I was going to let the trolls take over the combox and retire on the click money. However, I received a comment from someone whom I need to address personally. In public, because she addressed me in public. It comes from a Disqus user named philothea7@msn.com. That name is not the secret email that I can see when I log in as a Disqus moderator; it is this person’s chosen public Disqus name, and that’s why I’m posting it... Read more
Today, I read an article over on Aleteia that made my jaw drop. As an American, and a descendant of Irish immigrants myself, I am accustomed to hearing Irish immigrants glorified as plucky heroic saints and slavery dismissed. But this article, penned by Larry Peterson, is in a class of its own. It tells the story of the immigrant Michael Morris Healy and how he got six of his mixed-race slaves educated abroad and into seminaries and convents. And it... Read more
Just another warning to my dear readers, I’m going to talk about sexual abuse and Roman crucifixions again. I’m not going to mince words. I’m always surprised about which posts of mine go semi-viral. At least it wasn’t a political post this time. The other day I wrote a meditation on the sufferings of Christ, discussing the likelihood that He was a victim of sexual violence during His passion. I didn’t see anything wrong or controversial about saying this, even... Read more
Just a heads up for my friends who have been abused, I’m going to be rather graphic in descriptions of Roman Crucifixion and the sexual abuse that often went with it today, so consider this your content warning. One of my readers, who is herself an abuse survior, seemed surprised when I mentioned that Jesus endured sexual abuse in my post from last night. Apparently no one had mentioned it before. I find it’s a topic that’s not discussed... Read more
Here it is Ash Wednesday in the Latin Rite. Some of our Eastern brothers and sisters have already begun Lent on Monday and some are going to next Monday. I think it’s time to say a word on the subject of fasting. I know from experience that fat people like me tend to take our lives in our hands if we talk about food on the internet, so let me get this out of the way first: yes, I am... Read more
I don’t know about you, but I’m not really feeling in the mood for Lent this year. After the display we’ve witnessed for nearly a year now, from the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report last summer to that useless Vatican Summit a week ago– and, for me, the recent knowledge that a priest I knew and trusted had abused as well– I am not feeling pious. I don’t even know how I’ll be able to go back into a church at the... Read more
We went to a beautiful parish when I was growing up. It was quite a ways away from our house in Columbus. The parish didn’t have its own school, so it became the meeting place for Catholic homeschooling families all over Central Ohio. It looked the part of a perfect Catholic parish. The architecture was a proper and just Norman Gothic vault with a choir loft at one end and a Communion rail on the other; the windows portrayed... Read more
It has been yet another hell of a week. The rolling panic started on Saturday afternoon, and the fibro flare-up that always follows left me so sick I physically couldn’t go anywhere on Sunday morning. People who have been spiritually abused often have panic at the thought of going to church. Even if they’re in a church where they feel perfectly safe, let alone right in the diocese where some of the abuse took place. And last weekend was not... Read more
I will be back online later today with an actual blog post, this is just a periodic rattle of the cup. For the many of you who are new in the past month, Steel Magnificat, and my family, are almost entirely run on gratuities. I work from home as a writer due to my chronic illness, churning out three to seven literary art projects per week here, my husband copyedits for me, and he’s also the homemaker who takes care of... Read more
I was at that point in February where the uptick in fibromyalgia combines with the seasonal anxiety and despair until I don’t even feel human anymore. I was taught that you’re supposed to start an essay or an article by thinking of something you’re burning to tell somebody else– one fact you’d like to make the whole world understand. So this is what I want you to understand today: people who suffer from depression, anxiety or a weird synthesis of... Read more
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