Tom Faranda's Folly

Rembert Weakland, RIP. America's most destructive prelate

UPDATE: It gets worse - he was buried out of the Milwaukee Cathedral. How dumb are these people? What he did was much worse than McCarrick. He should have been buried quietly in a private ceremony.

At one time Weakland was a hugely influential Archbishop. Not mentioned below, he covered up for Fr. Lawrence Murphy, a pedophile accused of molesting more than 200 boys at a school for deaf children. Murphy, who died thinking he'd done nothing wrong (I remember the publicity), was checking on boy's circumcision while they were in the confessional...

See here from First Things - the whole article takes six or seven minutes to read.

Rembert Weakland, former archbishop of Milwaukee and the first American to serve as primate of the Benedictine Order, passed away earlier this week at the age of ninety-five. He had a remarkable ecclesiastical career: abbot of St. Vincent Archabbey in Pennsylvania at age thirty-six, primate of the world’s Benedictines at forty, and archbishop of Milwaukee for twenty-five years, from 1977 to 2002. He was also one of the most destructive, imprudent figures in recent Catholic history.

In 1977, Weakland was appointed archbishop of Milwaukee. One of his early acts was to take a lover, Paul Marcoux. In his memoir, excusing himself, he notes that he “missed the ready companionship of my fellow Benedictines.” Things with Marcoux went south after a few months, and Weakland sent him a letter shoving him off and moving on to better things, or, as he puts it in A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church: “Somewhat on the rebound, I was caught up over the next few years in an effort to find an intimate relationship with another.”

As archbishop, Weakland courted not only lovers but controversy. A good specimen of his pastoral finesse is the op-ed he wrote for the Catholic Herald in 1988, distinguishing between pedophilia and ephebophilia and defending the practice of keeping serial sexual abusers in ministry: “Sometimes not all adolescent victims are so ‘innocent’; some can be sexually very active and aggressive and often quite streetwise. (We frequently try such adolescents for crimes as adults at that age.) Pastorally, such cases are difficult to treat.” These comments caused an uproar, making it evident that Weakland and his cronies were completely unserious about protecting children from priests. In his memoir he still attempts to justify it all, saying that his tolerant attitude toward ephebophilia “grew out of my experience in Europe and my travels around the world.”   

At the end of his tenure as archbishop, Weakland’s lover Marcoux returned, alleging not only a relationship but that Weakland had raped him. Weakland had the diocesan lawyers pay him $450,000 as part of a nondisclosure agreement. In what is probably the crown jewel in his tiara of effrontery and entitlement, he manages to blame this situation on his meager compensation as archbishop: “There was another way I felt hemmed in, held hostage by the Church. . . . I . . . never had monies sufficient for purchasing anything substantial of my own. . . . The fact was that as a bishop there was no way for me to take care of an extraordinary personal need. I had to fall back on my dependency on the Church.”

 

 

The Tuesday wordle

Back from France last night - here's three pictures

As I posted last Wednesday here   Off to France today!   we went to a wedding of close friends daughter .

Here is Margaret, my future dentist, the 4th daughter of my current dentist Peter. At her wedding reception. Can you pick her out?

Brigid at the cocktail hour(s) - oysters and champagne - before the reception.

Sunday - our last evening - at the Atlantic shore a few yards from the Hotel/Inn where we stayed. The first time we've watched the sun dip into the ocean in years.

It was an amazing short trip and will be posting more pix and maybe some video Brigid took.

 

Monday wordle

Essay (Not by me) - "My Week With America’s Smartest* People"

In New York magazine a writer spends a week at the annual Mensa conference. Hit the Mensa link and you can take an IQ challenge. You should be able to access the article below without hitting a paywall.

In the designated game room at the Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nevada, which was open 24 hours a day during this year’s Mensa Annual Gathering, I sat at a table with a woman named Kimberly Bakke, a 30-year-old purple-haired pastry chef and teacher from Las Vegas. Bakke is basically Mensa royalty. A 1996 Orange County Register article about her admission to the high-IQ club revealed that she was conceived at a Mensa convention, and she hasn’t missed one since; she became a member when she was three. “I have a big brain,” she told the Register reporter, who noted that her IQ was 143, about 50 points higher than the average among people of all ages. Bakke was hanging out with Christopher Whalen, a 35-year-old defense contractor from Omaha, Nebraska, who was admitted to the club in 2016. They met in a Mensa Gen-Y Facebook group shortly after, and became fast friends, texting each other every day. The 2022 Annual Gathering (AG, as Mensans call it) was Whalen’s first and marked the first time the pair met IRL.

About 1,100 Mensans journeyed to the Reno area for this year’s convention, people old and young, conservative and progressive, rich and not so rich, cashiers, scientists, community activists, conspiracy theorists, BDSM enthusiasts, and straitlaced monogamists. They came because they think they are smart, they care deeply about a certain type of intelligence, and they feel most at home in a crowd of other high-IQ individuals.

This is home for Bakke. It’s an organization she grew up in, where she’s made lifelong friendships. “Going to an AG, going to any Mensa event, it fills up my cup,” she said. “Like, this is what gets me through the rest of the year … A lot of us here have some flavor of neurodiversity, and it’s just really nice to be around people who get you.”

 

Bumper sticker: Doing this eliminates the need to see a therapist

Spotted in the Shoprite parking lot.

Supreme Court: Urinals with no dividers are unconstitutional

Landmark decision.

In a landmark decision announced this week, the Supreme Court ruled that a Pennsylvania public restroom installer had acted with criminal intent against males who want to relieve themselves with adequate protection from chatty, curious neighbors. While the 6-3 decision solidified several guidelines for public restrooms, the nation's highest court earned the most accolades for declaring urinals without dividers to be unconstitutional.

"This judicial body finds the use of adjacent urinals without dividers of at least 15 inches to be in violation of the constitution's right to private privacy." Justice Clarence Thomas gave the majority opinion. "Public restrooms are already public enough as it is – the constitution protects an inviolable right. Men should be able to keep their privates…private."

Brett Kavanaugh wrote the concurring opinion, demonstrating that "the use of non-divided urinals flagrantly violates a man's God-given right to not be ogled by neighboring urinators" and noting that "the testimony of all human civilization stands in solidarity with this sacred right, along with the printed word of the body of the constitution, the bill of rights, and the subsequent amendments."

The Supreme Court overturned a lower court's ruling in "Bob's Discount Toilets N' Stalls v. The People Of The State Of Pennsylvania," which has become more commonly known as the "Do you mind?!" case. ...

The Supreme Court also announced it would consider adding amendments to enshrine the right to private privacy into law, but current White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced that the Federal government stands against the "right to private privacy" as it would interfere with their planned rollout of mandatory gender-reassignment surgery for small children who accidentally pick up toys of the "wrong gender."

Good column on religious liberty: "The Anti-Religious Left"

On NRO. There's no pay wall up for this article.

On the menu today: A look at the virulently anti-religion Left and the genesis of a new slur.

The Obama administration spent years, heaps of energy, and countless tax dollars trying to bully the Little Sisters of the Poor into offering employees contraception coverage in violation of the group’s deeply held religious beliefs. Over the last two years, the Biden administration has gleefully picked up the baton. Just last week, it showed up in court to defend a Department of Health and Human Services rule that would have forced medical providers to give “gender-affirming care” to patients suffering from gender dysphoria.

Forget that there is no shortage of secular arguments to be made against immediately and unquestioningly beginning the transition process when a patient expresses interest in it. Forget that as a physician, you might believe that sterilization is not the proper response to mental-health malady. And most importantly, forget that you are an individual with your own conscience to answer to. Forget all that — because you must comply with progressive dogma, lest theocracy ensue.

To remind us of this enmity for religion, law professor Kimberly Wehle and longtime New York Times columnist Linda Greenhouse have contributed a pair of new articles fretting about the new, pro-religious-liberty Supreme Court majority.

For Politico, Wehle writes that the opinion of the Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization “marks a serious step in an emerging legal campaign by religious conservatives on the Supreme Court to undermine the bedrock concept of separation of church and state and to promote Christianity as an intrinsic component of democratic government.” This is a puzzling assertion for anyone who has read the opinion to make, as the legal issues in Dobbs were unrelated to religious liberty, but it’s one that Greenhouse nevertheless echoes in arguing that Dobbs is “grounded in religious doctrine rather than constitutional law.” Neither Wehle nor Greenhouse cites anything from the opinion itself to support her claims. (Indeed, the latter links to a whole separate column on the subject, which also does not cite a single line from the opinion about religious practice or belief.)

Important Fauci update - don't miss it

Ok It's from May 2021. Thanks to Nancy for sending me this.  The lead comment is "I hate how accurate this is."

Our Lady of Czestochowa, August 26th Feast

The Polish-American Shrine to Our Lady of Czestochowa is located in Doylestown, PA.  I visited there awhile ago, sadly for the funeral of a close friend who died too soon.

 

Part 2 of Leanne does crossfit

And her diet on crossfit... Part 1 is here Part 1 of Leanne tries crossfit

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday wordle

Off to France today!

Yes off for a wedding - Margaret marries Pierre - Margaret being 4th daughter of our great friends Peter and Chris!

Here's the wide of view where we are headed - west coast of France.

And a closeup - sort of. Staying in the Hotel de la plage. We are back Monday night.

Meanwhile, Farandaville will be well taken care of -

 

 

 

Part 1 of Leanne tries crossfit

Hahaha... very funny. Part 2 follows tomorrow.

 

 

 

Tuesday's wordle

This was a tough one.

 

 

Yanks getting back on track; win the Subway Series - good game

Some excellent defense as Yanks beat the Mets 4-2. And that Judge homer - 453 feet!

 

WSJ editorial: "Dr. Fauci and the Rule of Experts"

Initially I thought Fauci was great... And then not so much.  Excerpts from the Journal editorial below the link. Turns out the Great Barrington Declaration got it right more than the government experts.  And then there's this - Director of CDC says their response was botched

Here's the Journal this morning.

His long service is laudable, but his Covid legacy includes more public mistrust.

Anthony Fauci announced on Monday that he will step down from his National Institutes of Health leadership posts in December, and the fact that this is a major news story suggests the problem with his tenure. He became the main symbol of the rule by experts who imposed lockdowns on America and brooked no scientific debate on Covid.

Dr. Fauci has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984, and his personal research contributions are impressive. He first became known to the public during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, and his agency was an early backer of the mRNA technology that became the platforms for two Covid vaccines.

But the main legacy of his 38-year tenure will be as the public face of government during the Covid pandemic, for better and worse. His reassuring authority won acclaim in the early weeks of the pandemic as Americans struggled to make sense of the threat. “Fifteen days to slow the spread,” he famously said in March 2020, and the Trump Administration and America picked up his refrain.

The two weeks would stretch to two years. The uncertainties of the pandemic’s course weren’t his fault, but the certainty of his policy prescriptions certainly was.

He and a passel of public-health experts used their authority to lobby for broad economic lockdowns that we now know were far more destructive than they needed to be. He also lobbied for mask and vaccine mandates that were far less protective than his assertions to the public. Dr. Fauci’s influence was all the greater because he had an echo chamber in the press corps and among public elites who disdained and ostracized dissenters.

******************

Worse, Dr. Fauci smeared the few brave scientists who opposed blanket lockdowns and endorsed a strategy of “focused protection” on the elderly and those at high risk. This was the message of the Great Barrington Declaration authors, and emails later surfaced showing that Dr. Fauci worked with others in government to deride that alternative so it never got a truly fair public hearing.

***************

“It’s easy to criticize, but they’re really criticizing science because I represent science. That’s dangerous,” Dr. Fauci said last November, in a comment that summarizes the view of the public-health clerisy. The public is supposed to let a few powerful men and women define science and then impose their preferred policies and mandates on the country.

The costs of that mindset have been severe, and not merely economic. We know now that states that locked down fared no better, and sometimes worse, than those that didn’t. We also know that the vaccines, while invaluable against serious disease, don’t prevent the spread of Covid—even after multiple boosters. More honest candor would have been better for America’s trust in public-health authorities.

WSJ column: "The Afghan Debacle Didn't Have to Happen"

The report below will be ignored - unless the Republicans gain control of the House. I've excerpted key points below the link.

A new report shows military commanders and allies disagreed with Biden’s full exit

Now comes a 121-page report, “ ‘A Strategic Failure’: Assessing the Administration’s Afghanistan Withdrawal,” from Republican members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Led by Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the lawmakers lay out a precise, damning case.

The charges include misleading the American people. Contrary to White House claims, the report says allies and senior U.S. military commanders “supported a continued conditions-based deployment in Afghanistan” of 2,500 American and 6,000 allied troops to advise and undertake selected counterterrorism missions.

But insisting, seemingly without evidence, that it would actually require “tens of thousands” of additional U.S. troops, Mr. Biden instead executed an unconditional withdrawal. This decision wasn’t backed by our military or coalition partners, whom Mr. Biden didn’t really consult in advance of his decision.

The Republicans argue that having decided to retreat regardless of conditions on the ground, the Biden administration then didn’t properly plan or prepare for our exit. Team Biden “repeatedly delayed critical action that was necessary to mitigate the likely consequences.”

The administration acted as if none of this mattered. Though Afghanistan quickly fell to the Taliban, Mr. Biden called the chaotic retreat an “extraordinary success.” Even today there are more than 100 Americans—and tens of thousands of Afghans eligible to come to the U.S. including many who supported our troops—stranded in Afghanistan because of this administration’s incompetence.

This week, the White House attacked the report in a three-page response by National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson, who blamed Donald Trump. The former president negotiated a “flawed deal” with the Taliban. ...

All true, yet this hardly gets Mr. Biden off the hook. If he disagreed with the Trump deal, why didn’t he reject it? He jettisoned plenty of other Trump policies. If there were too few American troops in Afghanistan, why not increase them, even modestly? If the structures weren’t in place to evacuate Afghan allies, why didn’t the administration build them in its seven months in office before the withdrawal?

Ms. Watson also made the Orwellian claim that the U.S. surrender “strengthened our national security” and “restored our credibility on the world stage.” That’d be laughable if it weren’t so sad.

******************

Reluctant congressional Democrats have limited Republican opportunities to question administration officials at length about their preparations (or lack thereof) for the withdrawal, restricting the number, length and breadth of oversight hearings. So the House Republican report, while deeply researched, couldn’t be informed by extensive open hearings. The State Department also brushed off inquiries and denied access to key witnesses.

 

The Monday wordle

Leanne: "When puberty turns your kids into monsters"

Never had daughters (or sisters) - she is really funny -

 

Bishop Barron past Sunday Sermon: "How Many will be Saved"

Pretty good presentation of his position, which is the standard position (which gets attacked all the time) best laid out by Saint John Paul II's favorite theologian Fr. Hans Urs Von Balthasar in his book Dare We Hope that All Men be Saved. Of course 99% of the critics never read the book. Von Balthasar doesn't say all men are saved; he quotes St. Paul several times that we each have to work out our salvation "in fear and trembling." And he points out that hell has inhabitants - devils. But while the Church has canonized Saints (an infallible declaration) it has never definitively named any specific individual to be in hell (no not Judas, or Hitler, etc). So while in human terms it's difficult to not believe some poeple have chosen hell, we cannot no for sure who might have made that choice.

If you want to read more about this - but not the Von Balthasar book -  here is the late Cardinal Dulles (buried at Auriesville, NY) in a First Things essay from 2003. The Population of Hell

And here's Bishop Barron - "Hope v. Expectation" - 12 minutes long.

 

 

The Sunday wordle

Hah! Mother Teresa's emergency novena (when you don't have nine days)

It's the Memorare of course. I've known about this for decades and use it quite often. Wish I knew about it before French exams in college ... Who knows?

Need help right away? Make Mother Teresa’s emergency novena

And then there's this -

By whom and when was the Memorare composed?

And here is the prayer -

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to your protection, implored your help, or sought your intercession was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence, I fly unto you, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To you do I come, before you I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy, hear and answer me. Amen

 

 

Saturday wordle - an ace!

Got it on the first go. Luck combined with skill.

Everything you need to know about ... rum!

Of course with Brigid having five years in Jamaica, and I having two, we are aficionados. This video may be more than many people care to know - but I enjoyed it. This guy has a pretty popular website about mixed drinks and all spirits.

 

Friday's wordle

Director of CDC says their response was botched

Give her credit for the admission.  Below the NY Times article and excerpts there's a short video worth watching if you care about the subject.

Here's the NY Times -

Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Wednesday delivered a sweeping rebuke of her agency’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying it had failed to respond quickly enough and needed to be overhauled.

“To be frank, we are responsible for some pretty dramatic, pretty public mistakes, from testing to data to communications,” she said in a video distributed to the agency’s roughly 11,000 employees.

Dr. Walensky said the C.D.C.’s future depended on whether it could absorb the lessons of the last few years, during which much of the public lost trust in the agency’s ability to handle a pandemic that has killed more than 1 million Americans. “This is our watershed moment. We must pivot,” she said.

Note last paragraph excerpted below. When you are a research scientist getting you name on multiple publications is a big deal - too big a deal.

A new executive team will be created to set priorities and make decisions about how to spend the agency’s annual $12 billion budget “with a bias toward public health impact,” according to a media briefing document. Two scientific divisions will now report directly to Dr. Walensky’s office, a move that appears aimed at speeding up delivery of data. Mary Wakefield, a former deputy health secretary in the Obama administration, was appointed to lead the reforms.

Dr. Walensky hopes to cut down the review time for urgently needed studies, emphasizing production of “data for action” as opposed to “data for publication,” the briefing document said.

In an interview, Dr. Walensky said that while “some of the data are messy, and some of the data take time, I’ve really tried hard to push data out when we had it.”

The agency aims to alter its promotion system so that it rewards employees’ efforts to make an impact on public health and focuses less on the number of scientific papers published.

 

 

 

Thursday wordle

Good article: "What Liz Cheney Sacrificed"

My own belief is Liz Cheney is a woman of integrity, even though I disagree with what has become for her an almost personal vendetta against Trump. On issues, Cheney has a very pro-Trump positions voting record (93%). Extensive excerpts below the link but hit the link for the full article. You shouldn't be blocked by a paywall.

She threw away her career in an act of noble self-sacrifice that descended into monomania and bad political judgment.

There is a legitimate and respectable case to be made both for and against Cheney’s choices.

First, the pro-Cheney case starts with the fact that she lost her job entirely for telling the truth. Sure, there are other critiques of Cheney, but she won a nine-way primary race by 18 points in 2016 and has romped over primary and general-election challengers ever since. She voted with Donald Trump during his presidency more often than Elise Stefanik did, and voted against impeaching him over Ukraine. The main reasons why her support collapsed so dramatically were (1) that she voted to impeach Trump, (2) that she served on the January 6 committee, and (3) how she handled those controversies.

******************

Nor was this the act of some obscure backbencher looking to make a name in order to land a cable-TV gig. Before January 2021, Liz Cheney was a member of House leadership, with the prospect of moving up — maybe not to the speakership, but at least with options for higher offices still. At 56, she is still young enough to have had a long tenure in the House ahead of her. She would clearly prefer to exercise political power than be a pundit, and there is no reason to think that she is in need of cashing in financially — if she were, she could just have retired to go work as a defense-contractor lobbyist or something. She was where she wanted to be, and she sacrificed all of that for what she felt to be a worthy cause.

***************

That’s the pro-Cheney case. But there is also a case against Cheney.

************

Second, Cheney’s participation in the January 6 committee was widely seen as giving her blessing to Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in all the various ways that the committee has excluded the right of Republican leaders to select committee members and generally proceeded by press leaks and one-sided presentation of testimony, some of which has not held up well under scrutiny. Cheney’s increasing identification with the committee and its methods, and her seeming unwillingness to publicly break with its Democrats and their naked partisan agenda, inevitably made it harder for her to continue marketing herself politically as a Republican. That was a choice, too, and not a necessary one.

*********

Cheney’s poor political judgment was emblematized by a recent interview in which she expressed unwillingness to support Ron DeSantis if he ran for president in 2024. A DeSantis 2024 campaign is, as even David Frum has acknowledged, something of an acid test of the sincerity of people who argue that Trump is a figure of uniquely bad character, uniquely bad for our democratic system. Even acknowledging the legitimate reasons why DeSantis may not be the first choice of a lot of Republicans and conservatives, there is no reason why someone with a 90-plus percent pro-Trump voting record in the House should be ruling out supporting him, unless they are either checked out of the Republican Party or decided on a presidential run of their own that demands an unrealistic level of anti-Trump purity. In more practical terms, if Trump is to be defeated in a primary in 2024, it will require those who wish his defeat to unite behind the most plausible alternative, rather than splinter into a constellation of vanity campaigns that, in Edmund Burke’s phrase, “fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”

 

Wednesday wordle

My friend, Clem Rivera

Yes a wonderful friend, a wonderful person, with a wonderful family. I will miss him. He was 90 and if you look at his obituary below, you'll see he lead a full life.

Clem

Crossing the Bar

By Alfred, Lord Tennyson

 

Sunset and evening star,

      And one clear call for me!

And may there be no moaning of the bar,

      When I put out to sea,

 

   But such a tide as moving seems asleep,

      Too full for sound and foam,

When that which drew from out the boundless deep

      Turns again home.

 

   Twilight and evening bell,

      And after that the dark!

And may there be no sadness of farewell,

      When I embark;

 

   For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place

      The flood may bear me far,

I hope to see my Pilot face to face

      When I have crost the bar.

Leanne: "When It's Almost Summer & You Don't Have a Beach Body"

Hehehe. Great line at the end. And Sears ... And miracle suit ...

 

 

 

The Tuesday wordle

"Concerns About FBI Raids are Overblown And There's No Need To Wor---Hang On, There's A Knock At The Door"

What? Me worry? Yes this might be a little mean spirited... but perhaps not - and this is not to denigrate FBI agents and staff at all. However, there is a history ... J Edgar Hoover - wherever he ended up - must be laughing his butt off

Of course, from the BB -

In uncertain times like this, we as a country must come together in support of our bedrock institutions. We are facing unparalleled threats to our democracy. Who but the FBI will stand guard against the domestic terrorists who ask their local school board to stop segregation? How will America continue if we do not arrest those who build LEGO models of the Capitol? ... No, friends. Now is the time for putting our absolute faith in the organization who so wisely protected Epstein's clients, who labored for years to prove Russian collusion before discovering the Steele dossier was a hoax, and who we are sure will finally act on the evidence of Hunter Biden's felonies any day now.

 

So take a deep breath, America. The furor over a measly FBI raid is beyond silly, when the agency has never once descended into partisan politics. We here at the Babylon Bee still believe tha --- wait just a minute, good reader. There's a knock on the door, we'll be right back.

The Monday wordle

New coffee house in Croton - covered by Westchester magazine

I was there about two weeks ago - in the spot formerly occupied by The Dessertist - who are now at 4 Croton Point Ave. and who we also love.  Matters Coffee next to the Wells Fargo Bank.

Here's the Westchester article with a nice picture of the interior.

Matters Coffee Pours Top-Tier Java in Croton-on-Hudson

Trevor Ashley, owner and co-founder of Matters Coffee, and Jordan Garrett, co-founder, have been best friends for years. Over the past four, they’ve shared a mutual dream of opening a coffee shop.

“Let me know when you want to do this and we’ll do this,” Ashley recalls saying to Garrett.

Shortly after finding the perfect location in Croton-on-Hudson, Matters Coffee opened its doors. The Westchester java shop places an emphasis on only using premium coffee that is sustainable grown, responsibly sourced, and specialty grade.

The co-founders aim to provide their customers with the best of the best, from their morning coffee to the hospitality that comes with it. “Our process in making coffee is meticulous and focused. Making a quality cup of coffee is in the hands of our highly-skilled artisans,” says Ashley.

Hit the link for the whole article.

The rosary? "An extremist symbol."

UPDATE: The Catholic League has an amusing PR - the attack on traditional Catholics

To quote the late Fr. Dan Berrigan, "If you are going to follow Jesus you better look good on wood."

Thanks to our friend Theresa for sending me the link below. If you want to read the full Atlantic article go here.

Here's the summary -

Atlantic op-ed claims Catholic rosary has become ‘an extremist symbol’. The author claimed, 'Catholics are a growing contingent of Christian nationalism'

 "Just as the AR-15 rifle has become a sacred object for Christian nationalists in general, the rosary has acquired a militaristic meaning for radical-traditional (or ‘rad trad’) Catholics," Panneton claimed in the Sunday piece titled, "How the Rosary Became an Extremist Symbol."

He added, "On this extremist fringe, rosary beads have been woven into a conspiratorial politics and absolutist gun culture. These armed radical traditionalists have taken up a spiritual notion that the rosary can be a weapon in the fight against evil and turned it into something dangerously literal."

************

Warning that Catholics are a "growing contingent of Christian nationalism,"... He also commented that as the divide between American Catholics and Protestants has waned, they have become "cemented in common causes such as hostility toward abortion-rights advocates."

He observed that ... many take genuine sustenance from Catholic theology’s concept of the Church Militant and the tradition of regarding the rosary as a weapon against Satan."

*******

Warning that Catholics are a "growing contingent of Christian nationalism," Panneton commented that "Catholic imagery now blends freely with staple alt-right memes that romanticize ancient Rome or idealize the traditional patriarchal family." He also commented that as the divide between American Catholics and Protestants has waned, they have become "cemented in common causes such as hostility toward abortion-rights advocates."

 

 

Sunday wordle

Gannett newspapers, including Journal News/LoHud - get crushed with layoffs

Print newspapers continue their downward spiral - even with an online presence they cannot compete. Sent to me by my friend Maria.

Gannett Lays Off Staffers Across Region, Nation Following $54 Million Quarterly Loss

Gannett's layoffs on Friday, Aug. 12, impacted numerous newsrooms, according to a report from Poynter. Gannett has not released information on the number of employees who were laid off, how many of its 250 newspapers were affected, or whether there will be further staffing cuts.

Gannett, which owns USA Today, reported a $53.7 million net loss in its second-quarter report.

Adrian Szkolar, a producer at Gannett, tweeted that the company laid off the executive editor and investigations editor at the Journal News/lohud.com in White Plains.

Layoffs like that - Lohud should just turn off the lights.

Couple of pictures from the Appalachian Trail yesterday

Home now; was dropped off by Joe Friday late afternoon and picked up by Tim and Brigid yesterday. Great 28 hours and will post full rundown soon. Two different hills

 

 

 

The Saturday wordle

Glad I got it; but funny spelling on a couple of these...?

 

Where I stayed last night.

On the Appalachian Trail. At least I hope I'm staying there since I'm posting this Friday to pop up Saturday AM I will be staying in the shelter, which is typical of the AT. This video was made in 2015. 

As I continue my "quest" to section hike the CT. Appalachian Trail. More to follow when I get home.

Friday wordle

"Obese man claims he's just pregnant"

"Are you trying to tell me you know more about science than a lady on TV"?

The thursday wordle

Leanne - "What Happened to Normal Jeans?!" - 2 minutes

2 pretty funny minutes.

 

Wednesday wordle - back on the winning ways

After not getting Tuesday Tuesday's wordle - Bummer! A miss  only the 2nd time I've haven't nailed it

 

Eric Trump - FBI did not give us the search warrant; kicked off our lawyer

I guess standard practice - when you are searching an ex President's residence and are in a banana republic. Quotes from the on site Trump lawyer below.

Former President Trump’s son Eric Trump reveals key details on the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago.

Trump told the Daily Mail that the FBI refused to to hand over the search warrant for their raid on the Florida residence.

He also recalled about 30 FBI agents kicking his attorney off the property.

“So they showed it to her from about 10 feet away. They would not give her a copy of the search warrant,” Trump said. 

“There’s 30 agents there… They told our lawyer … you have to leave the property right now. Turn off all security cameras,” Trump said. 

He said that the former president’s attorney Christina Bobb was forced to stand at the end of the Mar-a-Lago’s driveway during the raid. 

Calling the event another “coordinated attack” on his father, Trump said Bobb was confused why a lawyer for the person's home being raided by the FBI was not able to see or obtain a copy of the search warrant.

He questioned whether a real warrant even existed, saying that he would be “thrilled” to know. 

"When I arrived and kind of announced myself as the legal representation for President Trump. I asked to see a copy of the warrant,” Bobb recalled. 

She said that once she was able to see the warrant, it was partly sealed which made it impossible for her to read why the judge granted a raid on the property. 

“Initially they refused and said, 'You know, we don't have to show it to you.' And there was a little bit of an exchange about whether it was appropriate to withhold the warrant when you're searching the residence of the former president, who's likely to be the Republican nominee in the next election, though they conceded and let me see it, they did not give me a copy of it right away, but they did let me see it,” Bobb said. 

Former Democrat president candidate Andrew Yang on the Trump raid

Like many - not happy. And hit the link for more comments. Even ex governor Andrew Cuomo trashed the raid. 

Yang:

I’m no Trump fan. I want him as far away from the White House as possible. But a fundamental part of his appeal has been that it’s him against a corrupt government establishment. This raid strengthens that case for millions of Americans who will see this as unjust persecution.

Poll: Dog v. Cat as pet

This is from the website Aleteia, Survey results: Are Catholics dog or cat people?

It shows results both for Catholics and the general population, and the differences...

While dogs are more popular than cats among all Americans — 33% own a dog as their only pet, compared to 11% who only have a cat — Catholics are more likely to own a dog (36%) and far less likely to own a cat than Americans in general.

According to the survey of self-identified Catholics, only 8% of Catholics have just a cat as their only pet — less than the national percentage of households where cats rule the roost.

Here’s how pet ownership breaks down among US. Catholics.

• • Has no pets 39%
  • Has dog(s) 36%
  • Has cat(s) and dog(s) 13%
  • Has cat(s) 8%
  • Has pet(s), no dog or cat 4%

 

Here’s how pet ownership breaks down among all Americans:

• • Has no pets 39%
  • Has dog(s) 33%
  • Has cat(s) and dog(s) 14%
  • Has cat(s) 11%
  • Has pet(s), no dog or cat 4%

Aleteia readers, where do you stand on the dog/cat issue?

Thanks to the Georgetown University-affiliated CARA research center for alerting us to this important trend!