Safe Haven

 I’m in a wheelchair with spastic hands, arms, and legs, so I wouldn’t touch a Host or a chalice unless I was compelled to do so. Along with the Magisterium, I place no special burden upon people to do it my way. I will say that if the Host ever did touch my hand, I would lick my hand, to make sure nothing of Jesus ended up on the ground or some other unworthy place. I don’t abide “traditionalist” nonsense that only clerics should touch the sacred species because only their hands are consecrated. By baptism, all the faithful are consecrated and made worthy by Jesus to be there. He could destroy us all, but he wants us there. The priest is consecrated in a unique and permanent way to make the Eucharistic Sacrifice, but the whole liturgy is sacrifice and communion. If extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion remain bothersome, it is because not enough people avoid Communion for reason of grave sin/mortal sin. But that’s a much bigger problem than the “traditionalist” desire to presu...

 It’s the film Argo, about the rescue of the hostages taken by the Iranian cult regime. Several CIA agents did great work, and it’s awfully hard not to swell with pride at hearing from President Carter in the ending credits.    I never went along with the legend that the Iranians were terrified of Reagan, so they released the diplomats. They weren’t afraid of Reagan when they sent the PLO terrorists to Beirut to kill Dr. Malcolm Kerr in 1984. Obviously, if you’re gonna lose, you want to have a post-presidency like that one. Also, how do we know he wasn’t just unlucky in the macroeconomic sense? George H.W. Bush got similarly unlucky in the fall of 1992. And the Right was divided by a nativist populist that year. I seriously hate it when that happens. I hate it even more when a dumber, cruder version of the guy wins two non-consecutive terms. I digress.

 A 7-year-old was kidnapped, strangled, and murdered in Texas. As soon as the man dies, the little girl will still be dead. There is a team of people who have to practice putting him and others to death. Their bodies and souls won’t care how deserving the man is. I know a lot of “conservative” Catholics who love to say, “The Church is right about everything” when it’s homosexuality or contraception, but this one, they grab a tray at the cafeteria.

 Jesus speaks of a narrow gate or way, and few find it. It leads to life. The wide gate or way leads to destruction, and many find it. This is a hard saying. I have to conclude that Hell is real, and that more end up separated from God, than united to him. I’m not the final interpreter here—thank you, Jesus, for the Magisterium—but that’s a plain reading of this text, and a few others. Jesus in the Gospels is the lens to interpret literally everything else in the Bible, because He is the Word, the beloved Son of the Father, Lord of the Sabbath, and everything else. How empty or full either Heaven or Hell are—other than saying an empty Hell wouldn’t need to exist, for one—is wasting time. You can drive yourself crazy with fear, and activities designed to mitigate or manage the fear, to little effect. We can have moral certainty of being in a state of grace by examining our conscience, and going to Confession if necessary. Beyond that, we have to trust in the mercy of God. If God wer...

 Alito went on for 40 extra pages about how to constitutionally pass muster with the Court. But Warnock and the rest of the Democrats would rather scream “racist, racist!” than do their bloody jobs. But that’s a far Left that’s grown accustomed to achieving their ends through the Courts, since they have given up persuading fellow citizens, either to win the presidency, or pass legislation. “Sad!” you might say.

 Progressives (unreasonably liberal Democrats) are having a freak-out over the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, where the Court (6-3) ruled that a map creating a second “majority-minority” district was racially discriminatory. A key finding was that the motive was primarily racial justice (or someone’s idea of racial justice). The government can only specifically use race as a factor if the congressional district: 1. Addresses a specific, measurable harm; and  2. is not otherwise discriminatory in intent. Failing that, “strict scrutiny” under the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment is triggered, and there are only a couple scenarios where government action could be justified, neither of which were present here. I want to add in a couple things I know/believe that can shed further light on the majority opinion: 1. Most analysts do not believe Black majorities are required to elect Black candidates. I learned in college that a critical mass of about 30 p...

 I know the words to the Canadian national anthem. I grew up watching hockey. You’re not a true hockey fan, if you don’t know Canada’s anthem. It’s short and to the point, anyway. The Buffalo Sabres of the NHL have both anthems sung, regardless of whether they are playing a Canadian team. (It’s customary to sing both, if the visiting team is from the other country.) Their home ice is less than 10 minutes from Canada, so a good number of their fans are Canadian. They are our neighbors and friends to the north. Since most NHL teams are in the United States, I think we should honor Canada like this.

 We have been fighting against factions and spiritual elitism from the very beginning. The thing about public revelation is that it’s public. Jesus wants everyone to know. Heaven is so important to complete our being that the Great Commission makes sense. Water baptism in the Triune Name, and obedience to the teachings of Jesus. Simplifying spiritual practices so that His Apostles could literally reach around the world. A priest serves the teaching mission of the Bishop. A priest without his bishop is a sheep without a shepherd. Fr. Chad Ripperger wants to tell you that the obvious stuff isn’t enough; he wants to make you think that you need special knowledge—his special knowledge—in order to be a saint. At best, he is dangerously misguided; at worst, he is a wolf. The only thing you really need to know about exorcisms is that they exist. Anything more is dangerous. The true child of the Church obeys. The priest obeys the bishop; the bishop obeys the Successor of Peter. And so on. ...