Embezzlement (I.e., Fleecing the Sheep): The Next Big Scandal?

Check it out here.

And please, folks, never put cash in the collection basket! It's easy to lift bills and there's no paper trail. Writing a check makes it a lot harder to steal. None of this comes as a surprise to me. A priest friend from California told me several years ago that a friend of his who is a financial adviser and investigator to the Vatican told him the next big scandal would be over embezzlement. It was second hand hearsay for me, but every time I read about an immoral priest supporting a lavish lifestyle with money stolen from parishioners, I remember my conversation with my friend.

This Woman is One Sick Puppy! Pray for her!

Actress Martha Plimpton Loves Abortion So Much She Wore This “Love Abortion” Dress

When people choose evil they go to great lengths to defend it. After all, they have to prove that they aren't bothered by the horrible atrocities they commit. In fact, they have to convince themselves that they aren't atrocities at all. Think of how bureaucrats and members of the SS deadened their consciences to the degree they could cavalierly murder millions, even children.

A Tridentine High Mass for First Saturday

Yesterday, on First Saturday in honor of Our Lady, I had the blessing of attending a sung Tridentine Mass at St. Mary's in Charleston, SC with a beautiful Gregorian schola and the use of incense. It was the first time I'd been to a Mass like that since I was a teenager.

What struck me particularly during Mass was how it is so much about worshiping God, not celebrating the community or a performing priest.

Every liturgical action focuses on the Holy Sacrifice offered to God and our participation in that sacrifice. Those who say the congregation aren't involved are just silly. Is a student attending his professor's lecture not involved because he's silent? Is someone attending a symphony not engaged with the music because he's not a member of the orchestra?

Of course the congregation is involved -- more involved, in fact, than those who are focused on superficials like holding hands at the Our Father and singing Gather Us In.

The Demolition: How Did it Happen?

Anthony Esolen gives some insight in his article, There and Back Again.

I've been reflecting on this and on the collapse of the culture which is so far advanced and can only conclude that the underlying cause is the rejection of natural law.

Most people's eyes glaze over when you mention natural law. We've replaced it with "rights." We all have rights that not only allow free speech, free association, etc., but the right to create our own reality. The poster "girl" for the rejection of natural law is Bruce Jenner. Doesn't he have the right to decide he's really a she? Our culture says yes and those who disagree are gender-phobes.

Homeschool Alert: HSLDA is Holding a Poetry Contest

Information and rules

Are you an aspiring writer
Like Anne with an E of Green Gables
Well...get out your pens and your pencils
And sit yourselves down at your tables.

A poem that ends in surprise
Or a memory joyful or funny
Or a creative adjective poem
Can win you some cheers and some money.

So get busy and write
With all your might
And create a great poem
For posterity's sight.

Do We Really Have a Two-Party System in this Country?

I've been listening to some tapes from a conference held by the Rockford Institute and was particularly interested in one speaker who said we really don't have two political parties. We have only one and its name is "the establishment." The main policy of the establishment party is to keep itself in power. Whatever it takes to do that is the guiding principle of the "establishment." Stay in office and leave office after a long, enjoyable career very, very rich.

That's why so many politicians who go to Washington on a reform platform immediately reverse themselves. The establishment makes it crystal clear that they will be shunned and never belong to the club if they dare to buck the establishment. As the speaker said, once the politician is elected, the voters who wanted reform disappear until the next election.

Thinking about Rocks and Bees

I saw a quote today on a wetlands trail at a nature center. "If it weren't for the rocks in its bed, the stream would have no song." Since Carl Perkins was a songwriter known as the "King of Rockabilly" I'm presuming the quote is from one of his songs. I'd love to listen to it. Anybody know where it comes from?

The quote got me thinking about the "rocks" in my life -- you know -- those things we may think of as stumbling blocks. We may be tempted to curse them when we stub our toes or trip on them.

But there's another way to look at rocks. Did you ever climb to a rocky high place to get a great view? Did you ever sit on a rock to rest or walk across the big flat rocks in a creek so your feet wouldn't get wet or just stare in stunned awe at a rock formation that reflects the glory of God?

The Final Tribute to Justice Scalia by His Son, Fr. Paul Scalia

May he rest in peace.

From Fr. Gordon MacRae at These Stone Walls.

The Chickens Come Home to Roost in Altoona: The Legacy of Bishop Joseph Adamec

Grand Jury: Altoona Diocese Covered Up Sex Abuse of Hundreds of Children

Wanderer Readers will remember Paul Likoudis' series on Bishop Joseph Adamec's "reign of terror" in Altoona. Faithful Catholics in the diocese fought to restore orthodoxy to no avail. A 2007 article summarized The Wanderer's expose in these words:

In 1996, The Wanderer published a six-week series on Bishop Adamec’s “reign of terror” in the diocese, his persecution of priests and his malicious treatment of concerned laity who objected to his lavish personal lifestyle, his tolerance of liturgical abuses, the cultivation of his cult of personality and the dubious selection of seminarians. 

Our Decisions Have Eternal Consequences! What Will They Be for You?

Father Tom Collins gave this homily on the Gospel of St. Luke chapter 13: 1-9. Lent is a great time to reflect on the nature of evil and our need for repentance and conversion. Where are your decisions taking you? God gave us free will, not so we could choose "whatever," but so we could freely choose the good. Do your choices reflect the right use of free will or are you using your choices to capitulate with evil?