"Top O' the Mornin' to Ye!" a Day Late.

And the proper response is: "And the rest o' the day to yerself."

Guest Post: THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME: THE GOOD NEWS AND THE BAD NEWS

 by James M. Thunder  

published in The Narthex, blog of New Oxford Review, in four parts Feb. 24, March 8, 11 and 13
Part 1: Notre Dame: The Good News & the Bad News | New Oxford Review

Folks, the good news out of Notre Dame is shockingly good. The bad news out of Notre Dame is shockingly bad. I’ll start with the bad.

On January 8, 2026, Notre Dame issued a press release announcing that a professor, Susan Ostermann, was being appointed, effective July 1, as director of the Liu Institute. Because of her public and persistent pro-abortion views, this appointment has been met with objections by:

Guest Post: Movie Review -- Franz Jaegerstaetter – A Hidden Life

                                                               by James M. Thunder

Released before Christmas, A Hidden Life, is the story of Franz Jaegerstaetter (or Jägerstätter) (1907-1943), an Austrian farmer, who was executed for refusing induction into Hitler’s army. He left behind his wife, Fani, and their three children, one of them with special needs. I use this photo of Franz because it is so jarring to see him in military uniform -- in 1940. The film is written and directed by Terrence Malick who was nominated for Oscars for Tree of Life (2011) and The Thin Red Line (1998). 

We will always need stories like Franz’, stories like the elderly Eleazar in 2 Maccabees 6, the seven sons in 2 Maccabees 7, Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons (1966) and Wegemer’s A Portrait of Courage (1995), and so many more. We will need them whenever and wherever, as Isaiah says (5:20), what is good is deemed by the world evil and what is evil is deemed by the world good. Franz’ story is timely when so many of us today seek conscientious objection (not only “religious exemption”) to participation in or funding of abortion, to participation in same-sex “marriages,” to participation in sex-change surgeries, to the teaching on these subjects to our children.

Guest Post: Be a Friend, Make a Friend, Bring a Friend to Christ

St. Andrew brings Peter to Jesus.
Ottavio Vannini, 17th c. 

Editor's comment: The priest who prepared my husband and me for marriage and witnessed that blessed event used to tell us, "Be a friend, make a friend, bring a friend to Christ." All of us have many opportunities to witness to the "hope that is in us" through Christ Jesus. Sometimes that witness is verbal and sometimes it's silent. But our witness begins with drawing closer to the Lord. Can you meet Him today at daily Mass? Can you speak to His Mother Mary and honor her through praying the rosary? She faithfully brings every soul who desires it to meet her Son Jesus. No matter what has happened in your life or where you are today, you can "bring a friend to Christ" through your love, kindness, patience, understanding, etc. 

HANDING ON TO A NEW GENERATION

by James M. Thunder* 

Last month I listened to a parish Director of Youth Ministry describe a sociological study documenting how so many young Catholics think of our Faith as a set of propositions without a personal relationship with God Who is the subject of the propositions. Then I watched World Over Live broadcast a videoclip of Bishop Robert J. Baker of Birmingham at the Junes meeting of the American bishops (the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), request that the words, the Name, Jesus Christ, appear at least once in one of the USCCB documents that was then under review.

Guest Post: Sunday Meditation Reflecting on the Nicene Creed

Editor's note: I've never thought about the different format of the Nicene Creed from the rest of the prayers at Mass. We don't call it a prayer but a "profession of faith."

 It seems to me that the Creed is like a "pledge of allegiance" to God, or like an oath taken by the president, supreme court justices, etc. We are promising the King of King our fidelity. So I'm not sure I would want to see it changed into a prayer as Jim suggests in this article.

What do you think, readers? We recite the creed every Sunday and on certain feasts and solemnities. How often do we seriously reflect on what we say? Let's really listen next time we join together with the Catholic community in reciting the Creed.

THE NICENE PRAYER

by James M. Thunder* 

We will often hear news media, government officials, and private persons, say in consolation, “Our thoughts and our prayers are with you.” So very seldom do they state to Whom our prayers are addressed. And so it is with Thanksgiving. Although the Presidents -- from George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to Franklin D. Roosevelt to President Trump’s 2018 Proclamation, state to Whom we ought to give thanks on Thanksgiving Day, the words God or the Almighty are seldom stated by news media, government officials, and private persons in conjunction with Thanksgiving Day.

Guest Post: A Litany for Lawyers and Government Officials

Editor's comment: This week we've seen liberals going after Attorney General William Barr, calling him Trump's attorney and questioning his integrity. 

What I find interesting about this attack is that once again we see the mainstream media's double standard applied. Let's go back to a hot summer day in Phoenix, June 28, 2016 when Bill Clinton requested a meeting on the tarmac with Attorney General Loretta Lynch while her office was investigating Hillary's server/email debacle. Funny thing -- the media treated that meeting with a yawn. Did anyone question Loretta Lynch's treatment of Hillary? Not that I recall. In fact, the media always treats the Clintons' shady dealings with a yawn. 

Guest Post Part 2: Pope Francis Fiddles while Faithful Burn with Anger!

Read Part 1 here.

Editor's note: Last November the pope told the USCCB not to take any substantive action on the sex abuse crisis because he had scheduled the summit in Rome. The summit, being hyped as a serious look at the problem, seems to be just one more stage production to create the impression that the Vatican is taking the problem seriously and actually doing something about it. Don't hold your breath. So far the press conferences indicate that the real problem (sodomite behavior which includes clergy homosexual abuse of minors, clergy homosexual abuse of young adults, especially seminary students, and consensual clergy homosexual sodomy between adults.) The only issue being addressed at the summit is the abuse of minors. And Blase Cupich, a master spinmeister, is continuing the cover up. When you read the papal schedule below, note how almost nothing is being said or done about what can only be described as the major Church crisis of our day. The pope has time to fly around the world, visit art galleries, attend interfaith meetings, and babble on and on about whatever; but dealing with the sex abuse crisis is hardly on his radar screen. The silence of the shepherd for his poor little slaughtered lambs in the womb and for the victims of clergy sex abuse (many of whom have committed suicide) is appalling! 

POPE FRANCIS FIDDLES

WHILE THE ROMAN CHURCH IS BURNING…BURNING MAD

by James M. Thunder

Part 2: Has the Pope Abandoned His Post? Has He Been Fiddling?

Guest Post Part I: Pope Francis Fiddles while Faithful Burn with Anger!

Cupich, the great showman, will be running the
summit. Will it be the "greatest show on earth?"

Editor's comment: As the meeting on the sex abuse of minors begins today in Rome, consider the state of the Church and the loss of credibility among our clerical leaders. There are several troubling facts about the summit. Limiting the focus of the meeting to the abuse of minors is only half the story allowing the continued pretense that the issue is "pedophilia," the abuse of pre-pubescent children. It has ALWAYS been about pederasty, i.e., homosexual abuse. Blase Cupich has already announced that ONLY the abuse of minors will be discussed. So seminarian abuse and "age appropriate" sodomy between clerics is not on the table. Sadly, the Vatican seems to have no intention of addressing or cleaning up the real problem. The most obvious signal is that those organizing and running this meeting are, in fact, the problem. To have Blase Cupich, a champion of homosexuality, and others of his ilk in charge is surely an illustration of the saying, "The fox is guarding the hen house." The timeline of events described by today's guest illustrates exactly how much smoke emanates from the Vatican spin machine. Consider Cupich's "rabbit hole" comment. These men are clueless about the anger, the "burning mad" anger, of the laity, a righteous anger that calls out to heaven for justice!

POPE FRANCIS FIDDLES

WHILE THE ROMAN CHURCH IS BURNING…BURNING MAD

by James M. Thunder

Guest Post: Have a Blue Christmas, A Mr. Blue Christmas, That is!

as published in American Spectator, www.spectator.org, Dec. 19, 2018

by James M. Thunder

I could not let this year go by without remarking that 2018 marks the 90th anniversary of the publication of a short novel, about 120 pages, that a young man published in 1928, and has seldom been out of print since: Myles Connolly’s debut novel, Mr. Blue. It is appropriate to do so at Christmas because, first, the protagonist, J. Blue, was in awe of the Incarnation and, secondly, because Connolly was an adviser to film director Frank Capra for what has become a Christmas-time favorite, the 1946 It’s a Wonderful Life.

It is said that many high schools and colleges, presumably Catholic, made Mr. Blue required reading at one time. It was not required in my Catholic high school in the late1960’s. Maybe it wasn’t necessary. It was one of two books that I recall my classmates made so much buzz about that I read them to keep up with what my peers were reading. (The other was James Michener’s Bridge at Andau (1957) about the Hungarian anti-Communist uprising.)

Celebrate Strong Women

Women of Yesteryear by Jim Thunder

I liked this article very much. There's something profoundly respectful about celebrating the lives of your ancestors. And I'm jealous of Jim for knowing so much about his past. I know very little about my family beyond my grandparents' generation. My mom was adopted and had a great devotion to her adoptive parents, but she knew nothing about her birth family except that her parents were married and she was adopted at age three.

I wish I'd asked my dad more about his family. My grandfather on his side was raised in Wisconsin. Daddy said when Grandpa was a boy he earned a nickle a cup for pulling potato bugs off the crops. My grandmother was the youngest of thirteen and an amazingly versatile woman. She could do every kind of needlework and produced some absolutely beautiful things. I still have a few. But she also learned to develop her own film and to paint and make ceramics. She taught retarded children and my mom said people whose children she schooled came up to her at Grandma's funeral and said they don't know what they would have done without her. I wish I'd known her better. My grandparents visited infrequently and we moved frequently because of Daddy's job in the Navy. She was stern and I was afraid of her as a little girl. Now as an adult I'm sorry I never got to know her.

Praise God for your own ancestors today, especially the "founding mothers" of your family. I often offer daily Mass for my ancestors, especially those who passed on the faith. And that means I'm praying especially for the first teachers, the moms, who taught their little ones to pray and to think about the things of God.

Jim includes a list of books for those interested in reading about pioneer women. What a great addition for girls after they finish The Little House books. Sounds like a treasure trove for home schoolers.

Joanna L. Stratton, Pioneer Women: Voices from the Kansas Frontier
Harriet Fish Backus, Tomboy Bride
Margaret A. Frink, Covered Wagon Women: Diaries & Letters from the Western Trails
Conrad Richter's trilogy, The Trees, The Fields and The Town
Jane Jacobs, editor, A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska: The Story of Hannah Breece
Virginia Cornell, Doc Susie: The True Story of a Country Physician in the Colorado Rockies
Carol Crawford McManus, Ida: Her Labor of Love
Agnes Morley Cleaveland, No Life for a Lady (Women of the West).