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SO often one sees the clergy of Conciliar Church laughing. An especially vivid example comes from yesterday's ceremony in Washington, D.C. installing Robert McElroy as one of its cardinals. The grins said, "We're not in the least worried." Sure, untold millions have defected. Sure, tens of thousands of schools, hospitals and sacred congregations have closed or are nearly closed. Sure, few good men come to our doors. Sure, we've lost whole continents to the faith. Sure, more and more people are accusing us of being heretics and apostates. Sure, we are the object of scandal and reproach, some of it earned and some of it not. Sure, we ourselves detest Catholicism. But all is well --- and we will laugh. The megaphones of the media reprised its beloved theme. The Catholic Church is an institution that approves child molestation and rape, we are told. And some righteously gathered in Washington to accuse -- justly -- these purported bishops of racketeering in their funding of the migrant invasion of America. But the news as usual entirely missed the most important story. These men are not cardinals or even members of the Catholic Church. The Catholic church is not simply an organization. It's not a club. It's a faith, a body of defined beliefs and laws. One of those beliefs is that if you reject even one article of the Faith, you are not a member of the Catholic Church. One cannot…

  

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JESUS returned from the Jordan full of the Holy Spirit, and by the Spirit he was led on into the wilderness, where he remained forty days, tempted by the devil. During those days he ate nothing, and when they were over, he was hungry. Then the devil said to him, If thou art the Son of God, bid this stone turn into a loaf of bread. Jesus answered him, It is written, Man cannot live by bread only; there is life for him in all the words that come from God. And the devil led him up on to a high mountain, and shewed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time; I will give thee command, the devil said to him, over all these, and the glory that belongs to them; they have been made over to me, and I may give them to whomsoever I please; come then, all shall be thine, if thou wilt fall down before me and worship. Jesus answered him, It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God; to him only shalt thou do service. Luke 4:1-8 (Knox Bible)  

FROM a 2011 post:

Melanie Thernstrom, the daughter of neoconservative authors Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom, has written of her experience hiring an egg donor and two different surrogates to provide her and her husband with an instant family of two children. This real-life version of Margaret Atwood’s reproductive dystopia in The Handmaid’s Tale is told with a confusing blend of self-awareness and self-deceit. The absence of any blatant coercion in the many contractual arrangements Thernstrom and her husband, Michael Callahan, made with others, including with the woman who supplied breast milk, is chillingly representative of technocratic liberalism.

Liberal society blandly draws people in with a system of material rewards and the appearance of mutual necessity. Thernstrom met with the donor and surrogates in coffee shops, where they held friendly chats and cheerily deliberated. Everyone had something to gain but all self-interest could be couched in altruistic terms. The donors only wanted to help. They weren’t looking for money. Thernstrom only wanted to do something utterly natural – have a family – and do the best for her marriage. She wasn’t shopping for children in the way one might shop for a car. (more…)

FROM a 1960 pastoral letter by Cardinal Giuseppe Siri on the psychological and cultural effects of women wearing pants:

In fact, as relations between the two sexes unfold with time’s passing, an instinct of mutual attraction becomes predominant. The essential base of this attraction is a difference between the two sexes that is made possible only by the fact that one complements the other. If, then, this difference becomes less marked because one of its major external signs is eliminated, and because the normal psychological structure is weakened, then a fundamental factor in the relation changes.

The problem goes even further. Chronologically, the mutual attraction between the sexes is naturally preceded by that sense of shame that restrains the rising of the primary instincts, imposes respect for one another, and tends to elevate the mutual esteem and a salutary fear to a higher level regarding those instincts, which otherwise would push forward to uncontrolled acts. To change the clothing – which by its difference reveals and maintains the limits of nature and its natural defenses – levels such distinctions and helps to diminish the vital defenses of the sense of shame. (more…)

For my loins are filled with illusions: and there is no soundness in my flesh. I am afflicted and humbled exceedingly: I have roared for the groaning of my heart.  Ps. 37

FROM How to Root Out Hidden Faults by Fr. James F. McElhone (1952):

“It is obvious that, unless we know our faults, we cannot detest them and consequently cannot correct them. A study of self very often reveals that self-love has clouded our view, hiding in deceit those faults which are so apparent to those about us and so open to God. No doubt our spiritual director has helped us to see ourselves as we really are; our superior more than likely has come to our assistance; sermons and conferences and spiritual readings have shed new light on the actual state of our souls. But if such knowledge is to be truly useful as a means of improvement, we should be on the alert not to fall into new faults while we are fighting the old ones.” (more…)

"[W]HAT happens when this nutritional lifeline is severed? What happens when the poorest among us—those who rely on eggs as a cheap, accessible source of sustenance—are suddenly priced out of the market? The answer is as stark as it is devastating: malnutrition, weakened immune systems, and a deepening cycle of poverty, wherein these people turn to processed unhealthy foods. "The poorest populations are always the hardest hit by food shortages and price hikes. For families living on the edge of survival, eggs are often the difference between a meal and hunger, between health and illness. When the price of eggs triples or quadruples overnight, these families are forced to make impossible choices. Do they spend their limited income on eggs, or do they sacrifice nutrition to pay for rent, medicine, or school fees? The result is a reduction in access to essential nutrients, leading to a cascade of health problems that disproportionately affect children, the elderly, and the vulnerable. To replace eggs, one may turn to other sources of food, such as meat. Yet, meat, while beneficial on its own terms, cannot replace the egg. "By disrupting the availability of eggs, those in power are not just raising prices—they are eroding the health and resilience of the poorest populations. This is not an accident; it is a calculated move. When you control the food supply, you control the people. And when you remove access to affordable, nutrient-dense foods like eggs, you…

 Link THE decline is largely due to demographics. These cities are increasingly non-white.  

ALOIS Karl Hudal (1885-1963) was a German Catholic theologian and bishop in his prime during the rise of National Socialism in Germany. American Reform at Substack has posted about Hudal's important observations on the subject of race: Hudal was an advocate of German nationalism and believed in the need for a reconciliation between Christianity and certain aspects of National Socialism. In 1937, he published Die Grundlagen des Nationalsozialismus (The Foundations of National Socialism), in which he sought to create a bridge between the Catholic Church and the German Reich. Years earlier, in defense of the Church, he played an instrumental role in securing a reproval of several anti-Christian National Socialist ideologues, notably Alfred Rosenberg and Ernst Bergmann. Their works, The Myth of the Twentieth Century and The German National Church, respectively, were condemned by the Holy Office, based on his analysis. His book on National Socialism, making a key distinction between Christian and unchristian strains in the movement, was delivered to Adolf Hitler, bearing the handwritten note of dedication, praising him as “the new Siegfried of German greatness”. This same work would receive an imprimatur from Cardinal Innitzer, an Austrian prelate, in 1937. AR includes an excerpt from the book and it is highly relevant. Bishop Hudal wrote: A solid racial science, a prudent racial care and therefore a racial protection within certain limits is something that is entirely desirable and necessary. But racial research must never become a playground for dilettantism. It would be regrettable if…

"IRE may be understood in two ways. "In one way, as a simple movement of the will that inflicts punishment not through passion, but by virtue of a judgment of the reason: and in this case, without a doubt, lack of ire is a sin. This is how Chrysostom understands ire when he says: ‘Ire, when it has a cause, is not ire but judgment. For properly speaking, ire is a movement of passion. And when a man is irate with just cause, his ire does not derive from passion. Rather, it is an act of judgment, not of ire.” "In another way, ire can be understood as a movement of the sensitive appetite agitated by passion with bodily excitation. This movement is a necessary sequel in man to the previous movement of his will, since the lower appetite naturally follows the movement of the higher appetite unless some obstacle prevents it. Hence the movement of ire in the sensitive appetite cannot be lacking altogether, unless the movement of the will is altogether lacking or weak. Consequently, the lack of the passion of ire is also a vice, as it is the lack of movement in the will to punish according to the judgment of reason." -- St. Thomas Aquinas  

"Go forth and see king Solomon, that is, Christ, in His diadem, that is to say, the crown of thorns with which His mother the Synagogue has crowned Him; in the day of His espousals, the day when He joined to Himself the Church; and in the day of the joy of His heart, the day in which He rejoiced that by His Passion He was delivering the world from the power of the devil. Go forth, therefore, and leave behind the darkness of unbelief, and see, understand with your minds that He who suffers as man is really God." --- St. Thomas Aquinas, Meditations for Each Day of Lent  

BE ye not like unto horse and mule, who have no understanding. With bit and bridle bind fast the jaws of those who come not nigh unto Thee. Many are the scourges of the sinner, but mercy shall compass him that hopeth in the Lord. Be glad, O ye just, and rejoice in the Lord; and glory all ye that are right of heart. --- Psalm 31  

"HAVE mercy on me, O God, according to Thy great mercy. And according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies: blot out my iniquity. Wash me more yet from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is always before me. Against Thee only have I sinned, and done evil in Thy sight: that Thou mayst be justified in Thy words, and mayst overcome when Thou art judged. For behold, I was conceived in iniquities: and in sins did my mother conceive me. For behold, Thou hast loved truth: the uncertain and hidden things of Thy wisdom Thou hast made manifest unto me." Psalm 50 Praying the seven Penitential Psalms each day in Lent has a long tradition.  

THE goal of the Trump administration is to discredit American conservatism once and for all. This is what Communists do -- sabotage economies to weaken all resistance so they can take control. (Video source)  

I knew he was not to be trusted.

Read here and here. (more…)