I have seen several people publicly declare that if you believe the Pope is complicit in the assassination of cardinals, you need no longer associate with them. I’m of the opposite opinion. If you believe the Pope is complicit in the assassination of cardinals, come and sit by me. Explain all about it. Give me the inside scoop. Sign me up for your newsletter. I want to know how your mind works. In case you’re out of the loop, it seems... Read more
Quite a long time ago, I went to a First Holy Communion party for a friend’s daughter in a different part of the country. The daughter looked radiant in her white gown and veil; the guests were awkwardly chatting, as guests who have nothing in common but a mutual friend do at parties. Two beautiful little girls with black hair and warm brown skin were playing boisterously downstairs in the den. My friend introduced them as Lupe and Fatima, daughters... Read more
It all started when Catholic Vote publicly fantasized about beating up a priest. I don’t know Father James Martin from Adam. I couldn’t tell you anything about him except that he’s a priest, and that all the public Catholics I’m suspicious of are suspicious of him. As far as I’m concerned, those are two points in his favor. God grant you many years, Father Martin. In any case, three days ago, the right-wing, not particularly Catholic, political group known as “Catholic... Read more
September First is the beginning of the Eastern Church’s year. This year, it also seems to be the first day fall. Last year Fall didn’t seem to come; the heat waves continued until the snow fell on live roses in late November. This year we’ve had a mild summer. The autumn cool threatened to come, every so often, from late July through August; today, on the first of September, it was chilly. I put on my jacket and went for a... Read more
It must be Thursday. A certain Catholic blogger is at it again, posting publicly all over her facebook that some good blogger friends of mine have “lost their faith,” which makes her sad. She is properly horrified by the scandal of my friends “instructing people in the Catholic faith, even as they lose their faith.” That would trouble me too, if it were true, but none of the people she’s mentioning have lost their faith. They’re still practicing Catholics; I... Read more
I don’t usually pay attention to Matt Walsh. Today, though, he released a tweet that intrigued me. Walsh shared a photo of an unnamed man, carrying a smaller woman, who was in turn carrying an infant, through the flood waters in what I presumed was Houston. Quite a lovely image, from an artistic and a human interest standpoint, so of course Walsh had to ruin it with his caption: “Woman cradles and protects child. Man carries and protects both. This... Read more
You have probably heard by now that the millionaire Prosperity Gospel preacher Joel Osteen refused to shelter people in his megachurch during the catastrophic Houston flood this week. The church was initially said to be closed, when people all over Houston were desperate for refuge; after an enormous media backlash, Osteen opened it as a shelter and distribution center and is now claiming it was never really closed in the first place. I’ve made no secret about the fact that I believe... Read more
I don’t like to post a request like this more than once every three months or so, but I’m in a bit of a situation, so please hear me out. I’ll go back to writing readable things later today, I promise. Lord knows I’m all kinds of pretentious, but I’m not the kind who pretends my blog is an “apostolate” or an “institute” and you’re all giving me “donations” to help in a bleeding culture war. This is a blog, where Michael... Read more
The flare has been going on all week. I haven’t gotten out of bed before noon in days and days. I went to the store on the bus once, when the cabin fever got desperate. The errand took about half an hour, and it made me so weak I could barely walk from the bus stop half a block to my house. That was my highest energy point. Most of the time, I was too exhausted to stand for more... Read more
I try to respect other people. I do. I’m not good at it, but I try. I try to respect others’ convictions, as well. I have friends who are atheists, Protestants, Jews. I disagree with them on any number of things, but whenever possible I try to respect them by honoring our common ground instead of being an ass about our differences. I couldn’t tell you the first thing about Mormons and what they believe, so if there is... Read more
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