Posts Tagged ‘catholic’

My Suggestion to St. Mary’s Fire the Board, Fire the President

Posted: December 22, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions
Tags: , , , ,

It is a good thing that St. Mary’s Catholic College for Women in Indiana has reversed their decision to admit men who identify as women to their college after huge pressure from alumni and their Bishop who noted that both Pope Benedict XVI:

No doubt Saint Mary’s College desires to promote love, inclusion, and acceptance within the community. But it does not do so authentically when it separates love from truth. In his encyclical Caritas in Veritate (Charity in Truth), Pope Benedict XVI wrote: “Only in truth does charity shine forth, only in truth can charity be authentically lived. Truth is the light that gives meaning and value to charity… Without truth, charity degenerates into sentimentality. Love becomes an empty shell, to be filled in an arbitrary way. In a culture without truth, this is the fatal risk facing love. It falls prey to contingent subjective emotions and opinions, the word ‘love’ is abused and distorted, to the point where it comes to mean the opposite” (#3).

And Pope Francis

Pope Francis also teaches about the intimate connection between truth and love in his first encyclical, Lumen Fidei (The Light of Faith). He writes: “Love requires truth. Only to the extent that love is grounded in truth can it endure over time, can it transcend the passing moment and be sufficiently solid to sustain a shared journey. If love is not tied to truth, it falls prey to fickle emotions and cannot stand the test of time. True love, on the other hand, unifies all the elements of our person and becomes a new light pointing the way to a great and fulfilled life” (#27).

note that you can’t separate “love” and “Truth”.

Despite this reversal I recommend asking for the resignation of both the President of the college and the current board of trusties and if they don’t resign, their dismissal.

Why, well despite the Bishops charitable description of their initial decision’s motives let’s look at the initial announcement of their now reversed policy.

Conboy said in the email that the Board “fully supports” the new policy.

“This confidence from our Board underscores their commitment that as an employer, Saint Mary’s must stand firm in its position as an inclusive community leader, and that as educators, we should continue to create an environment where all women belong and thrive,” Conboy wrote.

By definition the president of a Catholic college and such a college’s board should be both defenders of the faith and examples of how the faith should be practiced and imparted to young people who are to be educated at their school.

Yet not only did the president of said college celebrate this change but noted that the board “fully supported” it. No sign of dissenters, no sign of objections, no members of the board threatening to resign or making a public declaration that this is contrary to the faith. None of those things moved them.

But the backlash sure did:

As this last month unfolded, we lost people’s trust and unintentionally created division where we had hoped for unity. For this, we are deeply sorry.

Forgive me for saying this but I submit and suggest this is a lie, I think the truth is more like what this member of the Alumni said about the reversal:

“When this admissions decision became public hundreds of alumni banded together to stand for the Church and her teachings,” said Clare Ath, who graduated from the college in 2018. “While I would hope the reversal is because administrators realized we must teach the truth with love, my guess is the reversal is because alumni banded together, pulled their donations, notified their diocese and media, and said we will not let Our Lady’s college be corrupted by secular gender ideology.”

Put simply they’re not sorry they did it, they’re sorry that they received pushback and faced the loss of donation and support.

This suggests that if some time in the future a less vigilant Bishop is in place they will try something like this again. My thought is “why take a chance?” There are no shortage of faithful Catholics who actually believe what the Church teaches who are qualified for both the board and the presidency.

So I humbly suggest for the good of the future of the college that the president and the board resign en masse to make room for people who will be dedicated to keeping this particular Catholic college Catholic.

Closing thought: This post gave me Anna Maria College Visit flashbacks. I suspect his decision to not go there is a contributing factor for him remaining a devout #catholic into his 30’s.

This Explains a lot on Fauci

Posted: December 2, 2023 by datechguy in catholic
Tags: ,

Saw this quote via Instapundit today that explains an awful lot about why a Doctor who was old enough to take the actual Hippocratic oath did what he did over the last four years:

Next up, they walk past the church at Georgetown where Fauci got married. We then find out that the good doctor no longer practices religion, as he is guided by a higher moral authority: “my own personal ethics.”

As a rule it’s usually doesn’t end one when you decide to remake God in your own image particularly when you’re a Catholic as you should know better.

Fauci lives a comfortable life at 82 (83 on Christmas Eve) but as he is 83 I would remind him of this quote:

What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life?

Matt 16:26

Fortunately the last rights (now called the sacrament of the sick) carries with it the same absolution of sins that confession does.

Pray for Fauci & his family and if you’re reading this and are part of those who have or are threating him or his family may I suggest this two step plan:

  1. Cut it out at once
  2. Go to confession

It may or may not end well for him but trust me Hell will be no more bearable and Heaven no less glorious if you turn and see Fauci next to you there.

December Indulgence Calendar (makes a great Liturgical New Years Resolution)

Posted: December 1, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions
Tags: , ,

It’s time for the indulgence calendar for December. First the regular one.

indulgence-calendar-dec-2023Download

And then the blank one:

indulgence-calendar-blank-dec-2023Download

This is the last full day of the liturgical year. As the new year begins tomorrow let me wish you a happy liturgical new year and suggest that praying the indulgence calendar on days when you attend mass would be an excellent liturgical new years resolution

Don’t Poke the Bear. Catholic Edition

Posted: November 26, 2023 by datechguy in catholic, catholic devotions
Tags: , ,

There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at with no result.

Winston Churchill

Two days ago I was taking a quick peek at Youtube in between the work/sleep cycle that the seven to fourteen days that black friday entails when I saw this video from Christine Niles who I recognized from Church Militant:

This was the first I had heard of Michael Voris resignation from Church Militant. I watched his statement when I did it reminded me of something a particular priest once mentioned in passing. That it was during Mass when he prayers the Eucharistic Prayers that he finds himself most attacked by the devil and that brings me to one of the most basic facts about the war for souls, something that my pastor and spiritual advisor has said move and over.

Don’t poke the bear.

One of the real dangers in deciding to take part in the war for souls is that the closer to the front lines you get the more you’re under the fire from the enemy. To a regular person the battle for your soul might be almost invisible. To the faithful and to those who struggle against sin it is more apparent but how much more for a religious?

A novice might be a target and struggle but the nuns are a bigger one and the target an individual nun is nothing compared to a Prioress whose call can bring down others.

A seminarian might struggle but a bigger target is a priest tending his flock or the Bishop who is over dozens of priests or a Cardinal and the biggest target is always the Pope and those who surround him because if you can bring down the top so many may be crushed beneath them by the fall.

It is the same in law ministry or apostolates the higher you go, the more prominent you are in the fight the more vulnerable you are to a fall, and the thing to remember is that it’s a battle of attrition.

And while there is nothing more exhilarating then watching the devil run when you meet him face to face the real victory doesn’t come from that transitory moment, it comes from the persistence in prayer and the trust in Christ that keeps him at bay.

Niles noted that Voris stopped leading the group in prayer as he once regularly did and that one of the first signs of trouble for a soul is when it walks from prayer. For the lay person prayer is an indispensable part of the life of faith how much more so for one on the front lines confronting the works of the enemy daily? That’s when the foothold is established and C. S. Lewis noted the results of such a situation:

If such a feeling is allowed to live, but not allowed to become irresistible and flower into real repentance, it has one invaluable tendency. It increases the patient’s reluctance to think about the Enemy. All humans at nearly all times have some such reluctance; but when thinking of Him involves facing and intensifying a whole vague cloud of half-conscious guilt, this reluctance is increased tenfold. ‘They hate every idea that suggests Him, just as men in financial embarrassment hate the very sight of a pass-book.

Screwtape 13

The first duty of a person is to secure their own soul. Until that is done it’s almost impossible to help secure others as Christ put it:

Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.

Matt: 7:3-5

Based on Voris video and this post that followed:

I suspect he put off with dealing with an issue or tried to do it handle it himself rather than turning to Christ in prayer and the sacraments.

How will it end? I don’t know, there are plenty of people, particularly those who don’t want scrutiny that will enjoy his fall hoping it takes the apostolate with him. For me I’ll be praying for the lot and keeping this as a object lesson to remember the wise words of my pastor.

Don’t poke the bear.

Older Entries
Newer Entries