Posts Tagged ‘catholic’

Ending Celibacy in the Catholic Church A Solution that Causes Problems and Solves None

Posted: July 13, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, Church doctrine
Tags:

Today I noticed this tweet from Church Militant:

The fact is while the motives for those pushing this might not be all that pure I find this issue interesting because unlike Gay Marriage or communion for the divorced this isn’t an issue that involves making mortal sin licit.

Many people forget that the imposition of celibacy on the priesthood was itself a reform to stop inherited parishes being passed down to sons as a family business rather than being about the worship of God, so if this reform was rolled back while it would be a big change from what we’re used to it would not be an assault on the doctrine of the church.

But there is a difference between this change being “licit” and it being wise. Let me give you a few reasons why this would be a rather foolish idea.

  1. Time: If there is one thing that you will notice about your parish priest is that his time is at a premium. Between masses, hospital and nursing home visits, and various duties attending parishioners in need, a priest is very busy particularly give these duties are a 24/7 situation. Add to that the administrative duties and you leave very little time to take care of a wife and family.
  2. Cost: Right now the cost of medical care for retired priests is a significant expense. Consider what costs you would be adding to the church in general and to parishes in particular if you added the cost of insuring a priest, his wife and children.
  3. Housing: Once you are housing a priest his wife and his family you suddenly need bigger accommodations. While this might not be a disaster when you have a rectory that has a single priest when it was built to house several, if you have a parish with multiple priests suddenly housing one or more families becomes a real problem.
  4. Scandal: What do you think will be the situation when a priest and his wife quarrel? Or a priest and his son? What happens when a priest’s son or daughter gets in trouble or if you run into a situation where a wife wants to leave? All of these things not only consume time to try to repair but have the potential for scandal within the church.
  5. Jealousy: Anyone who has been in a parish for any amount of years will notice that there are a group of women who tend to pursue priests some more subtle than others. What do you think will happen when it is suddenly licit for a priest to get married? The pursuit of eligible priests in a parish will be a lot more brazen with results that will generate a lot of difficultly in for a man trying to fulfill his pastoral duties. And can you picture the type of trouble a woman whose advances are rejected by a priest can cause? Does the church really need that?

And of course none of this will solve the problem of predatory priests when you consider that four out of five cases involve homosexual behavior, in fact you might end up with the horrible situation where a priest uses a wife as a “beard” to cover such behavior. And these are just the problems that I’ve come up with today.

Five Fast Thoughts Under the Fedora: Pre-Sedgwick Syndrome, Watching a Republic Die, I’ll Never Tell, Still getting it, The Old Man’s Burden

Posted: June 23, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, culture, Israel, middle east, News/opinion, under the fedora
Tags: , , , , , , ,

 The death of the maker of the Titanic Sub and those who traveled with them is not unremarkable as those with wealth have been taking large risks for centuries but when I heard that in interviews he had stated he rejected hiring experienced submariners because he didn’t want a bunch of 50 year old white guys all I could think of was General John Sedgwick saying about rebel snipers with new rifles with telescopic sights: “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” just before being shot by one.

The primary difference being that Sedgwick lived long enough after he was hit to appreciate the irony of his word, reports now coming out state there was an implosion and all those aboard died instantly.

RIP

The more I see of what is happening on the national level the more I’m amazed at the country doing its level best to go along with national suicide.

Of course historically this is consistent with republics, but what a difference between reading about such things and living it.

Mind you in a generation with the left spaying their own kids that managed to survive the womb it might be moot as the future still belongs to those who show up.

There’s that Tom Hagen math again.

Yet another futile terrorist attack has taken place in Israel.

As always Israel will survive it and do their level best to go after those who helped out but in the end none of these things are going to bring down the state, nor frankly will Iran’s nuclear dreams as Israel, particularly with Biden in the White House is not going to allow itself to be destroyed to sate those who own him.

For Nearly 80 years the Arabs have dreamt of the destruction of Israel. As a supporter of Israel, I ironically see the obvious way for them to achieve those ends and have done so for a long while but it has never has and likely never will occur to them.

How you ask? That’s a secret I’ll take to my grave.

Attended my Godfather/Uncle’s wake yesterday taking a day off work for the final relative of the generation ahead of me to die. I was sitting praying my rosary as people reached the receiving line and I heard an interesting exchange as a couple greeted My uncle’s son who lead it. They had not seen them for years and marveled at their son and daughter now near 30 and asked:

“Any Grandchildren?”

“No they’re not married.” answered my cousin’s wife.

The friends noted that these days that’s not necessary and while my devout Catholic Uncle’s dead body naturally did not flinch at the exchange in my mind’s eye his soul was fist pumping that his son and daughter in law had brought up their children right.

Finally today I’ll be having lunch with some friends from work who no longer see since I’ve been transferred to another building down the road. It’s important to keep up in person contacts like this in a digital world when possible but I must confess it’s very weird in the sense that of the friends I make the vast majority are young enough to be my children and some young enough to be my grandchildren.

Sometimes this is very hard because I’m very aware of my faults and failings and grateful for the sacrament of confession to be absolved of them but when I’m with these young folks it’s incumbent on me to carry myself in such a was as to set an example rather than in the relaxed way friends can be.

That’s a sentence that is rejected by those who spent a lifetime treating their kids as friends and doing all they can to pretend they will now grow old and die, but I suspect if they worried more about setting a good example our society and republic might not be dying before our eyes.

July 4th Adoration for the Nation

Posted: June 19, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions, Church doctrine
Tags: , , , ,

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Matthew 7:7-8

Two weeks ago my parish priest approached me concerning our weekly adoration (Mondays 8:30 to 7 PM, Tuesdays 8:30 to 4 pm) at our parish. Because July 4th falls on a Tuesday and the parade would block one of the regular routes to our church he wanted to know if we (myself and the other person who organizes the Adoration schedule) wanted to call it off for the day, after all many of the adorers might be attending the parade and/or spending the day with family and may not be free to come.

Now my wife being a nurse doesn’t have the 4th off but I do so I figured I could cover anyone who didn’t make it but the more I thought about it, looking at things like Minnesota going all in on abortion to the date of birth, Maryland, a state founded by Catholics going all in on Transgenderism and stuff like the Dodgers embrace of an anti Catholic group that even the San Francisco Giants had backed away from in the past, it struck me that if there was ever a day that we needed to approach God in the Blessed Sacrament it would be the 4th of July.

So in addition to telling our priest that we will have adoration as normal, I am urging Catholics across the USA to find a church or chapel that has Adoration on the 4th or if there is no such church or chapel available go online to one of the many perpetual adoration live streams offered and spend an hour with Christ in prayer for the country.

We’ll call it Adoration for the nation.

After all Christ urges us to persistence in prayer, let’s trust his word and ask.

…And Faith in Louisiana

Posted: June 12, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions, culture, Vive L'Empereur
Tags: , ,

I Like to think I’m a faithful Catholic. I don’t miss a weekend mass, make daily mass when I wake up on time (I get home from work between 12:35-12:45 AM) regularly go to confession, host a show called “Your Prayer Intentions” on WQPH 89.3 FM Shirley/Fitchburg and even am the author of a book titled: “Hail Mary the Perfect Protestant (and catholic) Prayer”.

But this guy: Ross McKnight He’s the real thing:

McKnight is a descendent of those Arcadians who were expelled from Nova Scotia by the British during their conquering of Canada in the French and Indian Wars and made their way to Louisiana eventually becoming known as Creoles. He has not forgotten his ancestors embracing both the French Language and the deep Catholic faith that said ancestors share. He supports his family by raising animals poultry at his Farm in a manner that would make the greenest of greens blush with pride:

When you visit Backwater Farmstead, the first thing you’ll notice is the greenery. We committed a long time ago to running our animals in systems that contribute to pasture fertility, and so, at the root of it – so to speak – we’re grass farmers. When the grass is healthy, the diverse biota that the poultry munch on have a good habitat, and, believe it or not, grass itself makes up a significant portion of our birds’ diet.

And if this isn’t enough to prove his environmentally sound credentials his company Backwater Foiegras as the name implies produces this very French delicacy along with specialty poultry seasonally. French Guinea fowl, Freedom Ranger chickens, Pekin ducks, and geese and Creole Bresse chicken. their diet: pasture, corn raw milk from the family cow. No GMOs and a local breed of sheep as well who are as his site indicates: “strictly grass fed”

But Mr. McKnight is dedicated to more than supporting his wife and five kids by raising animals, he’s dedicated to his Catholic Faith. So at the beginning of the month of June, a month long dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by the Church, suggested the following antidote to the “coup of the month of June”

1. As is our tradition, enthrone the Sacred Heart in your home this month, and place your family under the protection of the furnace of Christ’s most merciful love.

2. Wear the Sacred Heart as a badge wherever you go! If you know your history, you’ll know that it was meant to be the livery of France (and was that of the Vendéens)!

3. Pray the Rosary for the conversion of souls. Pray it in French.

4. Check out my most recent journal entry on our website.

For God and the King! For God the King! Pour Dieu et Le Roi ! Pour Dieu Le Roi !

A very French Catholic post by a proud Arcadian Catholic.

Alas however some of his biggest buyers, no matter how much they might like the quality of his products and his methods of farming, can not tolerate any dissent to the march of Pride month, particularly one based firmly in faith and as the Federalist reported the responses came fast and furious.

Within a few hours of his Instagram post, several of McKnight’s customers, some of whom he had a personal relationship with, began canceling their orders. This included McKnight’s biggest clients — two high-end New Orleans restaurants that previously committed to buying from him throughout the summer.

And how did he respond? Well in the way you might expect a Faithful Catholic to respond

Since his Instagram post, nearly two-thirds of McKnight’s business has evaporated, putting him and his family in a dire financial situation. Yet when interviewed by The Federalist, McKnight expressed a baffling sense of peace and even joy. “There’s that animal need to have food and shelter and clothing — certainly,” and “I’m concerned,” said McKnight. “But I don’t know how to precisely explain myself … I’ve lost everything overnight, but the suffering is valuable,” he said. 

That last sentence could have been written by St. Faustina herself. He had this to say in his latest response on Instagram:

It would be difficult to miss the fact that we are Catholics who sincerely hold what Holy Mother Church teaches.

Subsisting upon the realities of the Faith instills certain motivations and desires, one of those well-ordered desires being to make beautiful things, hence the very existence of our foie gras farm.

Recently, we received two texts from two restaurant owners who have decided that they’ve had enough of our Catholicism based on our latest Instagram feed post and have cancelled their large, recurring orders.

One of these restaurant owners had a long-standing relationship with us.

While we’ve never required our customers to pass a litmus test before serving them, it seems our values, which come from lives lived as Louisiana Catholics, are considered unacceptable by some.

We count it a privilege to have lost much.

It is an honor to participate, through the suffering of our family, in the triumph of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

As I said at the start of this post I like to think I’m a faithful Catholic but I’ve never had to risk all to back it up. At my age I have few ambitions left, but as the culture continues to sink and the price of faith continues to rise in our society my ambition would be to be to match the faith of Mr. McKnight when and if the time for testing comes.

Postscript: I’m not a foiegras guy but if what he’s selling is something you might find appealing you can check it out here.

Older Entries
Newer Entries