James Martin, SJ, Pete Buttigieg Team to Offer Study Bible with Notes Explaining Why Most of the Bible is Wrong February 20, 2020
Posted by Tantumblogo in cultural marxism, damnable blasphemy, fun, General Catholic, secularism, self-serving, sexual depravity, silliness, Society.comments closed
Status: True. In the broader sense.
I am totally stealing this from the awesome Babylon Bee, and added a bit of a Catholic twist:
To support his presidential campaign and continue to boost his meteoric rise in popularity, Pete Buttigieg, in cooperation ostensible Father James Martin, SJ, and the USCCB, has released a new study Bible with tens of thousands of notes explaining why most of the verses are wrong, incorrect, and outdated.
The Buttigieg-Martin Study Bible mixes the very best post-modern Bible scholarship with progressive stances, and obviously, as the one true faith, progressivism must dominate.
For instance, the note on Exodus 20:13, “You shall not murder,” is accompanied by a note explaining that this only applies once a baby is born and not before. Verses on sexual immorality are waved away as Buttigieg and Martin explain how the ignorant farmers, fishermen, and prophets who wrote the Bible simply weren’t as enlightened (or, frankly, so good) as we are today. And Buttigieg adds his commentary on Jesus’s ministry, pointing out all the ways that Jesus was obviously a socialist.
“I am a strong Christian, but there’s obviously a lot of stuff in the Bible that contradicts the gospel of progressivism,” Buttigieg said at a press conference, followed by Martin energetically interjecting “not to mention sodomy, which, obviously, Jesus totes endorsed, if not practiced.” “Now, progressive Christians can come to the Scriptures and not be afraid that the Bible is going to destroy their political beliefs, since my notes will be there to explain away the text,” and “make sure that instead, progressivism destroys Christian belief, as God intended,” Martin noted.
“Get The Buttigieg-Martin Study Bible: it explains away God’s truth, one verse at a time,” he added.
The bits in red may or may not have been added by me.
Flightline Friday: Charlie Duke Took Country Music to the Moon July 19, 2019
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Flightline Friday, fun, history, Society, technology, true leadership.comments closed
During these celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 flight, here’s a quick post about the man who was the CAPCOM during the famous landing of Lunar Module #5 “Eagle” at Tranquilty Base, Apollo 16 LMP Charlie Duke. Charlie Duke was always one of the most affable and likable of astronauts, and he still is today. He is a convicted protestant, but has some very interesting things to say about evolution in the final video. I love what he wore to the 50th anniversary gala of the Apollo 11 landings at the Reagan Library two nights ago:
Captain Duke lives in the New Braunfels area. Love the cumberbund and tie.
Yeah, baby……… August 28, 2018
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, fun, General Catholic, silliness, SSPX, the struggle for the Church.comments closed
………nails it. Via Fr. Kevin M. Cusick:
Flightline Friday: The Awesome A-7 April 13, 2018
Posted by Tantumblogo in Admin, awesomeness, Flightline Friday, fun, history, non squitur, silliness, technology.comments closed
For nearly 40 years, my current house would have been very nearly directly under the flight path for Naval Air Station Dallas and the co-located Vought/LTV plant. Thus, from 1955 to the early 90s, Vought F-8s and later A-7s would have been in the air most every day, flying over my home (OK, the home didn’t exist for most of that time, but you get the point). Of course, by the time we moved into that house Navy Dallas was closed and Vought was out of the prime contractor business, no longer building whole airplanes, but that’s how it goes.
At any rate the A-7 was the result of a quickie project to build a replacement for the excellent Douglas A-4 Skyhawk, intending to greatly increase the range/payload capability of US Navy light attack assets. The project was a hallmark of the US aerospace industry at that time, roughly showcasing an industry at its historic peak, resulting in a program that went from conception to flying hardware in just about 4 years. Heck, they can’t even get half the specs for a bomb written in 4 years today, let alone those for a whole airplane. Vought responded to the Navy’s request for a new Light Attack aircraft – the VAL competition – with a modified version of its epochal F-8 Crusader fighter, basically a shortened F-8 with a wing modified to carry heavy payloads. Vought won that competition, and between December 1964 and early 1967 crafted the A-7A. This aircraft represented a quantum leap not in speed, because it wasn’t very fast, but in accuracy. The A-7 was the most accurate tactical bombing platform in US service until the introduction of the F-16 in 1978. Especially in its Air Force A-7D variant and subsequent US Navy E model copy of the D, the A-7 set radically improved standards in terms of bombing accuracy and range/payload capability, being able to carry the same payload as the A-4 twice as far, or twice the payload the same distance.
Prior to the A-7s arrival in Southeast Asia, virtually every Air Force tactical mission “up north,” whether launched from Thailand or South Vietnam, required air-to-air refueling. Even the long-legged F-105 required refueling after taking off with a heavy bomb load. As the first video below indicates, however, the A-7 was able to fly almost all missions over North Vietnam, with a heavy payload of about 9000 pounds of ordinance, pylons, and ammo, without air-to-air refueling. Now refueling was still pretty frequently done, but more to give the A-7 ridiculous loiter time up North – often over 2 hours – than because of basic necessity. Navy A-7s, operating much closer to their targets, virtually never required refueling.
The A-7 got its impressive accuracy through a combination of some of the first digital computers, embedded and computerized navigation systems (INS, Doppler, and a very accurate attack radar), and newly developed software algorithms that determined, electronically, a continuously computed impact point (CCIP) means of bombing that was a radical advance for its time. Later perfected to a much greater degree in the F-16 and F-18, the A-7’s CCIP system improved basic bomb-dropping accuracy by more than a factor of ten, from hundreds of yards down to about 20-30 yards, average mean miss distance. The second video, an absolute gift of an upload of a film from the old British firm of Elliot, which built some of the very first Heads Up Displays ever made, subsequently installed in the A-7D and E. Man how some like minded enthusiasts and I would have practically wept for joy to have seen truly excellent footage like this, showing exactly how complex, innovative systems were used tactically, 20 or 30 years ago. Great stuff.
I’m out for the weekend. Sorry for lack of posts, it was one of those weeks. Long live the memory of the great Vought Aircraft and its many excellent products! Built just about 5 miles from my home, they were in every respect Great Planes:
Now that the “multirole” is cheaper experiment has been tried and quite possibly proven a bad concept – especially when the roles are far too numerous and diverse – perhaps it’s time to return to some lower cost single mission types, for the vital roles like CAS and BAI? That is to say, Air Force and Navy jocks, just because it doesn’t have an “F” in front of its name doesn’t mean it’s second rate! Bomber pilots may make history, fighter pilots may make movies, but attack pilots make the boots on the ground very, very happy.
REMINDER: Awesome Fatima Conference at DFW Hyatt This Weedend March 9-11!!! March 9, 2018
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, Dallas Diocese, Father Rodriguez, fun, General Catholic, Glory, Grace, Interior Life, priests, Restoration, sanctity, Spiritual Warfare, Tradition, Virtue.comments closed
Come see Michael Matt, Fr. Isaac Relyea, Fr. Michael Rodriguez, Fr. Paul MacDonald, Chris Ferrara, David Rodriguez and many other top flight Catholic speakers at the 2018 Fatima Conference at the DFW Airport Hyatt on March 9-11!! I should be there both Saturday and Sunday and look forward to seeing YOU!
BTW, a helpful hint from David Rodriguez, while daily attendance is $20 per person per day, a very reasonable rate for such top-flight Catholic content, airport parking can run a similar rate per car per day BUT just take your parking ticket inside the hotel to the front desk, tell them you are there for the conference and they will validate your ticket so that parking is free! So you can save perhaps $30-$50 depending on how much you attend (and live locally/are not staying at the Hyatt), money you can spend on the fantastic Catholic books, video, and other resources that will be available for sale at the conference.
I already know a good number of people attending this conference. If you see a long tall (and kinda fat) Texan with boots and chaw in his mouth come by and say hi to Tantumblogo! I really hope to meet Michael Matt and Fr. Relyea and say hello. I understand these conferences can be really great not only for their Catholic content but for the socializing and friendships that can be made. You can pay your $20 entrance fee at the door or buy tickets at the link above if you are so inclined.
I pray I see many good readers there! Dominus vobiscum!
Lady Lex and Planes in Remarkable Shape after 76 Years at the Cold, Dark Bottom of the Coral Sea March 6, 2018
Posted by Tantumblogo in Admin, awesomeness, Flightline Friday, foolishness, fun, history, non squitur, silliness, Society.comments closed
Billionaire Paul Allen, one of the founders of Microsoft, has spent some of his remarkable fortune on deep sea expeditions, finding old wrecks of historical value. Last year his crew found the USS Indianapolis, sunk after delivering the atomic bomb components to Tinian with most of her crew killed by sharks waiting for rescue. He has also found the massive IJN battleship Musashi.
Just a few days ago, his research team found USS Lexington, CV-2, sunk during the Battle of Coral Sea by the US after she suffered catastrophic explosions from gasoline leaks after being hit by Japanese bombs. The ship, and especially the aircraft, were in remarkably good shape. Even the squadron emblems from “Fighting Three” (VF-3) were still plain as day, as were the dark grey/light grey finish, national markings (including the quickly dropped “meatball” in the star that it was feared would be confused with a similar meatball used on Japanese planes as their rising sun motif), kill markings, etc. Structurally the planes don’t look as bad as one might think after three quarters of a century in the muck and gloom of the deep, deep ocean. In fact they look almost good enough to try to raise and refurbish for museum display. What a historical coup that would be.
Lexington was part of the “first team” of pre-war, often career sailors and airmen who first held the line, and then very quickly turned the tables on the Japanese before massive American production of men and material made the War in the Pacific all but a foregone conclusion.
Totally non sequitur to this blog but ho boy I hope they post a lot more video and pics of this:
Wrecked Douglas TBD Devastator of Torpedo Three (VT-3)
That Felix the Cat symbol is famous and dates back to the 1920s in naval aviation. It is still used today by VFA-31 “Tomcatters”
Now for something happier – SpaceX Falcon Heavy successfully launches February 6, 2018
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, blogfoolery, Flightline Friday, fun, non squitur, Society, technology, Victory.comments closed
I don’t know if you got to see the launch, but over 5 million pounds of thrust shook Launch pad 39A at Cape Canaveral for the first time in 45 years as SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy rocket conducted an almost entirely successful test flight. I say almost entirely, because at the time I am writing this, it is not known if the core booster successfully landed on the drone ship in the Atlantic (the side boosters did land).
Footage of the launch below.
The payload was Elon Musk’s 2008 Tesla roadster fitted with a manikin in an astronaut’s suit. They are still livestreaming footage of that, dubbed “Starman:”
Both the Tesla roadster and the 2nd stage of the Falcon Heavy are en route to a solar orbit that will have them pass somewhere out around the orbit of Mars.
While this initial version of Falcon Heavy was significantly dialed back in terms of thrust and payload potential, given how SpaceX has constantly, incrementally increased the thrust and payload of its Falcon 9, I expect them to do the same with Falcon Heavy. I wouldn’t doubt if a nearly 6 million pound thrust version may enter service at some point.
The launch coverage was thoroughly enjoyable to watch. The immense joy of SpaceX employees in the background, shouting and whooping it up as the rocket successfully executed each step of the launch cycle, was contagious.
Congratulations to SpaceX. I think BFR and Mars colonization are a bit too ambitious even for Elon Musk, but what they have accomplished so far they have every right to be extremely proud of.
USAF Hosting Largest Ever Red Flag Exercise, Featuring Massive GPS Blackout over Western US January 31, 2018
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Flightline Friday, fun, non squitur, silliness, Society, technology, Uncategorized.comments closed
Now I know why I didn’t do a Flightline Friday for months – I knew once I got started on the subject, I wouldn’t be able to stop. You’re witnessing the transformation of this formerly dumb Catholic blog to a smart military blog.
Actually, I’ve been just pounded at work this week and when I get a moment, I want to read something “light,” which has meant military. Because nothing says light like war and death.
Red Flag is the world’s premiere, largest, most complex, most realistic air warfare exercise. Red Flags are typically held 4-6 times a year, always at Nellis Air Force base adjacent to Las Vegas and the sprawling Nellis Test and Training Range. Red Flag 18-1 is the first of the year, as the name implies, and is also the largest ever held. Not only that, it is also one of the most secretive, highest-end threat environments ever presented at Red Flag, which is saying something, because many aircrew maintain that after experiencing the rigors of Red Flag, actual combat seems rather dull and uneventful. Red Flag generally prepares aircrews for the highest end fight, against the most complex defenses and the most skilled adversaries. This year is no exception, as, for the first time ever, USAF will be making use of GPS-jamming technologies so powerful that normal GPS reception over almost the entire western US will be affected for several hours a day while the exercises are ongoing:
The year’s first iteration of the USAF’s premier set of aerial war games, known commonly as Red Flag, is kicking off today at Nellis Air Force Base just outside of Las Vegas, but this exercise will be different than any in the past. Not only is it the largest of its kind in the exercise’s 42 year history, but the USAF is going to blackout GPS over the sprawling Nevada Test and Training Range to challenge aircrews and their weaponry under realistic fighting conditions. The tactic will spill over throughout the region, with warnings being posted stating inconsistent GPS service could be experienced by aircrews flying throughout the western United States.
The NBAA Command Center reports the U.S. military will begin training exercises on the Nevada Test and Training Range between 0400Z until 0700Z daily. Training maneuvers will impact vast portions of the Western U.S. including California, Nevada, Oregon, Wyoming, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Montana and New Mexico. FAA enroute ATC centers affected include Albuquerque (ZAB), Denver (ZDV), Los Angeles (ZLA), Salt Lake (ZLC), Oakland (ZOA) and Seattle (ZSE). Operations in R-2508 and R-2501 may also be impacted.
Arrivals and departures from airports within the Las Vegas area may be issued non-Rnav re-routes with the possibility of increased traffic disruption near LAS requiring airborne re-routes to the south and east of the affected area. Aircraft operating in Los Angeles (ZLA) center airspace may experience navigational disruption, including suspension of Descend-via and Climb-via procedures. Non-Rnav SIDs and STARs may be issued within ZLA airspace in the event of increased navigational disruption. Crews should expect the possibility of airborne mile-in-trail and departure mile-in-trail traffic management initiatives.
Those dates and the location perfectly correspond with Red Flag 18-1. The timeframe for the daily disruptions is also the same as the night launch and recovery period for Red Flag this time of year. Two major large force employment missions take place every day during the exercise, one during the light and one during the night, with each last roughly two to three hours.
This particular Red Flag includes players from the USAF, USMC, Australia and UK. [Those are the US’ top-tier allies and get access to the darkest and spookiest stuff. Britain used to far and away be the most trusted in that respect, but more and more of late Australia is given the most favored nation status in access to highly classified capabilities and programs. Still, the two are easily the most trusted and given access to the most sensitive capabilities – and vice versa. The militaries of the US, Britain, and Australia share as much, and are as integrated, as any in the world.] The very limited guest list of only America’s most trusted allies is indicative of a Red Flag exercise where high-end and sensitive capabilities will be put to the test. According to a press release from the USAF that was posted just hours ago, this seems to be an accurate assumption, with Colonel Michael Mathes, 414th Combat Training Squadron commander, stating:
“We’re trying a few new and different things with Red Flag 18-1… It’s the largest Red Flag ever with the largest number of participants, highlighting the balance of training efficiency with mission effectiveness… Red Flag 18-1 primarily is a strike package focused training venue that we integrate at a command and control level in support of joint task force operations… It’s a lot of words to say that we integrate every capability we can into strike operations that are flown out of Nellis Air Force Base.” [So Red Flag also often involves lower-tier allies, and even some nations that are only kinda sorta friendly, like India. Adversaries are not invited. So, it’s not unusual for the Israeli Air Force to attend, or Colombia, S. Korea, and certainly other NATO nations. But this one is reserved only for the closest allies, which says something special is going on]
If you read yesterday’s single post, you know that the US presently has a significant vulnerability to anti-satellite weapons, which is another way to deny critical capabilities like GPS to US forces. Powerful ground- or air-based jammers are another way to accomplish the same goal. I’m glad, in a sense, to see USAF taking the threat seriously and training to fight in a GPS-degraded environment. My brother-in-law who is apparently a genius at packaging ever-smaller and cheaper inertial navigation systems (INS) into aircraft, weapons, ships, and ground vehicles has his work cut out for him, but should stay busy for years.
A bit of a rah-rah video from USAF on this Red Flag 18-1.
Unfortunately, a Royal Australian Air Force Boeing EF-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft caught fire and was severely damaged during the exercises this week. Apparently the crew were able to escape without injury, but the aircraft is likely a total write off. It seems the starboard engine caught fire and burned through the empennage.
As to the threat, here’s a video the Navy released of Russian Su-27 Flankers – armed with live missiles – flying dangerously close to an EP-3E Aries II electronic surveillance aircraft over the international waters/airspace of theBlack Sea recently. This kind of thing used to happen occasionally during the Cold War, but has been occurring regularly, several times a year, since tensions mounted with Russia over their intervention in the Ukraine/Crimea:
In some of those shots, that Flanker is single digit feet from the Aries. Dangerous. Lots of potential for bad things to happen with that kind of behavior.
Flightline Friday: SpaceX Static Fires the Mighty Falcon Heavy January 26, 2018
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Flightline Friday, fun, non squitur, silliness, technology.comments closed
I haven’t done a Flightline Friday in ages. Well, some important recent aerospace news – SpaceX, finally, after years of delays, appears about set to launch the Falcon Heavy rocket sometime in the next few weeks. The full stack was static fired for the first time on Wednesday – and they did it at Launch Complex 39A, from which all but one Saturn V launches took place.
The Falcon Heavy is not as powerful as the Saturn V, but it is in the same league. It produces over 5 million pounds of thrust, to the Saturn V’s 7.7+ million (on Apollo 15). The Space Shuttle stack made just over 7 million pounds, but most of that was from solid rockets, which are boring, and the Space Shuttle doesn’t fly anymore, so there.
Falcon Heavy, with 27 Merlin engines, will be able to loft about 70 tons into low earth orbit, and nearly 30 tons to geosynchronous orbit. It also has very substantial capacities for escape velocity – about 25 tons to the Moon and 19 tons to Mars. Those are the capacities with full expendability – no returning and landing any of the stages. With reuse, the capacities are substantially reduced, especially to GTO and escape velocity. Generally, the Falcon Heavy has capacities almost exactly half those of the Saturn V – one handicap is that SpaceX continues to use a relatively low energy upper stage powered by hydrocarbons, whereas Saturn V upper stages were cryogenic and powered by liquid hydrogen. They also had way more thrust, especially the spectacular S-II stage.
Anyhoo, even though the test was very short, shock waves in the flame trenches of Launch Complex 39 like this have not been seen in over 45 years:
I cannot wait for one of these to launch from Boca Chica. I will so be in South Padre, if SpaceX ever gets moving on their south Texas launch site. Apparently the sand there is unusually unstable and they’ve had to do a lot more soil prep than they planned. The bedrock is much deeper than thought, too – which, guys, the Rio Grande has been running through 1000+ miles of desert for thousands of years, that’s a lot of sand to dump into the Gulf, but whatever. They say they are going to finally get started in earnest this year. We’ll see.
Glories of the Church – the Beautiful Churches and Holy Sites of Ecuador January 23, 2018
Posted by Tantumblogo in Art and Architecture, awesomeness, Basics, different religion, Father Rodriguez, fun, General Catholic, Glory, Grace, priests, Restoration, sanctity, Spiritual Warfare, Tradition, true leadership, Victory, Virtue.comments closed
I thank El Paso-based JMJHF Productions for all their work, especially their continued release of excellent catechesis material from Fr. Michael Rodriguez (on which, more later, God willing), but I really really appreciate their recent uploads of one of Fr. Rodriguez’ recent annual pilgrimages to Quito, Ecuador. The churches of Quito and its environs are shockingly, amazingly beautiful, true glories for not only the Church but the entire human race. This is the kind of heart that makes the soul sing and gives us creatures of mud and dust the slightest glimpses of heavenly glory. It is also the polar opposite of the modernist, often intentionally soul-crushing trash that has passed for Church art and architecture of the past 60-70 years. This damnable trend has been intentional, as fallen men sought to remake the Church in their own image, rather than aspire to follow the Truth of Jesus Christ.
The first video shows the Procession on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Good Success, February 2nd. The miraculous statue of Our Lady of Good Success is taken from the cloistered upper choir three times a year and placed above the main altar of the Convent Church to be venerated by the public. Fr. Michael Rodríguez offered the Traditional Latin Mass daily in the Conceptionist Church & Convent–home of Our Lady of Good Success (and look at how many souls assisted! The church is packed for a TLM, probably the first most all of these people, aside from the pilgrims (who were a tiny part of the crowd) had attended in decades, if ever). The technical name of the Church is, “Iglesia de La Limpia Concepcion”. This first monastery in Quito was established in September of 1575. Fr. Rodriguez also led pilgrims daily in praying the Holy Rosary and Novena to Our Lady of Good Success in front of the miraculous statue and gave spiritual conferences every evening on the major themes of Grace, Jesus Christ, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Blessed be Jesus Christ and His most pure Mother!
Old town Quito is also beautiful in its own right, and also surprisingly well lit. It looks to me like many hundreds, possibly thousands, took part in the procession. How beautiful. What a glorious site Good Father Romanowski, formerly of the FSSP apostolate in Guadalajara and now pastor of a parish in Naples, FL, seems to have led the procession, in the traditional manner:
The next video is the one that really touches me – in both positive and negative ways. Ecuador has never been a rich country. Yet look at what pious souls built decades and centuries ago, out of their love for God and the Blessed Mother! And it was only right they do so – indeed it was a positive duty – to build the most beautiful, uplifting structures imaginable for the glory of God (which is His due) and for the good of souls. The modernist, concrete-and-sheetrock brutalist monstrosities that pass for Church construction in the past 70 years or so are the very antithesis of what is good for souls and properly due God. Even worse, you might even say sinfully, was the willful destruction of so much beauty created in total faith by previous generations of Catholics out of a perverse desire to create a new and false religion. Indeed, the profanation of Church art and architecture is a deliberate representation of the new religion promoted by modernist/leftists that must always stand in total opposition to the Faith of our Fathers.
There is a wide range of beauty below – parishes, basilica, cathedral, monasteries cum museums, etc. I have always adored Spanish colonial Catholic art, and the works of Latin American devotion that flowed from it for a century and a half after Spain lost her New World colonies. It is beautiful, wonderful stuff, treasures for the whole human race to glory in. These works also point to a time where the Faith was so utterly central to the lives of souls that I think we have a hard time even imagining it today, let alone emulating it in our own lives. We are so distracted by our trinkets of technology and our unheard of riches that our comprehension of the eternal is paltry and distracted. Perhaps I am speaking more for myself than for most of you, if so, I do not mean to cast aspersions.
I have exhausted my limited vocabulary in coming up with superlatives for this video and the Catholic treasures contained therein. Lord, may I go to Quito or other Latin American places soon, places where the ravages of wreckovation did not occur, or were at least kept to an absolute minimum! Look at all the altar rails! Look at the high altars still extant, and the prie deuxs, and the wonderful elevated pulpits (use them!), and the gilt ceilings and incredible reredos and the polychrome statues and original, extremely high quality and eminently Catholic paintings and……..you get the point. Thank you again to JMJHF Productions for putting these videos together. I know it takes a great deal of time, and this is not their full time job. Please consider helping them out, or the St. Vincent Ferrer Foundation, which also supports the work of good souls and Fr. Rodriguez!
The full list of sites in the video is below:
Conceptionist Monastery Church (Iglesia de La Limpia Concepcion), home of Our Lady of Good Success, in which Our Lady appeared to Mother Mariana.
Santo Domingo (St Dominic)
San Agustin (St Augustine)
Carmen del Atlo (Carmelite – where St Mariana, Lily of Quito used to live)
San Francisco
Santa Catalina
La Merced
La Compania (Jesuit, perhaps most glorious Church in the Americas…)
National Basilica to the Sacred Heart
(Cathedral Metropolitana) Basilica of the National Vow
Santa Barbara
Carmen del Bajo
Santa Teresita in La Mariscal
Church & Monastery of Guapalo
The Jesuit School where miraculous image of Our Lady of Quito is kept.
For those materialists who say, oh, this money is wasted, think of the poor who suffered want and privation when all this money was poured into churches like this – wouldn’t this money better have been spent on them, on alleviating their sufferings? But the poor we will always have with us, and I do not mean that in a cavalier manner in the least. Instead, think of how many souls happily gave of what little they had, which was infinitely less than any of us, to help render honor and glory to God and His Church to help build structures like this. Think of the grace that poured out on them and the world at large through such noble sacrifice. It is simply a wholly different and utterly incompatible mindset – that of faith and not of this world. Those who have it, have it, and understand instantly the willingness to deny self to give right glory to God, and those who don’t, simply don’t.
When I see amazing structures like this, and the immense good they still do for souls, and I ponder the opportunity we have locally – probably the only such opportunity the vast majority of us will ever have – to build a church that can really make an artistic statement, can really contribute to the great artistic treasure of the Church (one of the few such contributions to have been made in our lifetimes), I just think, we cannot mess this up. I would happily trade 500 seats for an amazing reredo, or a stupendous altar, or marble-covered walls, or original works of art. Heck, there are warehouses full of the stuff in Europe and Mexico, removed from any of the several churches being torn down weekly. It’s not even that expensive, much of it, certainly not compared to making it from scratch, if such can even be obtained. Anyway, I won’t rant on that anymore. This post is already much longer than I intended, and few outside this Diocese of Dallas care, and understandably so.
A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics 