If a Bishop Dies on the Border Between New York and Illinois, Where Should He Be Buried?

When John Paul II visited New York he asked to meet
Fulton Sheen. A few months later the archbishop died. 

With the on-going controversy over where Fulton Sheen's final resting place should be, New York City or Peoria, I've been thinking about him a lot lately. At least a dozen of his books line my bookshelves and I've actually read most of them, some even twice. His Life of Christ is a masterpiece! What a work to bring one to a greater knowledge of and friendship with our Lord and Savior! His autobiography, Treasure in Clay, would be a great ordination gift for a young priest on fire with love for Christ. Walking in Sheen's footsteps would lead any priest or layman straight to the tabernacle. I love to watch Sheen's old TV series, Life is Worth Living, on YouTube. It's a good antidote when life seems anything but!

The fight over Sheen's body seems ludicrous to me. If New York isn't interested in pursuing his cause for sainthood and Peoria is, why the argument? Does New York want him at St. Patrick's for Big Apple Catholic tourist appeal? That's not even where he wanted his remains. In his will, he identified a cemetery in Queens.

Miscellaneous Observations from Fr. Tom Collins -- Are You Confused?

A report in the Washington Times yesterday (May 29th) shows that human trafficking cartels behind the “migrant crisis”, which has brought hundreds of thousands of “economic refugees” illegally across our borders, with demands from Democrats, clergy and activist judges that “social justice” requires that we pay indefinitely to supply such infiltrators with free room, board, medical care and education.

It's Nearly the End of the Mary Month of May...

So let's meditate on her for the next two days.

Reflect on her "Fiat" to the Angel Gabriel. "Be it done unto me according to your word." She is the Immaculate Conception.

Guest Post: The Struggle of Being a Minority Catholic

by Adam Durnham

Goa in western India is known for its breathtaking
beaches, well-preserved 17th century Catholic
churches, and spice plantations.

Editor's note: I think this article is especially relevant today for both us in the United States and residents in Europe. As Muslim migrants invade the West, many illegally, the countries are changing. Islam is not just a religion, but a political system where those of other religions are, not only second class citizens, but infidels. Persecution, and even genocide is not uncommon, as the Turk's genocie in Armenia in the early 20th century and the current persecution of Christians in the Middle East and Africa.  These are warnings of what can happen here when Christians become a minority religion and Islam implements Sharia Law and the caliphate. Thanks to Mr. Durnham for sharing his story.

Goa, a state in western India, has always been a Catholic stronghold because it was a Portuguese colony. However, the number of Catholics has declined over the years since the 19th Century when the ratio of Catholics to Hindus was 6:3. Now only about 3 in 10 Goans are Catholic while the rest are Hindus. And this trend wasn’t astonishing when India finally annexed the western state in 1961.

Did You Know...

...That Pope St. John Paul II's mom was advised to abort him? She refused and he was born May 18, 1920?

...That Cardinal Burke's mom was advised to abort him? He was born June 30, 1948?

...That opera singer Andrea Bocelli's mom was advised to abort him? He was born September 22, 1958.

...That Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton were based on complete lies!

...That a former secretary of Cardinal McCarrick, Monsignor Anthony J. Figueiredo, is confirming many of the scandaloous facts about Uncle Teddy McCarrick?

Remember: Memorial Day's Not Just About the Picnic and the Potato Salad!

If you're having a big family celebration, how about adding a decade of the rosary to the program in honor of all those men and women who died in service. They gave the "last full measure of devotion;" can we give a few minutes of prayer for the repose of their souls?

May the Divine Assistance be always with us and may the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen

How to Railroad a Good Priest! The Fr. Escalante Saga Goes On!

I've been following the Fr. Escalante situation for some time now. Go here for some background.

If the Democrats win in 2020 liberty, already in dire straits, will collapse completely!

Liberty Crumbling took first prize at the 2019 Texas Sand Sculpture Festival.

Sadly, Lincoln contributed to the collapse of liberty by strengthening the centralized government and gutting the sovereignty of the states. The more centralized the government, the greater the risk of tyranny.

The Horror of Organ Donation in China

And this is the country described by Archbishop Marcello Sorondo, head of the Pontifical Academy of Science as being “the best implementer of Catholic social doctrine," a country that “has defended the dignity of the human person.” One wonders how the Chinese prisoners blood and tissue-typed for forced organ donation feel about that.

Infantile Show and Tell Homilies Reveal the Intellectual Barrenness of the Clergy

Gus, the "visual aid", teaching 

and preaching to Catholics 

(because profundity would be

too confusing and dangerous).

St Ignatius Loyola said, "Hell's black legions are teeming; their harsh cry is heard". The duty of priests and deacons is to help their flocks have courage to face those black legions and fight back against them, therefore it's imperative that first the flock knows what good and evil are in order to even be able to engage in the battle. But at our parish the new deacon's "visual aid", Gus the Teddy Bear, addresses us on how to engage in fluffy stuff.

Let's say someone loses a child and goes to Mass to cry out to God for help and they get...Gus the Teddy Bear as a "visual aid" to help ease their pain. Or the fact that evil is all around us so we go to Mass for strength to fight against worldly wickedness and we get...Gus the Teddy Bear to prepare us for battle. Recently I overheard two conversations within minutes of each other. 

1st Conversation
MAN: Hey your hair looks great!
WOMAN: Thanks. I love it too. Your husband did it.

2nd Conversation
WOMAN: I see that the friend visiting you has left.
MAN: Yes. I'm sorry to see him go but he's on the way to California the see his daughter and her wife.

Meet Italy's Donald Trump, Catholic Conservative Matteo Salvini

Matteo Salvini is an Italian conservative politician who supports national sovereignty and wants to take back control from the European Union. He opposes illegal immigration and embraces a policy of "Italy first." In March 2018 his populist party shocked the establishment and he now serves in the powerful position of Interior Minister where he has a significant impact preventing migrant ships from landing on Italian shores. Salvini's party, The League, collaborated with the first finishing party, The Five Star Movement collaborating in hopes of taking over the European Union Parliament in the May elections. Why should we cheer for Salvini?

Salvini ACTS like a Catholic. [All quotes from LifeSiteNews.]

Mea Culpa! I Did Not Read the Alabama Bill Carefully Enough.

Guess I'm not moving to Dixie after all.

And here's the section of HB 314, the Human Life Protection Act, that renders it as gutless as all the other bills that failed to protect the baby in utero since Roe v. Wade. It allows abortion for mental illness and like the early bills that required two doctors to confirm the woman is suicidal it will be the same automatic rubber stamp loophole we've seen in the past. Can anyone doubt that two doctors can't be found to confirm a woman is at risk for suicide?:

Wow! Ninety seconds that explain why Religion is Essential to Democracy!

This video reminded me of the statement attributed to de Tocqueville. "America is great because America is good. If America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great." We are seeing the collapse of America because of the collapse of moral values. We may have already reached the tipping point with the collapse of reason itself and a return to barbaric paganism. In that case, America will not only cease to be great, she may cease to be at all. Remember what happened to Rome!

We call priests "Father." Can bishops please stop treating them like CEOs!

My husband and I camp with a square dance camping club that visits campgrounds within a 100 mile radius of Washington, D.C. We have a list of regular places so my husband and I have become pretty familiar with churches in the area around each campground.

We camped this weekend in Woodbine, MD at Ramblin' Pines, one of our favorite campgrounds. I wish I could say I feel the same way about the local church we've attended at least one weekend during the camping season for the past ten years.  In fact, Sunday Mass there feels like a penance. The pastor follows the rubrics and I've never heard a dissident homily, but, like most parishes these days, they have altar girls and a crowd of "extraordinary" ministers of the Eucharist crowding the sanctuary at Communion. I just close my eyes, shake my head, and go get in the priest's line.

So Called "Equality Act" (H.R. 5) Passed in the House on Friday with Support of 8 Republicans!

IS THIS AMERICA'S FUTURE?

The Equality Act will crush religious liberty. That's the opinion of a liberal law professor who's a
long-time supporter of same sex marriage.

Quotes to Contemplate -- Add your own in the comments section.

What the so-called "Age of
Reason" ushered into the world!

"From 1789 onward the left has ushered a great and devouring hatred into the world, drawing from a bottomless well of implacable resentment and anger that produced the Terror in the final decade of the 18th century (the "Age of Reason," they call it), the many murderous totalitarian regimes in the 20th that killed hundreds of millons, and now in the early 21st century a mass mania supported by lies, unreason, hysteria, and the denial of objective human and metaphysical reality -- oddly, by people who idolize science and technology." [They are] "driven by metaphysical hatred",,,and have "created a wasteland and called it Paradise." 

            Chilton Williamson in Chronicles, November 2018

"To borrow from St. Augustine, God made us to make the times, not the times to make us. We're the subjects of history, not its objects. And unless we make the times better with the light of Jesus Christ, then the times will make us worse with their darkness."   

                                   Archbishop Charles Chaput 

                                   Pio Laghi Lecture March 27, 2019

Lawsuit Against the Vatican, the Ultimate Slap in the Face of Authority

This link reveals intentions of abuse victims to go above the diocese level here in this country and carry the complaint all the way to Rome.  The structure of the Church protects one diocese from financially affecting the others.  One diocese can run out of money from lawsuits or suffer a loss of reputation, but the others remain untouched.  They are insulated from each other, but they all share one common thread, Rome.

"Alabama is going to lead the nation in protecting the sanctity of life,”

If I ever leave Virginia, I think I'll head for the "heart of Dixie," Alabama! The people of the Yellowhammer state truly have a big heart for God's littlest lambs and they proved it yesterday by passing HB 314, the Human Life Protection Act which heads for the governor's desk. It takes direct aim at Roe v. Wade identifying the baby in the womb as a "person."

State Senator Clyde Chambliss told the Washington Post:

“Planned Parenthood can try to derail the bill, as they did in spending over a million dollars to unsuccessfully oppose a pro-life ballot measure last fall in Alabama. But the outcome will be the same: Alabamians will stand on the side of life.” 

Destroying the Meaning of Words: That's What the "Equality Act" (H.R. 5) is Doing!

LGBTQ Community ready to bludgeon
the First Amendment!

What a great word equality is. It conjures up images of the Founders saying, "All men are created equal...endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights...." Who can fail to cheer such an idea?

But what if the Equality Act isn't about equality at all? What if it's about discriminating against certain people in order to give special rights to other people?

Read the Bill which has as its purpose, "To prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation, and for other purposes." H.R. 5 goes on and on about LGBTQ victimhood and rights. It alters the Civil Rights Act to include gender identity. The bill throws in women with the LGBTQ crowd, I suppose to make it more palatable. But what, in fact, would be the impact of this "equality" bill on everyone, but particularly women?

Time out for a nature break

Life overwhelming? Take a nature break!

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed lately. With my sister sick and in the hospital and some other major issues I'm not sleeping very well and the temptations to anxiety are many and frequent. I spent yesterday on the road leaving home at 8:30 in teeming rain to make a 10:15 appointment in Chantilly, then on to Frederick Memorial Hospital an hour away to visit my sister, then back to Winchester to COSTCO, and finally home to make dinner. Whew!

I consider my car a little chapel and said two rosaries on the road as well as taking some silence breaks between finishing a book on CD and listening to talk radio. I can only stand so much noise.

Today, however, it's time for a nature break!

Latest Travesty in Wheeling: Diocese Uses Statute of Limitations to Avoid Accountability

God save Wheeling from this man!

Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston Wants Former Bishop Michael Bransfield Case Dismissed

No surprise really. Protecting the money is what church lawyers get paid for. 

Will the diocese's next move be to try to recall Bransfield and give him back his job (and his private chef, etc.)? Let's face it, many (perhaps most) of the U.S. bishops couldn't care less about right and wrong or the people in the pews. What do they care about? Well, in my opinion, many are good little Church politicians who care about the same thing worldly politicians care about.

MONEY...

POWER...

REPUTATION...

Pope Francis May Have Refused to Answer the Dubia, but This Author Says Benedict DID!

This photo may be from a satire site, but all
the smoke Francis blows is no joke!

Which leads one to ask -- Who is the real authority speaking in persona Christi? I think the answer is pretty simple.

When a bad pope sits on Peter's throne, faithful Catholics can't trust him. When he speaks with the mind of the Church, one can assent to his pronouncements. But, when, as this pope often does, the smoke of Satan pours out of his mouth like the smoke from a villain's cigarette, the faithful have a duty not only to ignore him, but shout a resounding NO!

St. Thomas Aquinas said it well, “There being an imminent danger for the Faith, Prelates must be questioned, even publicly, by their subjects." Amen to that!

Parents of Girls Attacked by Creepy Philly Lawmaker Brian Sims Turn Lemons into Lemonade

Parents of teen girls harassed by Brian Sims raise over $100G for Philly pro-life org

Brian Sims chose the wrong mama bear to go after. Ashley Garecht spoke on Tucker Carlson tonight. 

Ashley Garecht clearly is an articulate defender of the unborn. If you have any fear for the future remember this mom and the girls she is raising to be warriors for life. May St. Michael the Archangel protect and defend her family. I suspect the girls are even more resolved to defend life after this. 

Thank you Brian Sims! Good shines brightest in the blackest night. May God have mercy on you and shower you with the grace of conversion. 

Nice As It Sounds, Not All In This World Are Children of God

"I baptize you in the name of the Father,

the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

We have a new baby in our family and she will be baptized soon.  She will become a child of God.  Through the Sacrament using water and words she will be reborn and her name will be forever recorded in heaven as a redeemed member of the human race through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Just as no infant can ever re-enter the womb of its mother and be born again into this world, no infant or child or adult can ever be re-baptized or reborn of water.  Once is enough for all eternity in both cases. 

The Growing Incivility (and Derangement) of Liberal Lawmakers Like Pete Buttigieg and Brian Sims

Brian Sims and Pete Buttigieg illustrate
Democrat Derangement Syndrome!

The virtue-signaling Democrats continually advise us how morally superior they are to the deplorably unwashed around the country. Some even spout religious sentiments telling us that God approves of their immoral behavior.  South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg has attacked  Vice President Mike Pence's faith in a clearly cynical and politically-motivated attempt to garner media attention (and money). Hopefully the strategy will backfire.

Interestingly, gay U.S. ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell took him to the woodshed saying:

“Mayor Peter has been pushing this hate hoax, along the lines of Jussie Smollett, for a very long time now, several weeks,” Grenell said in a recent interview on Fox News. “And I find it really ironic that Mayor Pete stayed silent about the so-called hate hoax on him and others during 2015, 2016, 2017 when Mike Pence was governor.”

I Set Before You Life and Death....

The forces of death in our culture become ever bolder. Who can see people like Andrew Cuomo and Ralph Northam and others of their ilk fight for the right to murder children up to and even after birth and not be horrified? And seeing so many echo their evil makes one think of the screaming mobs at the annual Nazi Nuremberg rallies. The victims of our modern culture of death’s satanic human sacrifice may be smaller, but their murders are no less horrifying.

Disobedience Is Not An Option

The first reading on Sunday May 5 was from Acts 5:27-32.  The apostles made it clear to the Sanhedrin that they were not free to do as they wanted in order to please the Jewish court.  They were obligated to obey God by praising, Jesus.  They said, “We are witnesses of these things, as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”

The Priest, the Protestant & the Horse Races

It’s Kentucky Derby/Triple Crown time! This post is for Catholic families and people in the Thoroughbred industry – jockeys, trainers, horse owners and farm owners, breeders, grooms, exercise riders, and all others who love racing (and who probably already have heard this joke).

The Priest, the Protestant & the Horse Races

One day while he was at the track playing the ponies and all but losing his shirt, Mitch, a Protestant, noticed a Catholic priest who stepped out onto the track and blessed the forehead of one of the horses lining up for the 4th race. Lo and behold, that horse – quite a long shot – won the race! 

Before the next race, as the horses began lining up, Mitch watched with interest as the old priest once again stepped onto the track. Sure enough, as the horses for the 5th race came to the starting gate, the priest made a blessing on the forehead of one of the horses. Mitch made a beeline for the betting window and placed a small bet on the horse blessed by the priest. Again, even though it was another long shot, the horse that the priest had blessed won the race!

And the Flood of Evil Continues Unabated

The only thing that stops God sending another Flood is that the first one was useless. - Nicolas Chamfort

Os Guinness - A realistic view of evil

The Children in Congress

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness; when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in whom instinct has learned nothing from experience. - George Santayana

Bishop Burbidge, Give Fr. Escalante Back to the People of Purcellville and End This Charade of a Trial: READERS, PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION!

SIGN THE PETITION

After reading all the various accounts and comments in the case of falsely accused Fr.
Ronald Escalante, pastor of St. Francis de Sales parish in Purcellville, VA, I was left asking myself one thing.  Why?  Who would accuse this priest of a violation, NOT of sexual abuse, but of a violation of “boundary,” the latest in the bureaucratic jargon for dealing with the actions of clergy in the modern Church? 

Where could such a claim come from and again, WHY?  As it turns out my suspicions were correct in assuming it had something to do with money.  It seems the Director of Religious Education for the parish happens to have a brother who is a gardener and the two of them thought it would be a grand scheme if they created a not for profit whose stated goal was to feed the poor, by soliciting funds from a wide audience very willing to support the launch and growth of a “project” to provide produce for the hungry.  Naturally, if the appeal is successful and the money starts to roll in, there’s a lot of gravy over and above the actual expenses that could be distributed to the “managers” so to speak, who would be repaid and repaid for their efforts.