All things considered, it has been a hell of a weak. I’m not swearing there; I’m actually saying the week has been a week that felt like one of the outer circles of hell. The news of the horrific clerical abuses in the state of Pennsylvania hit on the same day we had to call the police on the neighbor I’ve referred to as “Miss Manners” once again– I was, in fact, drafting the post about the abuse when I... Read more
There have been a plethora of predictably awful responses to this week’s horrendous news coming out of Pennsylvania. The inimitable Tony Esolen has been commenting on public facebook threads claiming that “church ladies” are in league with gay men and would ruin the church if they were put in positions of authority; I was told he also wants to pin this on female altar servers effeminizing boys somehow. Leila “Bubbles” Miller has been ranting for several days about how... Read more
My friend mentioned something to me today that helped me, a little. I figure at times like these, with all the turmoil in the Church, helping a little is a very good thing. Most everything that people are saying is making this worse. But this was a little help. In a message to me, she said: A lot of people do not really get the whole wheat and chaff thing because they’ve never seen it. You get a sh*t... Read more
This request comes from Immigrant Families Together, an organization that seeks to provide legal representation, bond, release and ongoing support for the migrant families being abused by the government’s cruel zero-tolerance policy at the Southern border. One of the things this organization does is make online registries through Amazon.com, where anyone can purchase a needed item to be sent directly to one of the families that has recently been released. Today, a member of Immigrant Families Together posted a... Read more
We got to Mass just on time. That’s a rarity, bus routes being what they are, but we were lucky. I had no idea what time it was or if we were late when we stumbled in. The organist began at once with the O Sanctissima, as if he’d been waiting for us. Rose asked if we could sit in the back. I was happy to. I wanted to sit in the congregation even less than usual, today. I didn’t want... Read more
I’m at a loss for words. I’m a professional writer, I write 800-2000 words per day, and I’m struggling to find anything to say. I have not read the whole Grand Jury report on the sexual abuses and subsequent cover-ups committed by Catholic clergy and dioceses in Pennsylvania. I’m not even close and I don’t think I ever will be. I keep reading excerpts from it and summaries of what it contains, and then pausing to do something else... Read more
Hello friends, this post is your periodic reminder that 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, and my husband is the homemaker who takes care of Rosie and does the housework since I’m so often too sick to get off the sofa or out of the house. I get a very small monthly... Read more
I saw a sweet video online today. For all I know it was staged, but it was sweet. A lovely little girl my daughter’s age, wearing a headband with cat ears on it, was sitting in a restaurant with a fresh untouched plate of sausage and eggs. Her father had the cell phone camera on her because of a question she just asked. She asked again if she may give her lunch to the homeless man on the bench... Read more
The other day I met a former politician from Rhode Island. I know he was a former politician from Rhode Island because I asked around; his name didn’t immediately ring a bell. He was telling my friend Rebecca she was a fool and that calling her a fool was actually a compliment, because if she weren’t a fool she’d be a fraud. She was a fool for her work with the New Pro-Life Movement, because only by being staunch Republicans... Read more
I enjoy poetry. I enjoy T. S. Eliot more than most poets. I’d love to be able to write as he does. When I saw T. S. Eliot mentioned in the title of an essay in The Imaginative Conservative, for a moment I thought it might be a sign of a little bit of imagination. I was wrong. “How T. S. Eliot Predicted the Coming of Male Millennials” is one of the most idiotic literary essays I’ve seen since I... Read more
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