The Future Belongs to Those Who Show Up, Catholic Edition

Posted: May 6, 2024 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions, Church doctrine
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These things he said while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. Then many of his disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this, he said to them,

“Does this shock you? What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.”

Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe and the one who would betray him. And he said,

“For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father. As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. Jesus then said to the Twelve,

“Do you also want to leave? Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

John 6:60-68

Apparently the AP is shocked SHOCKED that the Catholic faith in the United States is being populated by people who, you know actually believe and follow the faith:

They often stand out in the pews, with the men in ties and the women sometimes with the lace head coverings that all but disappeared from American churches more than 50 years ago. Often, at least a couple families will arrive with four, five or even more children, signaling their adherence to the church’s ban on contraception, which most American Catholics have long casually ignored.

They attend confession regularly and adhere strictly to church teachings. Many yearn for Masses that echo with medieval traditions – more Latin, more incense more Gregorian chants.

“We want this ethereal experience that is different from everything else in our lives,” said Ben Rouleau, who until recently led St. Maria Goretti’s young adult group, which saw membership skyrocket even as the parish shrank amid the turmoil.

If the young adult group is souring that means there will be a future generation in the parish consisting of the children of that young adult group. If there are families with four and five children, that means that their children will in a generation fill the pews that the contraception/abortion crowd has been abandoning for two generations.

It’s simple math. People who treated the Church as an Elks club that meets on Sunday tend not to bother to follow the teaching of the church on abortion, contraception and confession. Thus their children don’t bother to come or don’t bother to get married and don’t teach their children. And they certainly aren’t going to be going to the seminary to commit themselves to a life of service. They will be like this seed in the parable of the sower:

This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of God. Those on the path are the ones who have heard, but the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and be saved. Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but they have no root; they believe only for a time and fall away in time of trial. As for the seed that fell among thorns, they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along, they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit.

Luke 8:11-14

And it goes without saying that their children, particularly those who might be gay who in past times choose the church as a respectable cultural option now in a society that embraces and celebrates open homosexuality have a ton of other options. (I’ve always found it interesting while 78% of the cases in the church sexual scandals involved gay men the media unexpectedly of course ducked that fact like the plague.) So who is populating the seminaries now? People like this:

At a time when U.S. college enrollment is shrinking, Benedictine’s expansion over the last 15 years has included four new residence halls, a new dining hall and an academic center. An immense new library is being built. The roar of construction equipment never seems to stop. Enrollment, now about 2,200, has doubled in 20 years. Students, many of whom grew up in conservative Catholic families, jokingly call it “the Benedictine bubble.” And it might be a window into the future of the Catholic Church in America.

I suspect you won’t be seeing anybody calling for the death of the Jews on that campus either.

I find it interesting that the article never mentions Mother Angelica and EWTN who spent decades working to get Catholics catechized with the truth while the Vatican II people didn’t bother. That combined with the liberals going elsewhere means that people who actually believe had the seed of th word planted on good soil, the result:


But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.

Luke 8:15

And it’s those faithful Catholics who are bearing fruit and giving meaning to their kids in the world that doesn’t offer any.

In the end any institution belongs to those who show up. The conservatives who actually believe the teachings taught those teaching to their children and thus their children go to church and pass those teaching on. The liberals who didn’t bother did not so they find themselves in a church and wonder where their Elks club went.

It’s simple demographics.

Merrick Garland is a coward

Posted: May 5, 2024 by John Ruberry in catholic, education, Israel, Israel vs Hamas, News/opinion, opinion/news, politics
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By John Ruberry

In terms of numbers and in geographic reach, America is possibly suffering from its worse outbreak of anti-Semitism ever. I’m referring of course to the pro-Hamas and anti-Israel protests at many colleges. Many of these “spontaneous” events are illegal encampments filled with similar tents, exact-copy signs, that are populated with angry students and other interlopers chanting the same slogans.

Fortunately, for now at least, the worst outrages at these hate rallies are isolated incidents.

Last month, a protester at George Washington University held a sign with a Palestinian flag and “the final solution.” At Columbia, a protest leader, the pronoun challenged Khymani James, was banned from campus after a video surfaced where, James declared, “Zionists don’t deserve to live.”

Also at Columbia, a knucklehead there screamed, “Go back to Poland, go back to Belarus” at pro-Israel counter protesters.

Can you imagine the uproar–it would be a well-deserved one–if someone screamed, “Go back to Africa” to Black protesters? The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division would be there at Navy Seals speed.

The head of the Department of Justice is Merrick Garland, the US attorney general. When the situation fits, he likes to remind people that he is Jewish and had two members of his family perish in the Holocaust.

Last year, when questioned about the infamous FBI memo that suggested Catholics who favor traditional Latin mass services could connected to “the far-right white nationalist movement,” Garland responded emotionally. “The idea that someone with my family background would discriminate against any religion is so outrageous,” he said, “so absurd.”

In March, in an address to the left-leaning Anti-Defamation League’s Never is Now Summit, Garland was more specific about his family and the Holocaust.

“My family fled the pogroms of Eastern Europe at the start of the 20th century,” he said. “My grandmother, who was one of five children born in what is now Belarus, made it to the United States, as did two of her siblings.”

“The other two did not,” the AG continued. “They were killed in the Holocaust.”

Oh yeah, Belarus, the same place the hater at Columbia said, along with Poland, Jews should return to.

Garland is a native of Lincolnwood, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. He graduated–as class valedictorian-from Niles West High School in nearby Skokie. It was in Skokie, several years after Garland’s graduation, where Neo-Nazis attempted to march. Thousands of Holocaust survivors lived in Skokie at the time; Garland almost certainly was classmates with children of survivors of the Shoah.

Why hasn’t Garland specifically and forcefully spoken out against the anti-Semitism at these pro-Hamas protests? His boss, President Joe Biden, hasn’t either, of course.

When the time is right–or better, when the politics are right–Garland speaks out against anti-Semitism.

But is Garland even running the Justice Department? In the May 3rd Chicago Way podcast hosted by John Kass, the great Charles Lipson, a professor emeritus of political science from the University Chicago, had this to say about Garland: “The attorney general’s office right now is being running by a woman named Lisa Monaco, she’s the number two-person, Merrick Garland’s not doing anything.”

Well, he can do something now. Garland can unequivocally denounce the anti-Semitic protests at college campuses and the Biden administration’s weak response to them.

And then resign.

It’s up to Garland to convince me that he’s not a coward.

John Rubery regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Bonchie Nails It. Let them Reap

Posted: May 5, 2024 by datechguy in culture, education

You know the more I read this tweet the more I agree with it:

For decades blue states and even bluer universities have decided to enable and encourage this stuff. They have done so of their own free will and when given the choice of doing so nor not have made the choice to do so.

Maybe for status, maybe for Arab dollars, maybe because they hate their political foes or those who practice the Judeo-Christians faiths in earnest so much that they’d rather suffer if it gives them the slightest hurt.

But for whatever reason they have decided that this is how they want their states, cities and universities run and have rejected chances to change direction.

Part of freedom is the freedom to be stupid and self destructive. So be it:

  • Let these states hemorrhage the productive and the faithful.
  • Let these cities lose their tax base
  • Let these universities lose their reputations and their graduates become unemployable

Let it continue until the pain is so great that they cry out and do something about it, because they will not learn otherwise.

And we must accept the fact that they may never learn at all, so be it.

Closing thought: This reminds me of an exorcist who described the encounter with a demon during exorcism. The demon under noted that at the time of their rebellion they understood what would happen when they rebelled and the suffering of Hell that would be upon them and did it anyways. When asked by the priest doing the exorcism if he would do it again if given a second chance the demon answered with a quick and unequivocal “Yes!” It reminds one of an important point.

Every single person who is in hell is there by their own choice. As so many people choose hell in death, why should we be surprised that they make such choices in life?

Treat female murderers equally

Posted: May 4, 2024 by navygrade36bureaucrat in crime
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Equality before the law should mean just that: equal treatment before the law, no matter who you are. Supposedly women are equal to men, yet time and time again, women are allowed to engage in awful, illegal behavior and get lighter sentences.

Look no further than this week, where Heather Pressdee, a nurse, murdered multiple old people in different nursing homes in Pennsylvania by administering more insulin than their bodies could handle. She did this deliberately, often timing it so the person would die before being taken to a hospital in order to hide her crime. It’s outrageously despicable, yet she avoided the death penalty.

You can read the sob story of Christa Pike, who brutally murdered Colleen Slemmer in 1996. The argument is she was 18 and made a mistake. Sounds reasonable right? A quick Wikipedia search describes Christa Pike’s crimes:

  • On January 12, 1995, Pike, Shipp, Peterson, and Slemmer signed out of the dormitory and proceeded to the woods, where Slemmer was told they wanted to make peace by offering her some marijuana.[5] Upon arrival at the secluded location, Slemmer was attacked by Pike and Shipp while Peterson acted as lookout. According to later court testimony, for the next thirty minutes Slemmer was taunted, beaten, and slashed; and a pentagram was carved in her chest.[6][7] Finally, Pike smashed Slemmer’s skull with a large chunk of asphalt, killing her. Pike kept a piece of Slemmer’s skull.[5]

Keeping a piece of her skull? Carving a pentagram on her chest? That’s not a crime of passion or an accident. While not slated for execution yet, she lost her last appeal recently.

Lastly, how about the story of Miranda Cassarez, a San Antonio woman who starved her four-year-old stepson to death? The kid was only 28 pounds when he died at the local hospital. She was completely unrepentant and attempted to push the blame to anyone but herself. She’ll get 99 years in prison. I have a 4 year old at home, and while the kid sometimes drives me crazy, I can’t bear the thought of starving him to death.

Women are literally getting away with murder. True equality means we allow people, despite their gender, to suffer equal consequences before the law.

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