More disastrous data on the state of the Faith August 30, 2012
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, Dallas Diocese, disaster, error, General Catholic, North Deanery, sadness, scandals, sickness.comments closed
This comes from Catholic World Report:
Among the 19 percent of Catholics who described themselves as “committed” in their adherence to the faith, [good Lord, only 19% – less than 1 in 5 – are serious about the Faith]49 percent said it isn’t necessary for a “good” Catholic to go to Mass weekly, 60 percent said good Catholics needn’t follow Church teaching on birth control, 46 percent said the same about the teaching on divorce and remarriage, 31 percent about the teaching on abortion, and 48 percent about marrying in the Church. A surprising 39 percent even said good Catholics needn’t give time or money to help the poor. To repeat: these are Catholics who think they’re committed in their faith. [These people are horribly, horribly formed. What a scandal]
A level-headed friend, looking at those numbers, remarked, “It seems to me that there is an undeniable and severe crisis by any measure, at least so long as one thinks of Catholicism as something to believe in and adhere to because it is true. But so many Catholics today are universalists who think one religion is better than another only on subjective grounds of taste, personal history, tribal loyalty, and so forth.”
Much of the problem—again, thanks in part to theologians—lies in the fact that the teaching authority of the Church is denied or simply ignored by many American Catholics. “I’m old enough to make up my own mind about what to believe and what to do. I don’t need the Church telling me,” they say.
Now, the article at Catholic World Report doesn’t cite the poll or the methods used, but the data tracks well with the results of numerous other polls taken in recent years. The biggest thing I take away is that less than 10% of Catholics are truly serious about the Faith, meaning they not only self-report that seriousness but also submit to the Doctrine of the Faith with their intellect and will. In fact, the number is probably more like 3-5%. On another note, with the numbers above, it seems likely that many of the “bleeding-heart” type liberals are actually hard-hearted scrooges, desiring government programs (meaning you and I) to do their “charity” for them. This tracks with other data from the secular world.
This polling data, and the belief, or lack thereof it reveals – what can one say? It puts to the lie the bizarre fantasies of some of the more extreme elements of the spirit of Vatican II generation, still imagining a repressive, overbearing Church that crushes the life out of the sweet, poor, holy innocents in its charge. Because men like that Fr. Emmett Coyne have been in charge for the past 50 years, even those who consider themselves the most devout Catholics believe there is nothing wrong in rejecting core Dogmas and Precepts of the Church. If they even knew what a precept or a dogma was.
How did these ostensibly committed Catholics come to the conclusion that a “good” Catholic could skip Mass every week, abort, contracept, divorce and remarry, and in essence live an amoral, pagan lifestyle, all the while remaining, somehow, “faithful”? Where does this idea come from? Yes, surely, from their own pride, egoism, and self-pleasing, but, perhaps they’ve picked up some of it elsewhere? When Fr. Bob denigrated the Church for the 978th time, you think that might have had a bit of an impact? When Sr. Bob (heh) told the confirmation class that the Church was terrible, evil, wrong, up until the magical 60s, when it shifted towards goodness and light, only to retrench towards evil repression again – you think that had an impact? How about when the lay RCIA instructor told the class that “Luther had it right”……..you think that might have had an impact?
Good Lord, I can’t think of much distinction between these “committed” catholycs and the worst pagan libertines of Rome. I’m sure they’re down with fornication, adultery, and fornication, too.
This reminds me of a little incident after Mass this morning at the local diocesan parish. The layout of the church is kind of odd, but what used to be the narthex is now kind of a pseudo-seating area connected with the “nave-ish” area of the Church. Since this used to be the narthex, after Mass a lot of people still congregate and talk there, even though others are still trying to pray in the same area – this same area now being part of the “church proper.” At least most people try to whisper. But today, this older man and woman were talking about their work out regimens in really loud voices. I was fighting through it, but this Asian woman near me kept looking over at them, then she looked at me to do something. Then, she looked at me again. So, I told the loud talkers they needed to go to the new, actual narthex to continue their conversation. The man – who wears shorts and several sizes too small T-shirts to church every time I see him – said “we’re doing something spiritual, too,” before leaving. Really? Talking about your workout regimen and disrupting others praying quietly – that’s “spiritual?” Yes, surely, “spiritual,” but not “religious.”
Oy vey. We have so much work to do.
The conversion of John Wayne Nobles August 30, 2012
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, Ecumenism, Eucharist, Four Last Things, General Catholic, Glory, horror, Sacraments, sadness.comments closed
John Wayne Nobles, a man with a long rap sheet and history of drug and alcohol abuse, murdered two women and gravely wounded a man on an insane night in Austin in 1986. He confessed to all, and made no defense at trial. He was sentenced to death, and was executed in 1998. But along the way in Huntsville, he ran into two women who changed his life and radically converted him – Our Blessed Mother, and St. Catherine of Siena. Awesome story here:
Father Simon Roche, O.P. is the Promoter of Lay Dominicans in Cork, Ireland. He relates the story of a “cloistered brother.” This is the story of one of them, Jonathan Wayne Nobles. On the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, 7th of October 1998, Jonathan was executed by lethal injection at Huntsville prison, Texas. Jon was a Lay Dominican trying to follow Jesus in the spirit of St Dominic. In 1986, high on drugs Jonathan, then 25 years of age, stabbed two young women to death and seriously injured Ron Ross; a horrific crime for which he was sentenced to death. He was convicted almost entirely on the strength of his own confession. He never took the stand during his trial. He sat impassively as the guilty verdict was read out and only flinched slightly when the judge sentenced him to death. When he arrived at the prison he quickly alienated himself from the guards and most of the prisoners.
· Somehow, in what is among the most inhumane environments in the civilised world Jonathan began to change. In Huntsville prison, Jonathan underwent a conversion and entered the Church. A group of eleven young men present at the time of his admission to the Church were members of the St Martin de Porres Lay Dominican Chapter. Through them he became interested in the Dominicans and was received into their Chapter in 1989. In 1991 he made his final commitment and was instrumental in introducing other prisoners to the Lay Dominicans. He developed a deep devotion to the Rosary and to St Catherine of Siena. For eight years Jonathan was a spiritual leader on death row bringing the Good News to those who themselves faced the same sentence.· He stood as godfather at the baptism of Cliff Boggess, a fellow inmate. He later helped officiate at the Mass celebrated the night before Cliff Boggess was executed. He encouraged his companions to experience God’s word in the Scriptures and invited others to attend the celebration of the Eucharist. He loved the Eucharist and taught non-Catholics to present themselves to receive a blessing at the time of Communion. [In fact, very properly for a Catholic, his last day he fasted the entire day, until he received the Blessed Sacrament in what I pray was Holy Viaticum.]
It was the story of third order Dominican Saint Catherine of Siena’s conversion of Nicolo di Toldo, a convict who also had murdered, although his crime was committed during a civil uprising and at least it had some kind of justification. The man Saint Catherine converted was a man ravaged with despair, furious over the harsh justice of a death sentence that totally surprised him. She had to free Nicolo from a raging anger against the Sienese authorities and God Himself. In her hands, however, he became a lamb, begging her to be at his side at his execution, and repeating the names of “Jesus and Catherine” as she knelt by him at the scaffold to the end. Saint Catherine so loved Nicolo that when the axe fell she received his head into her arms.
Love’s Greatest Triumph – St. Peter Julian Eymard August 30, 2012
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, Dallas Diocese, General Catholic, Glory, Holy suffering, Interior Life, priests, religious, Tradition, Virtue.comments closed
Man, I have come to love the work of St. Peter Julian Eymard. Another extract from Volume VI of the “Eymard Library,” The Eucharistic Handbook:
Seeing God in everything, going to Him through everything, surrendering oneself entirely to His good pleasure of every moment, such is the invariable rule of an interior soul. 
God, His Glory, His Will, that is what makes up Christian life.
The only real happiness of a soul is to live according to the Holy Will of God. And if this Divine Will is crucifying, it becomes loves’ greatest triumph! [Oh, I pray that I may accept these crucifixions, instead of running from them! I pray I may stop pleasing myself and my fallen nature, instead of dying to myself as I should!]
The man of the world anticipates things, challenges them, forces them to serve his ends. The man of God waits for the hour of Divine Providence, helps the action of Grace, and devotes himself to the entire Will of God, present and future, but with a filial confidence that leaves all the care and glory to God in his Heavenly Father. [Don’t worry! Trust in God!]
God, Grace, and time are the Christian’s three great sources of power. He who wants only God and His Will of the moment is always in a state of peace and fervor. Place yourself in this Divine Center and live of this Divine Will; advance in the light of this never dimming light. Make sure that the providence of our Lord;’s Love protects and guides you; it is the desert cloud over Israel. You know that Moses and Aaron moved the Ark from one place to another only when this cloud rose and proceeded before them. Penetrate blindly into the desert.
Our Good Father Who is in Heaven, constantly looks down with love upon us, and His Divine Providence foresees and ordains everything for our greater good. Let yourself be carried away therefore on the current of this Divine Providence. Go your way leisurely as God wills it, in the sunlight when the sun shines, or in the moonlight or starlight, or again advance gropingly, following the thread of obedience; that is a safe rule of action. [God has given us the great gift of our Holy Mother the Church, so that we may understand what God wills in various circumstances of life. This is a gift beyond measure, the guiding light of the interior life]
Do not bind yourself to the different means of reaching God, but to God alone and His Divine Will of the moment. Allow yourself
to be turned this way and that, to be taken up and set aside, to be consoled and afflicted by this Divine Master according to His good pleasure, and place your consolation in one thing only, the love of His Divine Will.
In all things look for God, for the Mind, the good pleasure, the Will of God. Draw as close as you can to God’s inmost life through the union of your heart and the adherence of your will to everything He wants from you at every moment. [How do we do this? Meekness begets humility, humility begets charity, charity begets Grace. The more we cooperate with Grace, the more we will receive!]
The whole life of an entire soul is really dependent on these two laws: God wills it, or God does not will it.
The face of a man who fasted
The whole perfection of love consists in doing everything as God wills and in the spirit He wills it to be done. [Many stay and struggle at the infant stage, trying to intellectually accept what the Church believes. Many never even get that far. But once one has submitted to the wisdom of the Church – which is God’s Wisdom – with the assent of will/intellect, then it becomes possible to conform one’s life to the Will in a more subtle, substantial manner – the interior life]
God has no need of your labor, but He has need of your love and sacrifices. That is your everyday task. You glorify Him by doing nothing, or rather by doing everything He wills. Come, submit yourself to our good Master’s guidance like a child without a will, without any love other than His; His Love makes everything pleasant. [Those who submit to that Will find a satisfaction, a peace they have never known before]
What a happiness is ours when we think and desire and will one thing only, the Will of God! Let that be a frequent point of meditation; it is the gold mine of charity. It is the fountain of the love that gives and of the love that receives.
On the radio tonight! – 9 PM CDT! August 30, 2012
Posted by Tantumblogo in Admin, awesomeness, Basics, fun, General Catholic, Holy suffering, Latin Mass, priests, Tradition, Virtue.comments closed
With Fr. Michael Rodriguez, formerly of San Juan Bautista parish in El Paso and now of Santa Teresa de Jesus in Presidio! Many of my readers are familiar with Fr. Rodriguez, but for those who are not he is a very faithful priest who has traveled the path from “regular” diocesan priest with no particular interest in the traditions of the Church to a man now totally dedicated to the Traditional Latin Mass and the restoration of the Faith! He was also, of course, very involved in efforts to overturn El Paso City Council’s decision to extend benefits to “domestic partners” of gay employees – a decision that ran directly counter to the will of the people as expressed in a dedicated election on the matter – and then attempting to get the mayor and certain council members recalled from office. Because of the very heterodox, problematic state of the El Paso Diocese, his efforts were not supported by his bishop and fellow priests, and, in fact, led to him being persecuted and banished.
Much of the latter is already pretty well known, so I plan to focus more on why Tradition appeals to Fr. Rodriguez so much, how he came to embrace it, and the benefits he sees in it for all Catholics.
Fr. Rodriguez is a very interesting and dynamic guest, be sure to listen in, right here! God Willing, we’ll get a blessing at the end of the interview!
And if you own a Catholic or any kind of business, consider advertising on Fidelis Radio!
PS – It would help if I mentioned the time! All programs are at 9pm CDT, you can listen live and call in or join in the chat room by getting a free membership at blogtalkradio, or you can listen after the fact any time!
Non Sequitur because I feel like it August 30, 2012
Posted by Tantumblogo in Admin, fun, General Catholic, silliness, Society.comments closed
Clint Eastwood to speak at Republican Convention tonight? So, this post may not be for everyone, you know how cowboy movies end, especially those made in the last 50 years – someone’s got to die.
There is no doubt, while I love John Wayne, Clint Eastwood as the Man with No Name in Sergio Leone’s movies is probably my favorite movie character of all time:
This finale from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is just so right:
There was a movie called Tombstone from about 20 years ago, with Kurt Russell doing a mediocre job as Wyatt Earp, but Val Kilmer was TeH awesome as Doc Holliday. This phrase: “I’m your huckleberry/I’m you’re huckle-bearer” was supposedly a calling card of Holliday’s, who was the most deadly of all of Earp’s posse – by far:
Not sure why I posted this. I just stumbled across the first video on a totally unrelated site and then the others just kept coming in Youtube’s sinister selection scene at the end of an embedded video. I could kill hours watching this stuff.
For a Catholic spin, I imagine there are some who would find it morally troubling to watch scenes like the ones above. The first two are just complete fantasy, but the last is a very liberally stylized version of something of a real event. A man was murdered, in essence, supposedly by the “law.” Should I care? Is this immoral to watch?
I don’t know, sometimes, my brain just wants a break. I’m still attached to this world – way……too……..much………
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