- Money Matters. Have you ever noticed that the very poor don’t care about money … they buy cigarettes, alcohol, candy and anything else to provide some modicum of pleasure in a hard and difficult life. And the very rich don’t care about money … they buy art and vintage cars and 5th vacation homes for tens of millions of dollars. Why is the middle class so fixated on money?
- John XXIII in Limbo. Pope Francis waived the second miracle requirement (what was the first miracle?) on BJXXIII. So what if he wasn’t in heaven? What happened to him? If he was not prepared to be in heaven but was moved there prematurely, did he suffer seeing the face of God when he wasn’t prepared? Is heaven now populated by a man that may not be disposed to fully love God because he wasn’t properly cleansed in purgatory? Did God complete the final cleansing himself so BJXXXIII could come to heaven when boosted there by PF? BJXXIII wasn’t the first to have a miracle waived, but better to just follow the rules deemed good enough for JPII and Mother Teresa, don’t you think?
- Not for Nothing. I’m reading The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest, about a Jesuit priest who risked his life in 16th century England to serve the Catholic faithful struggilng under heinous persecution. Imprisonment, torture, starvation and execution were the most common ends of these heroic men. And countless other faithful Catholics met the same fate for refusal to participate in Protestant liturgies. The sad irony is that later iterations of those same Protestant liturgies bear an eerie resemblance to the Novus Ordo mass of today, including the priest facing versus populam, use of the vernacular, dropping the mantilla for women, a Protestant version of the Our Father and a misguided focus on the community instead of worship of the Divine. But the tide is turning against such an alien form of worship and the stories of priests like Father John Gerard, S.J. will inspire those seeking to revive traditional Catholicism today.
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