My Patheos colleague, Fr Matthew Schneider wrote a post about the anti-vax statements being made by his crazy brother priest, Fr Chad Ripperger. I’d never heard of Fr Ripperger before I read this article. I Googled, and he’s evidently an exorcist who writes books and posts YouTubes and who has also decided to bless Denver with a new community of his own making for other “traditionalist” exorcists. Along with casting out demons and such, Fr Ripperger has decided to start... Read more
The Parkland school shooter, who murdered 17 people and maimed many others, dodged the death penalty today. I don’t normally watch trials, but I watched parts of this one. We’ve got to stop these mass shootings. I watched mainly to see if there was anything we could have done to stop this shooting and others like it in the future. As I watched it, I concluded that the only reason the jury might not give the shooter the death penalty... Read more
Do not go gentle into that good night Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night. Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage,... Read more
President Biden just gave a huge help to young families all across this country. It isn’t enough. But it’s very important, and no Republican would have done it. I fully expect right wing religious leaders, including “star” right wing internet priests, to oppose it. But this old granny who paid off all her student loans decades ago is thrilled that President Biden is providing between $10,000 and $20,000 in student debt relief to our young people. I think it’s just... Read more
So … are bullet rosaries “a thing” or did somebody make it up? Atlantic Monthly recently published an article discussing what it called the “weaponization of the rosary.” The reaction from right wing Catholics was immediate and predictable. They latched onto the article as an opportunity to generate outrage — and clicks and donations and revenue from advertisers — among and from their followers. The whole thing reached such a crescendo that Bishop Baron hopped onto Fox News, to excoriate the... Read more
I heard the bomb. The blast rattled the windows of my house. I heard the explosion, heard it continue rumbling after the initial crack. I didn’t know what it was, didn’t know that the extended sound was the building, pancaking down. My three-year-old and I exchanged looks. “What was that?” I said. We had just taken my husband, his father, to work so that we could have the family car for the day. The drive had taken us past... Read more
In the face of this deplorable evil, the church kneels before God and implores his forgiveness for the sins of her children. I myself wish to reaffirm this, with shame and unambiguously. I humbly beg forgiveness for the evil committed by so many Christians against the Indigenous Peoples. Pope Francis I have read that a certain segment of Catholics are upset and angry because Pope Francis apologized to the native people of Canada. They are outraged that... Read more
It began with a hack. Or rather, it began with me, being a dummy and giving away information that I should have held close. A longtime friend of mine, someone I served with in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, contacted me through Facebook. He told me that he’d lost my info. So, I blithely gave him my phone number and email address. I cooperated with him completely because I trust him completely. The only trouble was that the person I... Read more
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade today. I’ve linked to the full decision so that you can read it yourself. It begins with a syllabus, which is basically the Cliff Notes. You can scroll down through that to get to the full decision itself. I haven’t read it yet. But I did glance at it. The decision appears to send the question of abortion back to the states. I’ll read it over the weekend and write about it in... Read more
There are many things you can do to help end abortion, and we provide ten suggestions here, based on some of the most proven and effective pro-life strategies. 1. Pray! Prayer is the foundation of all we do in the pro-life movement, and puts us in touch with the source of our life and freedom, God himself. We should be praying each day specifically for the children in the womb, and for an end to the violence of abortion. At... Read more
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