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A little Catholic Culture – the Missions of California June 21, 2016

Posted by Tantumblogo in Art and Architecture, awesomeness, Basics, Christendom, General Catholic, Glory, Grace, history, Saints, sanctity, Tradition, true leadership, Virtue.
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I have long loved Catholic art and sacred architecture, and it’s been too long since I’ve done a post on this subject.  I stumbled on a 1940s video showing many of the California Missions founded by Saint Junipero Serra.  While the quality is only so-so and features almost exclusively exterior shots (so we can’t see the missions prior to any post-conciliar wreckovation), it’s still interesting.  It’s sort of a school-kid video but that’s actually a good thing, as it gives some basic information on the missions that may be new to you as it was to me.  I found a few other videos, as well, that feature more interior shots, but some of the chapels have plainly suffered from the wreckovation, with plain tables standing in front of artistic treasures.  In some cases, the ancient altars have been trashed in favor of barren protestant desks.

It’s a shame that all the times I’ve been to San Antonio I’ve never toured the missions there, either.  I’ve meant to many times but it’s never worked out, for whatever reason.  As much as I love Catholic history and architecture, especially Spanish-style, it’s really kind of obscene that I’ve never taken the time to avail myself of their treasures.  The only mission I’ve ever visited is the one in Goliad, Mission La Bahia.

The remaining videos are all fairly recent, but have much more interior footage.  Some of the mission chapels are quite striking, very suitable for a TLM to this day.  Of course, the devotion that led to the building of the many Californian missions was rooted in the same Faith that is best expostulated in the Traditional Latin Mass, and stands in marked contrast to the cold worldly sentiments that surround the post-conciliar ethos:

I’m bummed that one post I did today, and spent more than a few moments on, has mysteriously disappeared.  I had a post up about active duty Air Force members physically throwing a man out of a retirement ceremony but it’s gone.  I’ll try to put up some kind of replacement shortly.

The Next Persecution: Dallas City Council Urged to Ban Conversion Efforts Targeting Sodomites June 21, 2016

Posted by Tantumblogo in asshatery, Basics, catachesis, disconcerting, error, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, sadness, scandals, secularism, self-serving, sexual depravity, sickness, Society, unadulterated evil.
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Pray, and contact the Dallas City Council, especially if you live in the city limits, urging them to vote against this massive expansion of persecution of Christians.  A move to get the council to vote to ban “gay conversion therapy” would have ominous implications even for preaching the Doctrine of the Faith, and could lead to a chilling of Catholic expression and apostolates in the Diocese.  For one thing, it is quite possible Courage and other ministries oriented towards serving/converting those with same-sex attraction (like this one) could be banned, or at least face expensive lawfare in the courts.

Dallas LGBT advocates want the city to become the first in the state — and only the fourth in the nation — to bar mental health professionals from attempting to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of people under 18.

Rafael McDonnell, communications and advocacy manager for Resource Center, Dallas’ LGBT community center, told the Observer he’s scheduled to discuss a proposal to ban so-called reparative therapy for minors with a subcommittee of the city’s LGBT Task Force in the near future.

McDonnell said outlawing the widely discredited practice [nice assertion of opinion in a news piece – who judges it “discredited?”  Why, the sodomite lobby, of course! The Texas Tribune is a leftist rag funded by Soros-affiliated groups, so go figure] would be consistent with Dallas’ comprehensive resolution in support of LGBT equality, which was approved by the City Council in 2014. [Let’s look at this a bit.  This resolution now touted as being so “comprehensive” was sold at the time as being very limited in scope and posing no threat to religious practice or even activities like ministering to/counseling to those with same sex attraction disorders.  And now of a sudden we see the resolution for what it was always intended to be: a way to provide state-sanctioned insulation for those with perverse inclinations from criticism.  Even more, it is a way to use the force of the state to punish opponents of sodomy.  Unfortunately, no matter how much they think they “succeed,” hell remains.]

All of these “equal rights” ordinances and resolutions are just ticking time bombs planted by the left for use at a later date.  Sometime that later date is 10 years later, sometimes it is 3 months.  But they always get used.  Absolutely NO ONE favoring the resolution declared, when it was passed in 2014, that this would be a great tool to suppress religious objections to the sins of same sex sodomy, and yet here we are.  This is how it always works with such things.

Jeremy Scwab is a man who, I believe, suffered from same-sex attraction in the past and who has been living a more God-centric and morally ordered life for some time.  He runs a ministry specifically aimed to help walk people out of the same-sex lifestyle.  His concerns on this latest effort to crush Christian opposition to same-sex sodomy below:

For the last two years I have been fighting against a particular assault on religious freedom and defending my ministry apostolate Joel 2:25 International (http://www.Joel225.org) in courtrooms and state legislatures in California, Illinois, and New Jersey.  Anti-catholic activists have maligned me in the news media and online constantly as a result, but I have been blessed to see hundreds of men, women, youth, and families find healing and restoration through our work and that has made it all worth it.

I know I have asked for your prayers before when I had to testify in court and when I pushed for some protection against this attack here in Texas. Now, the activists have found another route to attack us, the Dallas City Council…..

……If these plans succeed, a large part of our ministry work will be illegal here in Dallas and in fact teaching the Catholic faith to youth will be technically illegal. This law forbids anyone from saying anything about homosexuality other than that it is a “healthy and natural variation of human sexuality” – which of course is in direct contrast to the catechism which states infallibly [A catechism is not an infallible expression of the Magisterium. But that the Church infallibly defines same-sex acts as gravely sinful is certainly a dogmatic expression of the Church’s Ordinary Magisterium] that it is an intrinsic disorder. As a convert, I am grateful that the Church continues to stand strong on the Truth and even when I was lost in darkness, the Church’s teaching was a beacon of light that guided me back to reality and eventually to healing and wholeness. [And thus we can see what evil is wrought by those who seek to undermine or even overthrow that Doctrine]

Please join me in praying that the Dallas City Council will vote AGAINST this ordinance. If you know anyone who could influence them, please ask them as well.

I sold my condo in Dallas and moved to Carrollton a few months ago – in anticipation of this. After seeing the outrageous treatment of religious freedom in the New Jersey courts, I knew I had to get out of Dallas county. For now, Joel 2:25’s Teen ministries will survive this, but there are many other ministries that are threatened – including the Confirmation classes at many Dallas parishes where our Joel 2:25 Young Adults have been invited to share their personal testimonies and any mention of St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body within a Catholic high school would be illegal here in Dallas as it is now in Illinois, New Jersey, and California.

Obviously, we know this law is unconstitutional, but as we have seen recently, the majority of the Supreme Court and Federal Court judges have no regard at all for the constitution and religious freedom.I have worked to overturn the California law, but the courts refused to hear it…..

Based on the above, it is obviously far better to prevent this measure from being passed than to try to deal with the mess afterwards.  I’m waiting breathlessly for a very strong statement of opposition to this effort by Bishop Farrell any second now.

Oh…….right.