Random And Meandering Thoughts

AB Sorondo's Chinese Utopia.

• What times we live in eh? The Vatican is betraying the faithful Chinese bishops and throwing the persecuted underground Church under the bus. Retired Chinese Cardinal Zen has been very outspoken about the betrayal which has elicited the usual Vatican response -- a rebuke (without naming him).

• Telling the truth these days isn't popular at the Vatican. Archbishop Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo, head of the Vatican's Pontifical Academies for Sciences and Social Sciences, praised the current bloody Commie bosses who, according to him, have made the country a Utopia: no drugs, no "shantytowns," a country that has taken on a "moral leadership that others have abandoned." (This was likely a reference to Trump pulling out of the Paris Accord. China, of course, is a bastion of ecological responsibility!) The bishop must be clueless about the millions of forced abortions in China, the fact that most of the meth in the Philippines comes from China as well as the synthetic opioids that end up in the U.S., and that many people in the country live on the equivalent of a dollar day. Archbishop Sorondo apparently lives in the Potemkin Village!

• But on to another issue -- the notorious West Coast Religious Education Conference. Others may be canceling Fr. James Martin's talks but not them. This year must be LGBTQXYZ pride year since the conference has a number of homosexuals and homosexual-propagandists speaking including an open lesbian. (Shame on Bishop Gomez!) Homosexuality is in, pro-life is out. According to LifeSiteNews: 

This year’s congress appears to be equally devoid of material on the right to life. The talks being given under the headings of “life” and “family” make no mention nor even hint at topics such as abortion and the right to life, artificial birth control, euthanasia, or natural family planning. The “Life Issues” category instead includes many topics dear to the gay agenda, such as “Aligning Responses to Bullying with Catholic Schools,” “Bullying Out – Formation In,” “All Are Welcome in This Place: Rise Up in Communion.” Others cover Stuart Smalley” style pop psychology topics, such as “13 Reasons Why You Matter.”

Well, enough of the bad news. Now for the good news...uh...hmm...err...anyone?...anyone?... ...Bueller?.....

Just kidding! There is always good news. Just read the Sermon on the Mount. "Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of slander against you because of me, be glad and rejoice, for your reward is great in heaven; they persecuted the prophets before you in the very same way." Evil times bring great blessings. Athanasius who was pursued, persecuted, exiled, and threatened with death teaches us courage and faithfulness under trial. The martyrs of England teach us how a country under tyrannical leaders produces heroes and heroines who peacefully defy evil through mass resistance. Joan of Arc teaches us how to respond with grace and simplicity when we are unjustly accused and tried (even by churchmen). So let's all be calm and hopeful despite the outward distressing signs, because where great evils abound, grace abounds even more.

I leave you with the song of the day....