This is not what you think. See here
Yeah, that was news to me, too, but then again, the Crescat is all about blowing the mind:
… I once had the pleasure of attending a Nascar event with a certian Franciscan friar friend dressed in his brown Capuchin habit. You would not believe the questions people stopped us to ask him. My favorite of course being, “are you in the KKK?” Wearing a habit to a Nascar race in North Carolina proved to be quite a teaching moment.
I always wondered what would happen if the Penitentes came to my town.
Meanwhile, Rocco has the tale of how the great St. Katharine Drexel dealt with the KKK.
Although Mother Drexel and the women of her order were dedicated to eliminating racial lines, the people they encountered in their work were not often on their side. One such group of people were the Ku Klux Klan who in 1922 “threatened to tar and feather… at one of Drexel’s schools and bomb his [sic] church” in Beaumont, Texas.
The nuns prayed and days later, a tornado came and destroyed the headquarters of the KKK, killing two of their members.
The Sisters were never threatened again.
You don’t harass Christ’s Own Ones.
Hahahaha! Thanks for the good laugh. You had me there for a second.
I was born and raised in a small Maine town. The local historical society has photos of the KKK marching down Main Street. They were all about being anti-catholic. This would have been in the 1920s. I remember a neighbor telling me that he and others sat on the steps of the local parish church many a night waiting for the Klan to show.
Seems to have worked. The church is still standing.
Should have mentioned that those sitting on the church steps were armed to the teeth.
Years ago there was a pornographic bookstore on the Gulf Freeway between the Clear Lake/NASA area and downtown Houston. You could not miss it, because it had a big fake front that towered over the 1-story metal building.
One night in the 1980s a squall came through Southeast Houston. It spawned one small tornado – just one. it dipped down out of the sky, taking out a light standard between the interstate and the service drive. It landed a direct hit on the bookstore, then disappeared back into the clouds, driving a hole through a the very top of a twenty-foot concrete wall that was there to provide sound insulation from the highway and an Apartment complex past the wall. The tornado missed the apartments completely.
As for the bookstore? The roof was gone, and the four walls pedalled around the parking lot, fallen outward. No one got hurt because the place was closed. The merchandise got sucked into the sky, and dropped into Galveston Bay a few miles east. It looked, quite literally, as if God had flicked the place away with an enormous forefinger, while disturbing everything else as little as possible.
Does God have a sense of humor? You betcha.
I followed the link, and saw the other beautiful pictures, but I couldn’t actually figure out what this was about – I hadn’t heard of the Penitentes. Is this related to a specific order, or a tradition in certain countries (the pics looked European to me)? The pictures are definitely surprising. I loved the velvet hoods, but the’d have been unconfortable in the US South
As a Catholic with many non-Catholic friends I’d like to be able to explain if anyone ever asked me about this…
In 1928 Al Smith and Joe Proskauer were on a campaign train rolling through a KKK dominated state. The Klan burned a cross trackside and Smith asked, Joe, how did they know you would be on this train.
I’m sorry I’ve never seen anything like it could you explain who they actually are?
Melissa here is more info on the penitents if you like. link
Thank you so very much! What a fascinating tradition. I agree, it is to bad that it’s use in the US would be tainted by the clan. It looks like it is a powerful reminder and inspiration towards penance and piety.
I think the Penitentes are confined mostly to Spain. They are lay orders of men, sort of like the K of C but with the express purpose of sacrificing during Lent. They walk in Holy Week processions throughout Spain, often carrying crosses. Each order has its own color of robe and the hoods are worn to prevent them from being recognized, as you’re not supposed to do penance for show.
I first heard about them years ago, while taking high school Spanish. It was in the South, and I recall the similarity to Klan robes was mentioned!
Well, I’m finally the one in the know – my sister had a set of small figurines she obtained from a trip to Spain many years ago. Yup, one of them looked like the men in these photos.
Some whoop-ass for the haters! Go girl!
i dosen’t matter WHAT color you are we’re all people and the kkk make’s all white race look like retard’s of a white race so when you go to heaven you think they go put you in one color gate and them in another color gate black people came from ape’s white people came from dinosoaurs the cave men FUCK the kkk and black panthers!!!
I don’t know where the new, profane commenters are coming from, but they seem to have a very mistaken idea about this post. These are not KKK members – this is a Spanish procession and if you go READ THE LINK you’ll understand that. I’m deleting all of the swearing and obscenities, so either read the link and calm down, or the comments thread closes. – ADMIN