Pope or Politician? Looking at West Virginia.

Poor Wheeling-Charleston, a diocese that covers the entire state of West Virginia! What has Pope Leo done to you, conservative state that cooperates with ICE? He's named a bishop committed to the illegal invasion as your spiritual father. In fact, the bishop is himself an illegal invader who's never apologized for or repented of his own criminal entry into the country. Let's face it, most of those who enter illegally claim a right to be here and a right to help themselves to the wallets of citizens. Hospitals closing and schools overwhelmed? Citizens victimized by criminals? No problemo for the leftist thugs.

Termites in the Church...

During my middle school years, my parents rented a lovely home on Juniper Lane in Falls  Church, Virginia. The street got its name from an enormous Juniper tree that occupied a plot along the road. I think it was in the center and the road went around it on both sides, but that memory may not be accurate. At any rate, it was an impressive sight! Much more than the picture above.

Building the Faith in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia

Our SSPX community in Linden, VA recently started a website that is now online. I invite and encourage you to visit virtually and then join us for Sunday Mass if you live in the area or are visiting. If you've never been to a Traditional Latin Mass it will no doubt seem a little uncomfortable at first. What's going on? Why is the priest doing that? Where am I in the book?

The Argument for the SSPX from Supplied Jurisdiction

If the Society and priests who minister to me are about to be declared schismatic and excommunicated, I want to know the rationale and justification for their consecrating bishops without a papal mandate. Canon law 1387 from the 1983 revised code of 1917 says this about those consecrations:

Can. 1387 Both the Bishop who, without a pontifical mandate, consecrates a person a Bishop, and the one who receives the consecration from him, incur a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See. [For anyone who wants to read the law, the entire 1983 code is online here.]

The "Gospel" of Fairy Tales

My husband and I went to the opera last Sunday -- not a complicated opera, but a simple opera. We saw Hansel and Gretel in the English version at Shenandoah Conservatory. What a delight! And, as I watched, I thought how right G.K. Chesterton was in his essay on Fairyland where he describes the mistaken notion of poets to think the fairies operate with a freedom that is really license to do exactly as they please. Chesterton vehemently disagrees:

I think the poets have made a mistake: because the world of the fairy-tales is a brighter and more varied world than ours, they have fancied it less moral; really it is brighter and more varied because it is more moral.

Good News for Virginia -- Injunction on Redistricting Stays

The fight isn't over, but a temporary win in the state supreme court prevents certification of the vote. I hope there are serious investigations into cheating because no doubt that went on big time. But for now, Spanberger and her allies are stymied. Let us pray for a permanent defeat of these liars and cheats! Even the wording on the ballot was a lie! Fraud anyone?

Virginia Supreme Court declines to overturn injunction to temporarily halt certification of redistricting vote

The Schism is Coming! The Schism is Coming!

I hate what my first thought was when I read Vatican journalist Diane Montagna's article about the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and their plans to excommunicate the SSPX bishops if the consecrations go forward on July 1st. There is talk that the entire Society will be excommunicated, every single member, which includes all the clergy and I presume the seminarians, brothers, and nuns. 

The laity are not members of the Society so if rumors turn out to be true, I presume we will be told we cannot fulfill our Sunday obligation by going to Mass at SSPX chapels and that they do not have the authority to forgive sins so sacramental confessions will be invalid. And, of course, so will the sacrament of Confirmation and Matrimony. Whew! The sword of Damocles will be over our heads wielded by Cardinal Fernandez of kissing and porno book fame. Really, it boggles the mind. So while Pope Leo embraces and dialogues with Patriarch Bartholomew of the schismatic Easter Orthodox Church, he refuses to meet with the SSPX.

What a father, eh?

Monday Morning in the Bee Yard

Want a daily adventure with sweet rewards? Become a beekeeper. My husband and I have had an apiary at Camp Kreitzer for about fifteen years. We've gone up and down from one season to the next with our current seven hives the most ever. At least four are queen right. The others are hopefully raising queens following our splits a month ago.We plan to give away one hive this season, perhaps two, to a family that wants to become beekeepers.

Sunday Meditation: Are Catholics Masochists?

Are Catholics masochists who turn every landscape into a dystopian city of suffering? What do you think?

In his homily this morning, Father mentioned reading an article by a psychologist who stated that Catholics worship pain and suffering. His evidence? Our churches have a bloodied crucified man at the center, many of our saints suffered gruesome martyrdoms, we offer a Mass with the unbloody sacrifice of the slain Lamb of God, etc. And, of course, there's the guilt factor. Father didn't mention that, but it's part of the picture painted by disbelieving psychologists. The Church lays a guilt trip on their followers who need to spend significant time (and money) de-compressing with a professional who will relieve them of their guilt. All those poor Catholics who wear a metaphorical hair shirt, if not a real one, are paralyzed by unending guilt that needs to be eliminated by drugs or talk therapy. Hmmm.

Let's Pray the Southern Poverty Fraud Center Gets What They Deserve!

Many of us have known for decades that the Southern Poverty Law Center is an evil, lying grifter group. Now we have the proof. Let us hope and pray they get dismantled and the fraudsters go to jail!