Without getting into the details, there are apparently some weird rumors going around the internet about The New Pro-Life Movement (NPLM). I admit NPLM is pretty new – I had heard the term but I thought it was a generic name, not the name of an organization, much less an organization run a couple of friends, until last week. I noticed I hadn’t been paying enough attention when their Facebook page re-shared one of our posts. We at Steel Magnificat... Read more
Yesterday I went down to the Friendship Room to visit with Molly. I brought my daughter Rose, and Rose brought a wool hat and a bag of Tootsie rolls she’d picked out at the dollar store, to give to “our friends at the Warming Center.” She never likes to visit empty-handed. Molly’s husband Bill showed her how to arrange the hat and candy on the porch, for the poor people to take away. Then Rose goose-stepped around the porch in... Read more
 I am starting to realize something. I am realizing that this is not just Father Pavone. This is not just Priests for Life (USA). What we are dealing with here has been going on in the pro-life movement for decades. It is not a matter of the taking of and the displaying of pictures and images. We are dealing with an attitude that saw nothing wrong with the displaying of the actual bodies. That saw nothing wrong with laying... Read more
 It’s been a very, very rough week. You know what I needed? I needed somebody to vandalize a Soviet star and make it look like Patrick from SpongeBob. And, thanks be to God, somebody did. Don’t waste time with me, just go enjoy the pictures on the link. And start a gofundme to bring the brave soul who did it to America for more valuable civic work. We need them. I have a whole scad of suggestions for this... Read more
I truly wanted to go back to writing poems and meditations on Bible stories today. We have demonstrated that I’m awful at writing about politics. But I have to write about politics, which I despise, one more time. Donald Trump is apparently seriously considering Stephen Bannon for his “chief strategist and senior counselor to the president.” Trump has called him a “highly qualified leader.”  And Stephen Bannon is a leader, of sorts. The problem is, he’s  widely known as one of the leaders of the... Read more
 Frank Pavone has removed the Facebook video that got everyone talking last week. It seems this may be a belated response to his ordinary’s  reaction, although in another now-deleted video Pavone suggested he was entirely unwilling to be corrected in this matter by his bishop. You can read all the details from Keith Michael Estrada over at Proper Nomenclature – the whole business is a confusing morass, but Keith has done a good job of parsing what happened, what was said... Read more
 Priests for Life Canada has issued a statement condemning Pavone’s recent actions. Priests for Life Canada joins the expressions of concern heard from many quarters – they emphasize that they are an independent organization from Priests for Life USA, they acknowledge that Pavone’s actions contradict Catholic practice, and they affirm both the judgment of and the investigation by Bishop Zurek of Amarillo. For your convenience I have included the entire text of their statement (published this afternoon on their Facebook... Read more
Qasim Rashid writing for Time declares that “We must wage a jihad of peace.” He tells us: “I can sympathize with the anger and fear that many have about a Donald Trump presidency: I’m a person of color; I’m a Muslim; I have young children. But these are the cards we’ve been dealt, and we need to find ways to continue working to build bridges of understanding and peace, because the alternative, which leads to more fear and more violence,... Read more
  Today I was contacted by Catholic blogger Vickie Armstrong of A Catholic Mind-For What It’s Worth, who has compiled some information about the dead baby in Father Pavone’s infamous publicity stunt from earlier this week. Based on her research, whose sources she sites at the end of her article, it is very likely that the baby in Pavone’s video has been stored in formaldehyde for twenty or thirty years. I encourage you to read her entire article yourself; I... Read more
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What Is Scandal?
 I used to have a pair of pious friends. These friends were very preoccupied with “avoiding scandal.” Their quest to avoid scandal took up most of their time and energy; it made them look exceedingly strange. And, as is usually the case when people dedicate their lives to avoiding a certain sin instead of the pursuit of virtue, they missed the point entirely. These two friends were engaged to one another. They kissed and snuggled in public; she used... Read more