a light cleaning on Saturdays and save the deep clean for once a month but as soon as I stopped feeling shaky I had to get out the Hexol and get to work. Saint Zita and Martha, patronesses of housekeepers pray for us...
  
  
  
  
• This sister belongs to the Holy Child nuns who are at my old elementary school now.

• Rocky got off work early yesterday and we stopped by our parish to pray because big dogs in the corporate office have lost their minds...again and it makes life difficult for the managers.  We walked in and the Spanish baptism class was just breaking up. They looked at us like we were invading their space.  I am highly sensitive to non verbal cues and I could almost feel the unfriendly stares. Rocky is not sensitive that way but he felt it too and was mightily pissed. That was just a tiny illustration of what goes on at many suburban parishes. The Spanish speakers are uncomfortable when Americans are present.  The Americans won't even set foot in the church until the Spanish parishioners leave or if they do accidentally go in while the Spanish speakers are there, they get this crazy look on their faces and flee. Perhaps it comes from the Vatican II mindset of "my Mass" and nobody else is part of this parish or perhaps it's what I believe to be the poisonous fruit of the US decision to split Catholics up based on ethnicity. Catholic means universal. There is no slave or free, no Jew nor Greek in the church. We are all supposed to be Catholic. aren't we? It's not supposed to be about us anyway. It's supposed to be about Him.
  
  
• My Aunt Evangeline died. She was 83 and my late father's eldest sibling. She had ten children and  was a comforting angel to many people her her town. She was like the Valiant Woman of the Old Testament. When she was young she had masses of long black hair and when  I was five I thought she looked just like Loretta Lynn. May she rest in peace.
  
  
• Up until the 19th century we had debtor's prison. In England the whole family could go to jail with the debtor. The family could come and go as they pleased but the debtor was not at liberty until he served his time or the debt was paid. A lot of people, Charles Dickens being one thought this was terrible. Dickens himself had to leave school at 12 years old to help support the family. Today we don't do this sort of thing. When you commit a crime you go to jail or prison and your kid either goes to relatives, foster care, orphanage or a group home. Our bishops want illegal aliens to have their families with them while waiting in detention and while doing and saying nothing to politicians who are public sinners, are actually proposing the threat of  "canonical penalties" to Catholics who administer our immigration laws. Are they seriously going excommunicate someone who calls the police after noticing that there are ten people in their  neighbor's shed who arrived in a truck during the night and  who will disappear in a few days like the last bunch did?  Are they really going to excommunicate every Catholic man and woman who works for the border patrol and ICE?  Yes they make a lot of money from immigration (go to  USAspending.gov  and put "U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops"  in the search box) and I see that they're going to fight to keep it but this proposal is insane and will drive people from the Church. 

Question time for my pastor

Ann Barnhardt has a new post on the Eucharistic Fast that really got my attention and left me feeling a bit worried. She's absolutely right about the softness of the one hour fast. For most people who aren't sick or who don't work a non 9-5 shift it is easy.What alarmed me was her argument that the three hour fast  isn't much better because the stomach is not empty and if one really loves the Lord, volunteering to do the fast from midnight to Mass is a better practice. I started wondering if I am actually showing Our Savior a rank insult by practicing the one hour fast. I'm going to ask Fr. Hawk (that's his nick name because he rather resembles a Red Shouldered Hawk) what he thinks.

Random thoughts on a Sunday afternoon

June is the month of the Sacred Heart. I neither acknowledge, bow my head nor bend my knee to 
anything else.

I know someone who married a narcissist. He isolated her and made the rest of us think that she was crazy. Eventually she stopped the gas-lighting and left him.  Looking back on it, I now remember certain things he did or said and realize that he was telling us all what kind of man he was but we just didn't see it. It was as if he'd worked some kind of glamour* that masked his true self. Bad people always tell us exactly who they are. The elites hate ordinary people. Deep down, hate is their meat and drink. They can't just enjoy their money leave the rest of us in peace. The urge to dominate, destroy and make the victim say "thanks," is just too demonically strong. Sometimes it takes wisdom to recognize this and sometimes it's so obvious that even a blind man can see when the glamour weakens and the mask slips off. 

• A comedian said publicly that he hopes the economy crashes into another Great Depression and regular American suffer because the person he voted for didn't win the presidency. Most of his fans laughed at his witty little "joke".....
  
  
• Anthony Bourdain  apparently hanged himself with his own bathrobe belt. The elites call this a tragedy but  cheer when the old, the depressed and the sick are coerced into "assisted suicide" or when babies are dismembered, stabbed or poisoned in abortion....
  
  
  
•  The pope says even the poor must do their part to save the earth and give up using fossil fuel. Taken to the extreme that means no cooking, heating one's home or traveling further than your horse can carry  you. This sounds like something out of the gulags. The pope himself has not pledged to never get on a plane again and remain in Rome for the rest of his papacy and I haven't heard anyone complaining about heat and body odor at the Vatican because of the lack of air conditioning.....

• In England the authorities have known for decades that poor girls and girls in foster care frequently fall victim to slick talking, seducing pimps and did nothing. Social workers and police officers who tried to their jobs were told to hush because the girls were just fast, common little tramps anyway and anyone who interfered were racists. I've never seen a single news/gossip story about an upper class 13 English year old girl openly "dating" a Pakistani man with her parent's approval. Funny that....

*Glamour

noun

• 1. the quality of fascinating, alluring, or attracting, especially by a combination of charm and good looks.
  2. excitement, adventure, and unusual activity:the glamour of being an explorer.
  3. magic or enchantment; spell; witchery.