Short but Nice Video on St. John Vianney August 19, 2016
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, catachesis, Father Rodriguez, General Catholic, Glory, Grace, Latin Mass, manhood, persecution, priests, Restoration, Saints, Spiritual Warfare, the struggle for the Church, Tradition, true leadership, Virtue.comments closed
From this blog’s favorite priest, too! Some very good points below, and it only lasts about 4 minutes, so you have NO excuse not to watch it.
Just a few excerpts from some of the good Saint’s sermons:
“If people would do for God what they do for the world, my dear people, what a great number of Christians would go to Heaven.”
So very, very true. And yet today, not even bishops speak of Heaven, or what it takes to get there, with any regularity. Heck, ever at all.
It’s been a busy week at work, sorry if posting was short and/or lame.
Have a blessed weekend and especially Sunday!
Bishop Farrell Farewell Interview August 19, 2016
Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, Dallas Diocese, episcopate, General Catholic, huh?, It's all about the $$$, sadness, secularism, Society, the return, the struggle for the Church.comments closed
Via the Dallas Morning News, a farewell interview conducted with outgoing Dallas Bishop Kevin Farrell. I found two aspects of the interview quite starkly apparent – I’m sure you’ll see what I mean below. While the questions asked may have led the conversation in a certain direction, I was still struck by the lack of any mention of the supernatural/transcendent. The other aspect I’ll flesh out a bit below. BTW, I found the liberal Morning News’ headline unfair, as I’ll also discuss:
……..Farrell sat down for a conversation looking back at the changes in the Dallas diocese during his tenure — and assessing the needs his successor will face.
His responses have been lightly edited for clarity.
What did you do to assess the needs of the diocese?
“I spent my first three years traveling to parishes. I used to listen to people in the back of churches when they’d be going out of church on Sunday, and I would always stand and listen to them talk and they would complain to me about some things, and some were important.” [You guys here in Dallas remember seeing Bishop Farrell around parishes all the time, right, pretty much every Sunday? Honestly, while there are 70 parishes in the Diocese, do you recall him at your parish more than once or twice, at most? I have heard/read many, many complaints of Farrell’s lack of visibility/accessibility.]
“[But] I never forgot after three or four years when I got an email from Plano, I won’t tell what parish, asking me, now that I’d been there for three years, when was I going to do something about the terrible condition of the parking lot at one of our parishes. People expected me to do everything and anything.” [Like defend the Doctrine of the Faith against heresy and immorality?]
What has changed in the diocese under your leadership?
“I believe that parishes work differently than they used to in many different aspects. I think I have brought lay people in to do the administration, overseeing everything that’s done.” [Is this supposed to be a good thing? In my writing going back to the very beginning, lay staff have been one of the most consistent, gravest problems in the Diocese. From Sister Rupp to Always Our Children, they almost always feature in some scandal or heartbreak]
“We have what we call the diocesan finance council. Here are lay men and women who are involved in all of what I would call the business aspect of the church, I have tried to get them to lead and take responsibility for doing that. In our high schools, I have board of directors and boards of trustees that I have always tried to empower. To empower the laypeople to make the decisions, not me. I’m not a
businessman. I’m not even that interested in the business aspect. That’s not my thing and not my vocation. I may be mildly successful at it. But it’s not my desire, neither am I interested in it.”
What are the challenges your successor will face?
“Obviously the challenge we all face is the tremendous growth of this diocese. That is a challenge that will continue. I do hope I have recruited enough young people to enter the seminary over the years so that task will be a little easier. When I came here to the diocese, we had 17 people studying for the priesthood over at Holy Trinity Seminary. Today, we have at this moment 70.” [There is no question the seminary situation is far better than when Bishop Farrell arrived. Now, there has been quite a bit of attrition in the seminaries, where a lot of guys drop out before ordination, but things were in a deplorable state under Grahmann and they’re now quite a bit better, but short of need, sadly.]
“I did not open up many [Was MD the only one? Perhaps some nationality based ones?] new parishes for the specific reason that I didn’t have the staff to staff, the priest staff. I think that after about three more years, that will be alleviated, The diocese will start seeing some of these young men being ordained.”
What else will your successor need to focus on?
“I think the work of trying to integrate and trying to get our communities to work together. You have people on the north side of Dallas who have never been, who have no idea what the south of the Trinity River looks like.” [This is I guess where the DMN got their silly headline about “rich people getting out of their comfort zones.” For those outside the area, the Trinity River acts as a sort of literal and figurative dividing line between North Dallas and South Dallas, “rich” Dallas and “poor” Dallas, although, more and more, the distinction has become blurred. South Dallas historically has lacked investment. I live in Irving but I technically live south of the Trinity. So that’s the reference. As for Bishop Farrell’s statement……I again note that souls, salvation, conversion, rarely seem to enter in. Lots and lots of people I know go south of the Trinity regularly to visit/serve with the Carmelites and the Missionaries of Charity, or to go to the DFW National Cemetery. This is rarely an issue for committed Catholics, for CINOs, maybe so]
How soon do you think Pope Francis will name your successor?
“I think it will be within two months after I leave. I know sometimes that can stretch out for a year. But it will not happen in a diocese as large as Dallas. We grow continually, from migrants coming from the north and immigrants coming from the south. “
Meh. Again with the hints that a successor has all but been selected. As a for instance, I can guarantee you Farrell knew he was leaving Dallas, going to Rome, and probably heading this dicastery months ago. Rome would not give a bishop only 2 weeks to wind up affairs in a diocese after nearly 10 years of leadership. I guess we’ll see.
Well Godspeed Bishop Farrell, thank you for Mater Dei. May your successor give true liberty to the TLM in the Diocese of Dallas.
Our Sick Culture – STD Rates Skyrocketing Among Seniors August 19, 2016
Posted by Tantumblogo in asshatery, disaster, error, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, paganism, sadness, scandals, secularism, self-serving, sexual depravity, sickness, Society.comments closed
Remember the days of restraint and self-respect? Neither do I, but my parents do, sort of. I’m sure my grandmother did. I can’t imagine old Aunt Mirandy making the swinger’s scene. Certainly, people have always sinned, but sexual profligacy among elderly folks did not used to be much of a problem. It seems, based on the report below, fornication is rampant in retiree communities. STD rates are rising steeply.
If the elderly are supposed to be the holders and transmitters of the morality and piety of a bygone age, we’re in serious trouble. Of course, for a lot of these folks, the bygone age was the 60s, and these people are just reliving their “glory years:”
But according to the CDC, in some instances the rates of STD infection for people over 65 rivals that of people in their 20s.
“Everybody always talks about the joke of going to The Villages, and the Senior STD rate being so high there,” says fourth year med student Cody Davis, who visited a friend’s grandmother at famed central Florida retirement community The Villages.
“They’re at a constant senior spring break sort of thing, so they’re always partying and who knows what’s going on there, but their STD rate for seniors is very high in The Villages,” Davis says.
The Villages considers itself “Florida’s Friendliest Retirement Hometown,” maybe even a little too friendly — but there’s no denying that seniors are having sex.
“There’s the effect of Viagra, which is extending the sexual activity of many men,” Davis says. [Which shows how technological progress is so often twisted into the service of grotesque activities. I have little problem with the taking of Viagra in the confines of marriage, though I do find it a bit unnatural for 85 year olds to be getting their freak on. But it is apparently used a great deal to fuel fornication and/or adultery, which is manifestly immoral and a thoroughly ugly thing.]
But when it comes to STDs?
“I think that it’s not something they think about, they don’t worry about sexually transmitted diseases,” Davis says…….[God’s justice can fall on anyone, regardless of age. Not that contracting an STD is always a sign of God’s justice, but He does allow our sins to become our chastisements]
………”If you go to the Florida Department of Health website or the Centers for Disease Control, you would notice an alarming trend,” Dr. Merritt says. “Thirty-five percent of HIV cases are now on people 50 years and older.”
Now hold on a minute. In the US, well over 95% of new HIV cases occur in men. That increase, if it is one, in people contracting HIV above the age of 50 is virtually entirely occurring only among those inclined toward male-male sodomy.
Whatever happened to growing old with dignity? I’m not saying people have to maintain a Victorian stiffness, but it’s a bit disconcerting to me to read about elderly people behaving like rutting animals.
Remember being told to “act your age” when you were younger? Do we now have to lecture hyper-sexed boomers to the same end?
This is what comes from the cultural glorification of – worship would be more like it – youth and a kind of wanton sexuality totally detached from any moral moorings. Heck, I used to worship at that altar myself. How many of us lament the passing of another year at our birthdays? Should we not rather rejoice at what God has given us?
Some of the best, most stable societies the world has seen have been those where a strict moral decorum was maintained and where being possessed of many years was something to be venerated as worthy of great dignity. Not anymore. Now even octogenarians are convinced they can act like they’re 22 forever (and not a good 22). No one says as much, but this cult of youth revolves around an enormous fear of death, fear for what will come after.
Well, we don’t have to fear. We know. After death comes judgment, then Heaven or hell, for all eternity. For the worldlings, this is a terror, something to be fled. For those who know and love Jesus Christ, it is a comfort, and, for those possessed of great sanctity, even something to be longed for, as so many Saints did.
At any rate, it’s the total opposite of what we see in the world around us in these sad, last days.
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