The Language of Atheistic Revolution

Language is the key to understanding a person's political stand and philosophy of life. One way Catholics can sense or hear that a person is a Marxist in ideology, especially with regard to a view of history, is to examine words which are being used. This is a simple way to organize one's own logical and rational discourse, one can learn to really listen. Here are some clues to political and even atheistic, and at least, material thinking.

One, if a person uses dichotomies constantly in a description of historical trends, you, the Catholic can  learn a lot. Examples: country vs. city interests; labor vs. managerial; industrial vs. academic' elite vs. non-elite; educated vs. illiterate; military-bourgeoisie vs. populace; social vs. religious; urban vs. rural'; democracy vs. totalitarian; facism vs. communist; the masses vs. the elite; rich vs. poor; have vs. have nots; upper class vs. lower class; even, science vs. faith.  And so on.

Two, if a person with whom you are discussing either politics or religion keeps referring to the Kingdom of God as if it is a political or civil reality, beware. Read St. Augustine's The City of God for an early clarification of how God's Kingdom is not a political or societal utopia.

Three, if you are hearing words which define everything in economic terms, such as a list of grievances which are always bases on money, beware. Key words are equilibrium of the classes' equality of the classes;  consolidation; global bank; global currency. horizontal class structure; homogeneity; hegemony; stratum or stratas; primitive capitalism; syndicalism; And so on.

Four, if you are hearing in conversation an over-abundance of statements on personal rights, you know you are listening to an ideologue. Examples include, civil rights for all groups, even NAMBA; the lack of the imagination of (take your pick), the Americans, the Catholic Church, the Evangelicals, etc.; women's reproductive rights; freedom for all peoples ( a vague and dangerous term, meaning nothing but license); indoctrination and didactic attitude of the Catholic Church; hierarchy or anti-hierarchy (these terms are now buzz words); And so on

Five, with regard to education, beware of these terms in conversation, as these reveal an athestic and Marxist bent: formation, inculturation, diversity; idealism; psychological profiling; realism; pragmatic solutions; And so on.

These lists are not all-inclusive. I can also list the Narcissistic vocabulary, but that is another post.

Just remember that as Catholics, especially as adults, we have a duty to understand our own roots in Christ and His Church, and read the major works of the Popes for the last one-hundred and fifty years. Some of those documents are listed on the side.

It is interesting to note that the communists and socialists in Europe will use other utopian groupings, such as the Freemasons, while hating their own pseudo-religious structures.  The anarchists and syndicalists will do the same. Americans cannot be naive, nor can the British, about these larger movements. Language creates paranoia and false class struggle. Note our present administration which used the language of division and on purpose,  I usually do not refer to PBS, which is an arch-liberal organization, but this is an interesting site for beginners in the history of repressive governments. another phrase used by those who hate the Church. How language can be twisted may be seen in both the history of propaganda, and one merely needs to look at the language which built up to the Holocaust for such a perversion of language in Germany. This can happen anywhere and is now happening in the States, Great Britain, Ireland and other places, in the media.

Language Police under Stalin

By the way, I am sure you know many, too many Catholics and even priests and nuns who use and believe the language of the radical left. To be continued.

How to learn not to think, or, why were most Catholics sleeping while their children were being indoctrinated?

Bismarck in Germany, Croce in Italy (according to some), Dewey in America, Lenin in Russia (although he never wrote an article on pedagogy), Rousseau in France, and many others, changed the education systems to the new liberalism, which was both atheistic and humanistic in nature.  That the State could determine what a "good citizen" would study, was the agenda of the military strategist or the philosophical pragmatist, who denied the spiritual soul and the life of religion in the cultural, social and political sphere.

We see the results in all the countries of the world, and I burst out laughing when an Englishman, who is a teacher, complained that the Finnish system was successful because it is socialist. The British system has failed because it is socialist.j If Ronald Reagan had succeeded in either reining in or destroying the federal Department of Education, we would not be in quite the mess we are as a Nation.

But, as St. Anselm knew, whose feast day is coming up next week, an educated clergy needed Classical Education; that is the study of the greatest minds of the Classical World,  along with religion, philosophy, logic, astronomy, grammar, history, even manners. He invented a system of Classical Education spread through-out the world by the Benedictines until recent times, when they, too, feel into the trap of Bismarckian "gymnasium" and not the "academy".

The Trivium and Quadrivium are not merely quaint educational methodologies, but the basis for Western Education. Without a philosophy of education which is rooted in the soul and spirit of humankind, which has a goal of eternal Truth and Life, education becomes a tool in the hand of those in power, creating a lackluster citizenry easy to overpower. Classical Education created thinkers, a real threat to those who idolize the State.

This is the new slavery and we see it now. Children cannot take control of their own destinies, nor make choices for noble causes, unless they are exceptionally holy. Adults in the West have become mere emotional responders to whatever crisis is at hand, be it economic or social.

The syndicalists, anarchists, communists and socialists have won in many countries in Europe. Watch the elections in France...

Almost ninety years ago, Gramsci wrote the phrase, "the crisis of the West". How is it that Catholics, who created Western Civilization in the Greco-Roman tradition, along with Revelation and the Tradition of the Catholic Church, missed this crisis?

It has been a long time brewing....

If Ascot can have a dress code, why not Catholic churches?

I attended a wedding earlier this year in Ireland. The bridesmaids wore strapless dresses and no jackets. The bride, not a "small girl", wore a dress with straps, but the front was so low, I was embarrassed.

Nothing was said. There was no dress code for this parish.

Some of the female guests wore dresses only suitable for the club. Too tight, too low...

Famous English person....

On Easter Sunday, one Eucharistic Minister wore tight blue jeans. Another wore baggy blue jeans. On Easter Sunday morning!  Why do  parishes not have dress codes? I realize, and I have written about this before, that priests are shy about explaining to women that they are immodest or at least, dressing improperly for Mass or a sacrament.

If Ascot can have a dress code, why cannot Catholic churches? Here is the new Ascot dress code in brief.

What happened to the idea of being beautiful and not ugly? Why is ugly so popular? Why do women think they have to be sexy to be attractive? Notice in the dress code below that shorts are not allowed. A man wore shorts yesterday to Mass. I am amazed at this. Most women this morning at Mass were wearing very tight pants. Some only had tights on, stuck in boots, with shorts or a mini-skirt over the tights at Easter Mass.

Two young ladies were showing their midriffs. And, this is in England, in the countryside, not in New York!

I wear a hat to every Mass and I always wear dresses or skirts.

This is not hard to do and is not any more expensive and probably less expensive than buying jeans.

ROYAL ENCLOSURE DRESS CODE

• Dresses and skirts should be of modest length defined as falling just above the knee or longer
• Dresses and tops should have straps of one inch or greater
• Jackets and pashminas may be worn but dresses and tops underneath should still comply with the Royal Enclosure dress code
• Trouser suits are welcome. They should be of full length and of matching material and colour
• Hats should be worn; a headpiece which has a base of 4 inches (10cm) or more in diameter is acceptable as an alternative to a hat
• Strapless, off the shoulder, halter neck, spaghetti straps and dresses with a strap of less than one inch (2.5cm) are not permitted
• Midriffs must be covered
• Fascinators are no longer permitted in the Royal Enclosure; neither are headpieces which do not have a base covering a sufficient area of the head (4 inches / 10cm)
• 
  

  GRANDSTAND DRESS CODE

  • A hat, headpiece or fascinator should be worn at all times
    
  • Strapless or sheer strap dresses and tops are not permitted
    
  • Trousers must be full length and worn with a top that adheres to the guidelines above (i.e. strapless or sheer strap tops are not permitted)
    
  • Jackets and pashminas may be worn but dresses and tops underneath should still comply with the Grandstand Admission dress code
    
  • Midriffs must be covered
    
  • Shorts are not permitted

  
  

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2128292/No-cravats-fascinators-miniskirts-Ascot-sends-racegoers-strict-new-dress-code-complete-style-guide.html#ixzz1rl0DyuTk

Bring back the femininity of the 1950s

We have lost the idea of the feminine and modesty is not taught. Please, priests, help us with this. Women need to teach modesty and womanly dress to their girls. And, some of those ladies who are the most immodest now are the over-forties. Give it up, girls.....Look your age.

Updates from Spencer

Two important notes in the press today. One, from the great Spencer, that the Coptic Christians have removed themselves from constitutional talks in Egypt, as the talks are useless.


"The Coptic Orthodox Church General Council agreed with the approval of all of the council's 20 members to withdraw from the constitutional assembly... as it found it was pointless for the church to be represented following the comments made by the national forces about the way the assembly was formed," the state news agency said, quoting a church statement....


Also, France is managing to do what Britain does not manage, and that is deporting imams and jihadists for preaching militancy. I admire the French Government for responding to the recent murders with decisiveness. I wish the British Government was so determined. Here is the link.

Tablet article continued...

Image thanks to Hermeneutic of Continuity

Timothy Radcliffe commenting on the debate over so-called "gay marriage" is an attempt, I think, to uphold the traditional teaching of the Church. Some points he makes are fine and incorporate of bit of the Theology of the Body thinking of Blessed John Paul II. However, his argument gets bogged down in a lack of the spirituality of marriage. We cannot merely uphold marriage on the grounds of the physical relationship between the man and the woman, or else we are merely falling into the same heresies which Radcliffe denounces. The spiritual aspect of marriage is that the two become one and that this physical union is an expression of what should be happening in cooperation with the Indwelling of the Holy Trinity, the example of the Trinity in love and commitment. If Radcliffe expressed that most excellent marriages get beyond the physical relationship into something more sublime and holy, his argument would not only be stronger, but more in keeping with the beautiful teaching of the Church on the fact that marriage transforms two people into something more than what each would be if not joined in holy matrimony. Indeed, the spiritual growth and move to holiness and saintliness is one of the real reasons for matrimony. One is called to marriage as a vocation which leads one into heaven, as well as providing stability to the couple, the family, and society. The goal is not merely sexual happiness or babies, but the ultimate purification of the mind and body, in a union which more perfectly mirrors that of the God-Head. I do not mind the emphasis on bodily union as ordained and blessed by God, but that is simply not all there is to a good marriage. Perhaps, Radcliffe did not have the space to develop his ideas.f Also, look at my post on chaste marriages, http://supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.fr/2012/01/unusual-controversial-catholic-subject.html

Ah, the Rubbish Published in The Tablet....

I actually picked up and read a few articles in The Tablet today, and my hands did not dissolve into leprosy. However, the stupidity and political correctness of the "magazine" reveals a relativism which endangers all good and clear catechesis. Great Britain and Ireland, and I guess France, where I have picked up this edition, exhibit a majority of Catholic adults who do not know a thing about the teaching of the Catholic Church. The ignorance and arrogance of the adult Catholics in a typical parish astound one. Anti-intellectualism is rife and the idea that the study of one's Faith ends at school leaving is profoundly common. I have written many times on the subject of one, adults taking responsiblity for their own Faith, and two, the halting of blaming priests for ignorance. Look at previous posts, including a link with the Vatican document on the laity here in my post of January 16th,  APOSTOLICAM ACTUOSITATEM  and the dumbing down of lay expectations:
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decree_19651118_apostolicam-actuositatem_en.html

That The Tablet panders to weak-minded and less than accurate thinking may be one of the reasons it succeeds in selling. As a famous author told me years ago about the editorial staff, one cannot do much with mediocrity.

In a cover article on the gay marriage question in Britain, "Can marriage ever change?", three people are allowed to give comments on the present crisis. I shall refer to the two shorter ones first and then take on the longer comment. Martin Pendergast is a master of the cliche. He also makes banal sweeping statements such as "The model of marriage that we have today is rooted more strongly in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century social patterns than it is in earlier religious tradition", completely ignoring centuries of social behavior among Catholics of all classes, which benefited from the Scriptures and the increase in the dignity of women as found in the Gospels. That such women as Brigid of Sweden and others give us examples of married women who knew their role in marriage and society is a fact ignored. Also, the old and boring references to David and Jonathan and Ruth and Naomi, etc, implying friendships are more enduring than the Catholic Church's idea and teaching on marriage are laughable. That David was a potentate with myriad partners, that the Queen Mother was Queen and not a "wife" and that the relationship of Jonathan and David was close has nothing to do with gay marriage. Ruth and Naomi were related and following the age-old traditions of duty and committed love in the extended family. That he uses these as examples defies explanation. The Church has always valued friendship, which has nothing to do with gay marriage. Statistics on the number of sexual partners the typical homosexual has may be found elsewhere. Sex and friendship are not mutually exclusive, but cannot be confused, especially theologically.

Criticizing the idea that procreation is not longer an important part of marriage is simply wrong. If he does not know this, the question of being open to life is still number one or two on the pre-marriage interview by the priest in Great Britain. I have seen the forms, and have been part of the process myself. That there are exceptions has always been the case, for older couples beyond child-bearing age, for example, but these remain exceptions.

More drivel.
The essence of civil unions is that they are based on an equality of persons legally expressed in a mutual signing of a contractual covenant, rather than expressed in vows of subjection, one to another."
I have worked in the past in homosexual recovery groups. This is more controversial in Great Britain than in America, but I can tell you from experience and working with psychologists that the typical gay relationship is not about equality, but subjection.  The partnership involves a "feminine" and a "masculine" psychological and physical relationship. Sorry, this is not a reflection of equality. Pendergast does not want a "buying into a marital bond, the sacramentality of such unions is what many of us strive to live out." This is self-deception and taking the idea that the sacrament of matrimony is given one to the other to an obscene nuance. That he wants to avoid an official sacrament just shows that he not only does not understand the depth of a real marriage contract between two people, but that he does not understand the sacramental theology of marriage in its fullness.

The second banal comment is by Tina Beattie, who does her best, I guess at referring to the sexuality of homosexuals, completely forgetting that such a relationship is out of the bounds of natural law and one of the sins which cries out to heaven. She writes that, "the loving relationships of my gay friends have helped me to understand more deeply what marriage means as a partnership of equals....maybe we heterosexuals need the marriages of our homosexual friends to help us to understand what marriage looks like when it's not corrupted by traditions of domination and subordination." The feminist speaks.

I have only two questions to ask the lady--what about the corruption of a serious sin against nature and the long Catholic teaching that the wages of sin is eternal death? Obviously, the woman does not believe in hell or sin, or even the long lists of Modernist Heresies her type of comment reveals undermining her understanding of marriage, sin, etc. Of course, she uses the buzz word of "diversity", which in American journalism is always a tip-off. More later on the Radcliffe commentary.

Mirror of Justice is a Great Blog

Edmund Campion and Ignatius would not agree with this statement, found on Mirror of Justice, one of my favorite blogs listed on my blog list. Read on that blog for more information.

Jesuitry

From the New York Times, 17 March 2012:

In a letter to the president of Georgetown University, John J. DeGioia, 66 members of the law school faculty said Friday that the University should address Ms. Fluke's concerns and consider providing contraceptive coverage in the student health plan. "The current policy puts student health at risk," said M. Gregg Bloche, a professor at the law school, "and with our Jesuit tradition, we should be concerned about that."

Res ipsa loquitur.

Posted

POTUS has Mao-Envy

Take a look at this....the States are in trouble if the Narcissist can get away with this and has his party's support. Ugh!

http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/vets-angry-over-american-flag-featuring-obama/nLR5Q/#comments

Sweden, Germany, Alberta, America--why do governments fear home schooling?

A long time ago in another universe, I lived and worked in Alberta, Canada. For awhile, I worked for Wisdom Home Schooling, and for the spokesperson, Ken Noster, who is quoted in this LifeSiteNews article. As I home schooled in Alberta, twelve years or so ago, I had no problems with the government. However, that is all changing. In the article here, the provincial government is now extending curriculum requirements on home schoolers which would require them to include pro-gay materials in their studies. If this bill goes through, religious liberties will disappear for the home schooling community. Ken stated, among other things, that "[the government] could insist that non-politically correct material such as Scripture and the [Catechism of the Catholic Church] could be deemed as offensive and not useable.”


Alberta already has some of the worst laws against freedom of religion in existence. The brave and wonderful Bishop of Calgary, Bishop Henry, in 2005, had to defend himself against the Tribunal, that is the Alberta Court dealing with so-called "hate speech" for promulgating Catholic teaching against homosexuality. Those in charge of education have been putting the squeeze on home schoolers and this is an out and out attack. Catholic home schoolers in Alberta and, indeed, all home schooling parents, need to contact their ministers immediately. The links are above.


In an earlier post, I noted that the Obama Administration wants to interfere with home schooling in the States. One must ask the question why all these governments fear home schooling? The teaching of the Catholic Church has been that education is primarily the duty and right of the parents, not the governments. The growing persecution of religious freedoms in all western countries, either from the viewpoint of education or freedom of speech shows a widespread hatred of the Catholic Church and Evangelicals, the two groups who have spear-headed home education. 

I am grateful that I had all those years of freedom to educate at home-happy and fruitful years. I pray earnestly that the next generation of parents have this right. I highly recommend those home schooling parents to join the HSLDA, as I did. 

Irish Media Wakes Up: When Will the French Media See the Difference?

Loyalty and friendship?

I have written here about the youth across America and Europe living with parents. I have written about the high jobless numbers of youth 18-35 in these areas, and specifically in Ireland and Great Britain. Today, the Irish Times online has highlighted the newest plan of the Obama Administration to break up traditional ties with European, pointedly, Irish society by imposing a higher tax for overseas American coorporations. There are, according to the article here, six-hundred American companies established in Ireland which hire the Irish, including youth. I see hundreds of unemployed Irish youth daily. Thousands are living at home, like adolescents. Some are in government housing. The problem exists in America as well, as even the Irish paper online has noted. But, behind the Obama move to make life more difficult for the Irish is his systematic undermining of traditional relationships with European countries, at the expense of good will and commerce. From the article:

A US economist and tax expert who recently gave evidence to the ways and means committee in the US House of Representatives, Martin Sullivan, told The Irish Times last night that Ireland had benefited more than any other country from the fact that US corporations don’t pay US tax unless they repatriate their profits.

“So Obama’s proposals to significantly curtail those benefits are a serious threat to the Irish economy

I do not believe in bailouts, such as the Greek or even the Irish rescue. However, I do believe in helping companies thrive and reach out to the younger population,  who have skills, especially in technology. Youth, of course, have to want to work, (see yesterday's first post), but to purposefully tax American companies, which are helping the global economy seems like nonsense, and will have repercussions financially and socially. America is rapidly being seen as no longer the friend of the very countries whose sons and daughters built up that great country. But, Obama does not have a European bent, either in ideology or in religion. This could be the reason for the further snubbing of Ireland.

By the way, I refer to the French in the title of this post, as there still is some sort of love-affair for Obama in the media there. Why, I do not know.

Do you want to work in teams? Can you work with others? Do you have manners? Would you love your job?

In England, there is or has been an interesting photographic exhibit which proves a point of this post. The exhibit is called "Unordinary People", but I would call it the "New Conformist-Non". Here is the description of the exhibit online at: http://www.allgigs.co.uk/view/artist/59750/Unordinary_People_Exploring_British_Youth_Culture_1960_2009.html

• Exhibition
• "Unordinary People is an exhibition celebrating the self-expression, resilience and creative vitality of young people throughout the generations. The exhibit will feature an eclectic selection of rare and exclusive cultural photography, archive video footage and excerpts from essays that will highlight the history, lifestyles, fashions, hairstyles, music and subcultures of British youth culture from the 1960s to the present day."

This is a controversial posting from me. I have been thinking of the huge unemployment numbers among college-age youth in America and in Europe. Some of the problems I know these first-hand growing up in an area where the Agra-businesses and connected agricultural factories moved to Europe and elsewhere as early as the 1960s, such as J.I. Case and Farmall leaving the area to John Deere alone, which has also cut back American-made tractors, combiners, harvesters, etc. Great Britain in my lifetime lost its thriving clothing manufacturing businesses to places like India, China, and small countries. The lack of work marks the professional levels as well, when there are less children, less teachers are needed.

Here, in Ireland, a nursing shortage is obvious from where I sit in Dublin. Pages and pages of interesting yet demanding jobs for nursing professionals, with good salaries attached, go begging. A young person would do well to go into this field, as the nursing shortage may be found in other countries as well.

Shortages in some professions and lack of opportunities in others can lead to unemployment. But, here are the real reasons in my experience teaching youth people in college for years.

One, the work ethic is dead. Many youth do not want to work the long hours necessary in some professions, even teaching, where we all take our work home, be it papers to correct or lesson plans to create.

Two, some youth refuse to do simple jobs, such as gardening, or cleaning, or ironing. This again is part of the loss of the work ethic. We all did such jobs during the holidays or even after college, if necessary, until we were settled in a profession. Manual labor is good and upright.

Three, socialism has destroyed initiative, especially in Europe. If a young person can get a housing allowance and a food allowance and so much spending money per week, why work? This is a huge disaster in Western Civilization, creating an underclass that knows how to use the system without working.

Four, and this is my own take, nonconformity. Now, I may be a non-conformist, being a Catholic, conservative, writer, artist, but I can fit into certain groupings, such as the trad group, or, in former days, the home schooling group. What strikes me especially in Europe are the thousands of youth who are so non-conformist that they would never get hired. Examples abound, as I am temporarily in a youth hostel and observing those coming and going. A few points. The youth from Ireland and Great Britain dress horribly and still look "goth", (I taught goths in the mid-eighties in England), with piercings and tattoos, which label someone from the States as "lower class". The youth here in this hostel from Germany, Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Italy and Poland look smart and act much more politely than the Irish or the British. The emphasis is on choosing "your style" for the Irish and British. This is sort of like private interpretation of the Bible, which leads to chaos and complete relativism.  I shall get hate mail for this, but the worst dressed girls and guys in Europe are the British. I mean, what is with the large holes in the stockings and no underwear? The "sagging" look is in here as well for both sexes.  In other words, the continentals seem to have manners and style.

 If I were hiring any for positions in teams or in either an office or outside work, I would ask these questions: Would you fit into a team? Do you want to work hard? Can you work with both management and peers?

Sadly, the nonconformist, or dare I say, anarchist would not even think that these questions would be important. Talking with a few neighbors last week, some of the mothers were complaining about all the Polish youth who had jobs in the area, supposedly taking away jobs from the Irish youth. It was obvious from the conversation that either the Irish youth did not even apply for such jobs as hotel service workers or factory workers, or that there was and is a huge difference in skill levels.

And, that is my last point. All youth should be able to work on computers and do basic office skills. These should be required in all school systems by the upper levels. I was told that teachers still accepted hand-written papers in some colleges. Why? From 1979 on, I required typed papers in all my classes at the university level. Such skills are necessary in the workplace. It seems that some of the continental youth have higher technical skills than some of those in Ireland and Great Britain. How did this happen, especially in England, which use to have one of the best education systems in the world? No more.

Nicely dressed American Catholic students, who want to work

The unemployment of youth rises from complicated issues, but I suggest that the lack of taking responsibility for one's own life and the lack of initiative are the two greatest obstacles. In addition, the insistence of non-conformity in dress and hair, in manners and social skills, has damaged one, if not two generations, of the ability to work.

By the way, after travelling in Europe for nine months, the best dressed young women are the Japanese, who are into retro-style and have great taste at the moment. The worst I mentioned above. The sub-culture is not dress or hair, but anarchy. Conformism is not a dirty word. Such conformity is necessary if a civilization asks its workforce to be able to work together for the common good. One does act as one dresses, by the way.

Dame Vivienne Westwood, whose clothes I really do not like, has a quotation on the BBC today which states that people have never looked so ugly. I agree.

‘"Yes, we can, we will, we dare". Men, step aside for the women--too bad, so sad

Does that phrase in quotations sound familiar? No, it is not POTUS, but the title of the conference of women priests in Sweden in 2010. The official Church of Sweden policy for ordaining women is now over 60 years old. There has been a huge influx of women into the priesthood, with the statistics in 2009 being about 33% of the entire ordained ministers being women. The Church of Sweden also has seen women bishops and the approval of same-sex marriages in that church. Hmmm.

My point is this. With the allowance of women priests, the ministry has become "feminized" to the point where the number of women priests may outstrip those of men in that country. (That is the same country which hates families and has outlawed home schooling, as seen below in another post.) May I make an extrapolation. With the permitting of altar girls in the Catholic Church, we have seen a drop in the number of altar boys, except in the Tridentine Mass community.

Sorry, but there is a connection to the lack of vocations to the priesthood and the allowance of altar girls. Watch the Church of Sweden. One of its slogans is "one world, one church". Why does this church remind me of the Obama Administration? Hmmm. Spot the similarities in the photos.

Zenit on the Boko Haram

I usually do not post this much (7th post today), but here is an interesting development. Zenit has a critical report on Boko Haram, mentioned on this blog before, the violent Islamist group, the name which translates, "Western Education is Evil". The fact that this media center from Rome is taking a lead in condemning such violence and drawing attention to the persecution of Catholics is a good. Here is the entire article.

Are Priests Afraid of Hell? Do Some Bishops Not Believe in Excommunication?

The current events in America and the lack of Faith in Europe point to a common omission in the past forty years on the part of catechesis of children and adults in the Catholic Church. I have not heard but three sermons on Hell in forty years. I have a steel trap memory for such things. I have known hundreds of priests, working in Catholic institutions most of my life, going to daily Mass when my work permitted.

Three sermons in forty years shows me that priests are afraid of Hell and damnation. Some excellent priests teach online and in the media. One of those priests teaches off and on at seminary. Now, before I go further, I want to stress that I daily pray for priests, and by name. I pray for seminarians. I am critical because I want priests to get to Heaven and I want their flocks to get to Heaven. Simple. But, today, I must be Daniel and walk into the courts to write a truth, which is always unpopular.

The concepts of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory are teachings of the Catholic Church and many other Christian denominations and the Orthodox Church, our siblings in the Faith, all.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to Heaven and Hell: in Part One, one can find the teachings on Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, as well as on the particular and final judgments. Here is part of that part:


IV. HELL

1033 We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: "He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."⁶¹² Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren.⁶¹³ To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell."

1034 Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost.⁶¹⁴ Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,"⁶¹⁵ and that he will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!"⁶¹⁶

1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire."⁶¹⁷ The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.

1036 The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."⁶¹⁸

Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where "men will weep and gnash their teeth."⁶¹⁹

1037 God predestines no one to go to hell;⁶²⁰ for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance":⁶²¹

Father, accept this offering from your whole family. Grant us your peace in this life, save us from final damnation, and count us among those you have chosen.⁶²²

The message is clear, and if one wants backup, read the New Testament, the Fathers of the Church, Aquinas, and many others. The list is long.

So, why do priests not speak of Hell? I am convinced that the loss of Faith in America and Europe can be attributed to the denial of consequences for sin. No Hell, why not sin?

Adult Catholics have the duty to learn the teachings of the Church on their own, using all the massive amount of information, including the Net, which is available to them. One cannot use the excuse that "Father never told us there was a Hell."

But, there is a whirlwind of evil in seminary training. I know this. Some seminarians are being taught either that there is not a Hell, or a Purgatory, or that no one is in those "places". I do not want to get into the nature of the afterlife, but point out one very influential priest who is making a television series in Chicago on Catholicism. He is a priest who has been on EWTN and in the press and has a gift of teaching. However, he does not believe that anyone is in Hell, which denies the age-old teaching of the Church on punishment and consequences for sin. Christ is God and He referred to fire. Our bodies are part of who we are. We shall have our bodies in Eternity.

Why do some priests deny physical punishment, as bad as psychological punishment is, as these are not the same?

Denying that there are people is Hell is denying Hell. Why would Holy Mother Church give us teaching on an empty state or place? Here are two of the videos, and the priest is Father Barron. If he wants to remove this from the Net, he may do so. He uses the word "hope" in reference to no one in Hell, but he has watered down the real message. He has taught the same thing in his seminary classes. There are two videos. There and here. The first one is much better than the second. He uses references such as Augustine and Aquinas, which is good. But, he also quotes Barth and von Balthasar, the second who I gave up as a heretic after studying him for years as a doctoral student. And, here is one of the huge problems with today's seminary training. The students have skipped the basics and moved on to discussions of theology, some topics outside the doctrines and dogmas of the Church. These young men do not know the Catechism, or Trent, or the Encyclicals, or the Syllabus of Errors, yet they are studying Barth and von Balthasar. How short-sighted, and plainly, as a teacher at the college level for years, how stupid. There are no core classes in some seminaries, but only what the instructors want to teach from their own private studies. Many young men coming into Fr. Barron's classes would be confused and misled. These students are lacking in a solid background in the core ideas of the Faith. Some have never read Aquinas or Augustine, or if they have, only snippets. No dubious discussions of theological questions should be discussed without firm foundations of the Tradition and Revelation of the Faith, the Church.


However, a reminder, theologians do not determine what is given through the Teaching Magisterium of the Church-the Holy Spirit does. Now, some might say that the hope that there are no people in a state of desolation is allowed.  I do not think any approved teaching of the Catholic Church has ever defined that Hell is empty.

Most people who do not have a fear of damnation, and this does not help our present situation. And, if there is no Hell, there is no excommunication. If there is no excommunication, those politicians, priests and maybe bishops, who push the abortion agenda through the current administration in America, have no consequences.

By the way, C.S. Lewis, quoted twice by the above priest, was not a Catholic and had a distinctly Protestant approach to revealed Truth. He stayed outside the True Church. His works are good, but limited, and he cannot be compared to Augustine or Aquinas. We can pick and chose our private reading, but the Teachings of the Church stand like rocks. This is one reason why I am a Catholic. The Truth sets one free and does not confuse.

Maybe some Arian Bishops were just being "politically correct" and lost their souls in the bargain

St. Nicholas striking Arius at the Council

Look at the fantastic, but chilling article from another blog by a Mr. Badeaux, sent to me by an electronic friend, on whether some of the bishops should be excommunicated. I said before here that this time in America is like the time of Arianism, which split the Church, and when some bishops, as well as laity and rulers, professed that heresy. Here is the link, and we need to stop being nice!!! By the way, remember, as told us in A Man for All Seasons by Thomas More, silence is complicity. Silence is consent. If a bishop does not come out against either this present administration's attack on religious freedom or excommunicates pro-choice Catholic politicians in his diocese, he is responsible for those crimes by consent.

To make it all more real, do we want politically correct bishops, or this? This is a first trimester murdered baby. And, Google removes photos like this all the time, as does YouTube. Why?

Oedipus and Reality

Because of the great Dr. Sanity, and because I am surrounded by people who have created their own worlds and are completely out of touch with reality, I am inspired to write again about reality and objectivity. From a Catholic point of view, objectivity is holiness, the putting on the mind of Christ. See several posts below. Only when we are truly humble, admitting our own sin, limitations, and even small talents, can we love. Only by standing back and taking an objective  look at life, as it really is, can we love. Love does not play games, or invent parallel worlds. It intersects with the worlds of others, bringing reality, truth into situations and creating freedom.

Freedom is not available to those who want their own way and only see their reality. Freedom is being open to truth and accepting that reality which is not of one's own making, but in the case of the Christian, God's making. Assent to God's Will is reality.

I had cancer, and I had to accept the consequences. This is reality. At first, one goes into a denial, a status quo, until one cannot deny the symptoms, or the diagnosis. The quicker one accepts the truth, the more easily it is to deal with the losses which inevitably come. That God allows cancer, or death, or separation, only means that we are given an opportunity to face reality and be freedom. Deceit creates chains, unhealthy heavy chains, which hold one down to a prison of lies and unreality. Truth breaks those chains, be it through an illness, or treatment for alcoholism or psychological counseling or the Sacrament of Confession. Basically, humility is just truth. I am this and not this. I can do this and not this. I can be this and not this.

The lies of our century have created tyrannies. All tyrannies rely on propaganda, the building up and maintaining of lies. Why people assent to believe in propaganda is a mystery to me.I taught college and university levels classes, including logic for years. I gave up in 2010, when I realized that the administrators on the whole were as out of touch with reality as my students. This Post-Modern phenomenon  is the result of complete subjectivism. The world of POTUS is his world, and the world of my student Z was his world and the world of my administrator Y was her world. The thing which I do not understand is that there are many highly intelligent people in Congress and the Supreme Court, in America, in the Catholic Church, who "seem" grounded. Are they all in their own little worlds? Is this how most people survive? As a person raised on Aristotle and Aquinas, I was taught that truth begins with what is, what is natural in nature, for example, or what we perceive objectively. I am not sure how people lose objectivity. A good teacher has it, a good parent has it, and a good spouse had it. How can a person really love without objectivity? Real love is objective. It is God's Love.

How can we trust the nation to a group of people who are living in cloud-cuckoo-land? It is very scary, as some other nations, which are living in reality (are there any) could easily take advantage of our Disneyland outlook. The delusions are so broad and deep, is there any chance of this changing without great catastrophes waking us all up? Ah, the Greeks, who invented that word, catastrophe, knew all about the change of the wheel of fortune, the facing of truth for such as Oedipus, through tragedy. I do not wish for this, but it does seem, as in Greek drama, inevitable. In Greek drama, which I taught and in which my son did some acting, there is a movement of the poetry from strophe to antistrophe to catastrophe.

The prologue and the entrance ode occur followed by the strophe, the turning of the chorus, physically either on or off stage, at a different level. The antistrophe is another turn, matching the meaning of the text, the poetry, so that the physical movement imitates the words. The catastrophe is the sudden changing of the action, following some episode, where, at least in the great tragedies, a sudden event of horror occurs, such as Oedipus' realization that he killed his father and married his mother. This is followed by the stationary ode and the exit ode.  

We are headed in the States for the catastrophe. As long as people, as even the heroes or heroines in the Greek dramas, live in deceit or darkness, there is no truth. The catastrophe brings truth, light and usually, peace. 

We can only hope. Oedipus' story is told in three plays: the trilogy of Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone. These tragedies have three dramas to work out some type of peace and reconciliation. Do we have time?

Begging because of a sacrilege; if someone can allow a sacred object to be desecrated, it has already happened in the mind and soul of those who have lost the Faith

On Father Ray Blake's blog today is the posting of the sacrilegious selling of Church plate, and other sacred objects at the upcoming Ramsgate Abbey sale. I am horrified. My American family paid for stained glass windows, a gold tabernacle, and other sacred objects for several churches over the years in the Midwest. We assume that these things would stay in a Catholic Church. There is no excuse for selling sacred objects, some used in Adoration, such as monstrances, and even chalices and ciboria used in the Mass. Why did the monks not give those objects to local churches, or to the great abbeys at Buckfast and Downside, which would have cared for these?

I cannot express the inappropriateness of this sale. It amounts to stealing.

However, I am going to beg. My own son and others in the seminaries may not have families wealthy enough to buy them the chalices necessary as gifts for their ordination days. I know a Latino son of a widow who is going to be ordained, for example, from a poor family. Also, there are missionary groups which do not have such beautiful items to use on the altar. Why not, those of you who can, buy some of these objects which have held the Body and Blood of Christ? ( And, do they believe that Christ is Truly Present at Ramsgate Abbey? ) Then, give them to a temporary deacon or missionary, or seminarian? How can the monks defend themselves, even to us lowly laity, who pay for these things?

Burning of a Consecrated Host in Church Ware at a Black Mass 

In the States, art connoisseurs buy these sacred objects for their dining room buffets, living rooms, bedrooms, entrance ways. I know of a homosexual couple who collect religious items from Catholic Churches in California. Why, I do not know. Their house is full of these items sold in auctions.

Or, Satanists buy them for Black Masses. A good friend of mine, years ago in the special branch of a police force in Minneapolis, explained this to me.

Please, Catholics -- save these items--please.
Catalogue-- here-- Save these objects from dishonor, and possible blasphemy and sacrilege.

I am not an emotional person. Ask my family, but I am sobbing while writing this posting.

Obama Against Home Schooling

Did many notice Obama's stand against homeschooling in his address this week? When I home schooled, I belonged to the Home School Legal Defense Association for most of the 14 years or so I home schooled. Thankfully, I never had a legal problem. In fact, my relationship with various state and council governments was cordial and, on the whole, supportive.

Now, we see the true tyrannical attitude of this man, as if we had any doubts, towards the authority of parents. And, who are the two groups who home school the most? Evangelical Christians and Catholics. No surprises here, as POTUS continues his assault on freedom of religion.

Please follow the instructions on the link above to stop further legislation against home schooling. The Catholic Church has consistently upheld the primary right and duty of the parent to educate their children. Several Popes have written on this, including our present Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Paul VI among others. The links are on the names. Please pray about this, as a government which takes away the parents' right to educate their own children is a tyranny. If this happens, and if we lose freedom of religion in the other ways being pushed this week, America will no longer be a free country. Period.

"I say! You just can't say, 'You want to know', you know": On the Circumlocution Office in the Mind, Earthquakes and Cyclones and "Society"

Some people's minds, and maybe their hearts, are like the Circumlocution Office in Little Dorrit, my favorite book-read it at least four times and maybe five. Their minds are full of anxiety, useless information, fluff. They only want what the employees in the Circumlocution Office want-power, a comfortable income, status and a pension. In the older version of the movie, the 1988 interpretation, (I saw it in a special showing in 1987 in London), one sees the millions of folded, ignored documents falling under the weight of gravity and years of neglect, eaten away by water, wind, and fire. The piles fall, slowly, sliding into waste. The photos here are from the 2008 BBC version. But, I also want to write about sensitivity, paying attention, sensing earthquakes and cyclones. The silent, grave-like inertia of the Circumlocution Office is connected to the movement of earth, sea, sky, and our civilized world. 


This week, several earthquakes have occurred in Europe, in Italy, Greece, Norway and a small one in Ireland. Now, I knew there had been an earthquake before it was on the news in Ireland. I do not know why I knew, but I have been through a sizable one in Alaska , and my cats knew it was happening before we did. In Alaska, the walls of my apartment were going one way and the floor another. Days of aftershocks occurred as well.  I also experienced one in Illinois, which cracked my fireplace in the living room in 2004. Maybe I am like a cat in this regard, as my parents who were visiting me slept through it. I woke up,  heard it coming, like a wave on the sea, rumbling in, and felt it under the house, rush through the earth like the wave. Yesterday, I looked at the ceiling to see if the mini-chandeliers were moving, and I listened for the rumble. Nothing. But, I knew something had happened at about 1:00 AM, I knew it slightly before the time. This was one of many I detected in my life, the first being in Iowa, yes, Iowa, in 1968. I was in a bank at the time, and I saw the walls moving. Some people did not notice. I notice these things. Iowa, Alaska, Illinois, Ireland, there is probably no place in the world which has not experienced at least minor earthquakes.


I have also been in places where many tornadoes occurred, as I grew up in a tornado belt area. In one week, we experienced five tornadoes in north-west Iowa. One man died in a town where I was living, as he was picked up by a tornado and flung a half-mile away.  And, I was in Mississippi and New Orleans after Katrina, and personally saw the devastation.  I was living in Ealing when the great British Storm happened in 1987. I woke up just before that hit and told my husband we were going to have a tornado. He laughed at me, and said England did not have tornadoes, and fell back to sleep. Hundreds of trees fell in Ealing that day. But, as horrible as cyclones, hurricanes and tornadoes are, there seems to be something really uncanny about the earth moving. One can, if one has warning, get into a cellar or place of safety during a tornado, but in an earthquake one stands in a door jam, hoping for the best. In Alaska, my son, holding Puddy the cat, and me, holding Vladimir the cat, (after we caught them), stood in an apartment doorway for several minutes. If it had been worse, there really was no shelter.



Why some people are more sensitive to these things before or during, if the natural movement of the earth is mild, I do not understand. Some are more sensitive, that is all. The sensitive ones would not work in a Circumlocution Office.

But, the reason for these ramblings is that I want to make a spiritual connection to sensitivity about things around us. I am surrounded by people in denial about the economic situation in Europe. They believe in fairy tales told to them by bankers, politicians, even priests. I am surrounded by people who cannot see the decline of the West, the breakup of European countries, or the coming persecution of the Catholic Church in America, or the moral bankruptcy of this Millennial Generation. I am surrounded by Catholic people who plan ahead for holidays next year without any thought of their souls, the souls of their spouses, children, parents. They are living as they always have, and cannot see or sense that their lives may change drastically in a mere few months. They do not want to see. They are drunk with power or comfort or stupidity. They are drugged with complacency or fear. They are caught in a cultural inertia. They are caught in the Circumlocution Office.

The times are not "business as usual". I do not think we have had "business as usual" since before 1973. We are in crises in most of the levels of culture and civilization which marked the downfalls of hundreds of nations before us. Like those who cannot feel the earthquakes coming or sense the tornadoes, it is, as Christ said, They did eat and drink, they married wives, and were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark: and the flood came and destroyed them all.
Luke 17:27.

I am not a Cassandra. I am a realist and an idealist at the same time. My idealism rests on the Revelation and Teaching Magisterium of the Church, on the Three Persons of the Trinity. I do not read false prophets or follow the many, even local, Irish seers. I do not follow the Internet prophecy sites. Many are liars and cult leaders, as I wrote about in one of my first postings. These unscrupulous people make money out of the weak and the desperate. I am neither weak nor desperate. However, I can sense the signs of the times. Christ and His Church make up my ark. One of my lady friends whose mind is a Circumlocution Office said to me, "You are hard on yourself." I responded that, as Christ said, in Matthew 11:12 from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.


Those who do violence to themselves, that is, fast and pray and die to self, will see the Kingdom of God. Christ challenges us to leave the Circumlocution Office of our minds and heart and become simple, like children, like Little Dorrit.


In the meantime, responsible adults must work hard to try and stop the tide of religious persecution and the loss of freedom. Some bishops have made strong statements against the present administrations war on religions-specifically the Catholic Faith, this week in the States. Many of these statements are on blogs on my blog list to the right. We need grass roots reactions, practical and spiritual. Both passive, complacency and drunkenness are irresponsible responses. Some of us can fast and pray. I dedicate this posting to the four women, and a man I know who said recently to me, "Don't talk to me about such things. I do not want to know." Their minds have become the Circumlocution Office. Their minds are full of information, some good, some useless, but they do not want to know. They are not free. They are like those in the Marshalsea Prison, who cannot see reality and do not want to do so. Their minds, like the minds of William Dorrit, Fanny and Tip, are full of self-pity and complete selfishness. Their minds, hearts, souls are trapped in "society".  Society has become their guide, their god. Little Dorrit is free, in mind and spirit, which is the appeal of her character. She is also completely selfless, loving and kind. She is a free woman in or out of the prison. Unlike all the others in her family, the prison has not tainted her mind, which is one of the paradoxes in the book.

Another phrase in Little Dorrit, is "Nobody's Fault". Misery, poverty, stupidity, lies, madness, and even murder, are "nobody's fault". Those same people who do not want to know blame everyone else for their problems. If we tolerate evil in ourselves, we shall overlook evil in others. Now, we see the logical consequences of this toleration of evil. I hope and pray evil has not won the battles we now face, although Evil has lost the War. The same people who do not want to know, do not want to know their own sin and play the victims, as do Little Dorrit's family members. Sin is never their fault. They do not want to know about themselves, others, the times, society. They are imprisoned in their own minds and hearts. They have lost the sensitivity to feel the earthquakes and cyclones. And, they will be swept away, sadly, unless they come to their senses and become free again. They are caught up in their own Circumlocution Offices.

Lost Boys = Lost Civilizations

In America, now, almost 20% of young men from the ages of 25-34 live with their parents. In England, 25% of young men from 25-29 live with their parents. This is higher than the percentages of young women living at home in both countries.

Most pundits blame the economy is both nations, and one can say that is a factor, but that is not the main factor.

Disclaimer, my son left home at the age of 22. This should be normal. I left home at just over 23, and there was a shortage of good jobs in the early 1970s in certain areas as the baby-boomers left college and university. Still, we singles managed and without any government help.

One difference is that now parents allow this dependency and do not fight it. Parents have given up their parental authority. There is work, if one wants to do manual labor or take low-paying jobs. I know this. But, I have been told by some young people that they will not clean, do road work, work in factories, etc, which their dads and even grandads did . These young men do not want to get their hands dirty. They do not want to join the Army, Navy, or Marines. These young men do not want to suffer. They only want happy thoughts.

A second issue is more serious. The young men do not want to grow up. They simply do not want to take on responsibility for a house, a wife, children, themselves. They want the full fridge, the large screen tv, the social life of going out, the new clothes. We budgeted. I think this word has been forgotten. We paid cash in the days before the crazy use of credit, which really did not start until the 1980s where I lived. If one did not have the cash, one did not go out, or buy clothes, or drink, whatever.

I consider this desire to remain a Peter Pan the main reason for young men staying at home. There are other opportunities, which these “boys” are not considering. They can emigrate. One of my friends' sons who is 26 went to Australia, and is making excellent money in electrical engineering. He claims there are many jobs for men who want to work in building, contracting, plumbing, electrical work, etc. Many of our ancestors went to America for jobs and careers. What happened to the old pioneer spirit? I blame parents for coddling their kids and for being selfish. When a mom does not let go of her son, or her daughter-in-law and grandchildren, she is selfish. Here in Ireland, there are many Polish youth working in menial jobs, while there are Irish boys walking around doing nothing. What has happened to the work ethic? 

It was hard to let go of my son, but he is a man. I am proud of him. He is doing what he should be doing, following his role in society, taking responsibility for his finances, his future. He thinks of me and others, and not merely of himself. We do not live in the same country. This is sometimes what men have to do to be men-go where they will thrive.

This is normal behavior. The Peter Pan syndrome is sick and ruining both America and England. And, as a woman, I say, who wants to even date Peter Pan? The handwriting is on the wall. He would not be an independent, good provider for a family. If he sponges from his mom and dad, he would sponge from his mate.

The lack of religion has a lot to do with the Peter Pan syndrome. If a man does not have to take responsibility for sexual activity because of the Pill , he avoids growing up. He remains with the Lost Boys, and at least they lived away from their mom and dads in Neverland. 

The last issue to review is the social welfare state which allows young men to get money without working. Take a look at some towns in Kent. Young men are out, walking the streets, not working, but they have girlfriends, and smoke, and generally act like they deserve a living doing nothing. Socialism takes away personal pride and personal initiative. More than a hundred years of Church teaching from the Popes warned the West of the evil of socialism undermining the individual's need to work and the dignity of work. Now we see the result-in our lost boys. We shall see the complete denouement in the collapse of Western Civilization in these countries.