Some years ago, a relative -- who had stopped going to Mass -- explained to my dad that he didn't attend the large suburban parish up-the-street because, he said, he "didn't want to be a f*cking butterfly." My dad wasn't quite sure what this relative meant, until he attended the parish, and saw himself the effete undertones to much of what passed for spirituality there.

and truthfully, I don't think my dad had much of an answer about the parish either.

@lukei4655 He can get an insult of departure. Since the Church permits departure from solemn vows, are you sure about this? @lukei4655 If Holy Mother Church gives you an indult, I have a hard time with the idea that availing yourself of it puts you in grave danger.

Purely from a business perspective, I think one mistake of Church Militant was to significantly build up their operation in the post-McCarrick Catholic media boom.

I suspect they imagined 2018-2019 eyeballs and dollars would last forever.

That left them with a big monthly spend And then, building a “rage-audience” is also probably short-sighted, from a business perspective, because rage is exhausting so you wear through your audience

It appears that the Church Militant website has settled its defamation lawsuit with a financial settlement and apology to a New Hampshire priest:

churchmilitant.com/news/article/s… the apology admitted that the Church Militant lawsuit allowed disgraced canon lawyer Marc Baliesteri write an anonymous news report about a situation in which he was entangled, in which he made unsubstantiable claims about the NH priest, citing anonymous sources.

Here's the latest on the Church Militant defamation lawsuit.

Michael Voris has until Jan 24 at 4:30 pm to present a lawyer to the court. If he doesn't, the judge will rule in favor of the plaintiff by default. Original deadline was 1/16/24, but judge gave an extension. Church Militant itself has presented a lawyer, so the judgment would be against Voris in favor of the plaintiff, along with Church Militant staffer Anita Carey.

Here's something: It should be obvious that the curriculum of a Catholic school is drawn from the rich patrimony of Christian history.

Why should I want my children to get anything less than the fullness of the faith, and the fruit of the cultures formed in it? When a music teacher picks a secular song instead of a piece of music with Christian meaning and identity, my kid is getting cheated.

When art is not as framed as creation of the beautiful, he's getting robbed.

No context Christmas morning:



If you can guess accurately, you get a prize.

In light of the Vatican's announcement today, please note:
I would like the whole of my body to be buried unembalmed, in a simple shroud in a pine box. But i would also like mourners to pay tribute to me by placing large piles of cash, Lindor truffles, and Camels Light atop that pine box.

Hello, welcome to the Tuesday afternoon session of #USCCB23. The bishops are beginning with midday prayer. On the schedule this afternoon, the bishops will hear presentations on very many items they will vote on tomorrow.

These include voting on new translations for the Order of Blessing of an abbot/abbess, the order of consecration of virgins, the order of religious professions.

A note I got today.

I love the Church like my mother. That's why I'm not allowed to stop. My quick google search of the note's email address showed it belongs to a priest who admitted to sexually abusing a teenager and was laicized.

Good lord.

did something just happen whereby you can't see easily who liked or retweeted something?

what the hell? does this website fail to understand what it's users are actually interested in?

Here, the National Catholic Reporter presents, unquestioned, the idea that the "the church teaches that 'a council is the highest authority in the church."

This is a bit problematic.

(cont) An ecumenical council does possess "supreme and full power over the universal Church" -- the highest KIND of authority in the life of the Church, to be sure.

Here Stallone shadowboxes for a moment with the pontiff.

If you’re wondering, the answer is yes. If Stallone had hit him, he would have incurred a latae sententiae excommunication, with remission reserved to the Apostolic See, per c 1370.

https://twitter.com/vaticannews/status/1700128585170747774

For context, @VaticanNews deleted its delightful video of the Stallones meeting the pope.

🤷‍♂️

Ok, real talk (it’s wonky Vatican politics + policy)

— The reason the Opus Dei thing is happening is because Ghirlanda has become a powerful ally and advisor of the pope.

— Most canonists I speak with, even those who otherwise disagree with Ghirlanda, agree on this.

Cont. - Opus Dei canonists and OD trained canonists have a different view of what personal prelatures are than do most

- B/c of TC, this is seen thru an ideological lens. But Ghirlanda’s view of prelatures, whatever he might think of Opus Dei, is not seen that way by canonists.

So, what @PagliaAbp likes on Twitter is extremely confusing:

So I just heard Jim Caviezel say that "children that have 47 chromosomes ... can't sin, they're holy."

Ok, so it's time to talk about this. Because I live with children who have 47 chromosomes. Every day, I live with them. They can sin.

I promise you. Having 47 chromosomes, by the way, means having a trisomy genetic defect -- usually trisomy 21, Down syndrome, though there are others.

People with tri-21 have intellectual disabilities, among other health problems.

The Council of Trent taught this in the 1500s, and the Church has always held it.

Vatican II didn't change that at all.

https://twitter.com/americamag/status/1643244691519942656

It was common to practice conditional baptism before Vatican II when someone entered the Church, in case there was a defect of form. But that it was a conditional baptism indicates that the Church recognized the validity of baptism in non-Catholic contexts.

Luis Armando Torres, Jr, was a father, a husband, and a survivor of clerical sexual abuse.

He was an attorney, and a public servant in New York City.

He was also an advocate for survivors of clerical sexual abuse.

Luis died today. Please pray for him.

Luis spoke prophetically to the @USCCB in 2018, amid the McCarrick scandal, recounting years of pain, despair, and shame after abuse.

He spoke vulnerably and truthfully.

"The heart of the Church is broken, and you need to fix this, now," he told the bishops.

Well, thanks to Nashville, my stomach hurts at school drop off.

So I did the only reasonable thing: sing loud songs on the playground with my kid and then shout with flourish: “don’t forget I’m proud of you” a few times while he walks into school. He thinks his dad’s hilarious. But I’m just trying to leave him at school, instead of staying all day to look out for him, like every other parent wants to do these days.

March 21 is observed as World Down Syndrome Day.

3-21 was chosen b/c Down syndrome is trisomy of the 21st human chromosome - 3 of them, while most ppl have 2.

As you know, I write and share a lot about Down syndrome, b/c ppl with Down syndrome have changed my life. namely, these ppl right here:

The first time I met someone who went to the Extraordinary Form, I was about 20. He was 20 years my senior, a dad, and he attended SSPX liturgies.

I couldn’t believe it. I was incredulous someone would choose the “imperfect communion,” as the Church calls it, of the SSPX. I met this guy at a kind of party of some kind of FUS alums, and we were hanging out near a fire. I pushed him hard on his SSPX attendance. Used every argument I knew against it.