(Not Quite) Vegetrian Beans Tonight

A pound of White Navy Beans, cooked with browned onions in chicken broth, fortified with beef base.  Oh I added a little meat for flavoring--two (about 1 pound each) ham hocks, a pound of smoked linked sausage, 1 1/2 pounds of boneless pork ribs, a few chicken legs--a half dozen stalks of celery and a half dozen chopped yellow potatoes, some bay leaf, some winter savory, some crushed garlic cloves and salt. 

Since the little ones don't like it very much, I'm only tossing in a teaspoon of black pepper, instead ot the normal three tablespoons.

Really, beans are good for us, and we don't need to have much added meat to them, do we?

Link Added

If you scroll down the blog list, right under it, you will find a link to my Parish Church, St. Martin of Tours.

Bring Back The Inquisition!

Or at lease give the CDF a very big, very heavy hammer!

On 20 September, James Todd published an internet essay asking if there was a double standard for discipline in the Church.  My take on that is affirmative, and I will go so far as to say anyone who denies it is either a liar or a madman.  It's blatant.

Father Frank Pavone was recalled to the Diocese of Amarillo, first under a cloud of charges of financial misbehavior, which were quickly downplayed, then because he was needed to do priestly ministry there--which turns out to be a lie--Fr. Pavone is in a very small cell in a convent, where he is forced to take his meals alone, and held without access to a telephone, or even a TV to watch.  He's putting up with this because his bishop has instructed him to do so, and he is obeying  the bishop--a bishop who says he's disobedient and stubborn-charges that no one else substantiates, not even the Vicar General.  Father Pavone is pro-life, of course, and that means everything he does makes the Obama regime, and the Democrats look bad.  His bishop is a democrat.  So Pavone has been silenced, effectively, while not taking any actions that could be appealed under canon law.

Meanwhile, Kathleen Sebelious, as secretary of HHS--a Democrat--has promoted abortion, just as she did as governor of Colorado.  She is even trying to implement regulations, with out administrative precedent, legislative mandate and contrary to established judicial precedent that promote murder, contraception and truncate the rights of Catholics to practice their faith in the realm of social services and social justice.  Under canon 915 and 916 she shouldn't be receiving communion.  Further, under published (and ignored in the US) guidelines from Rome, this canon is to be enforced.  She is under no penalty, and is admitted to communion, considered a Catholic in Good standing.

We need to remember the Father Altier affray as well--again, standing up for the faith, when you have bishop who is much more interested in politics and being a Democrat than being a Bishop who teaches the faith, sanctifies his flock and rules through the discipline of the Sacraments (which is an aid to sanctification) who penalized a priest of commitment, courage and integrity.

We also need to keep in mind that there are priests, who have not been disciplined, who admit in public to paying for abortions for their parishioners, who actively, publicly and vocally advocate for Gay Marriage and the "normalization" of sodomy.  The conclusion is inescapably that there are Bishops who don't give a rats ass about the Faith, or the Salvation of Souls, but seek instead to embrace political trends that the think will allow the Church to exist as an institution in a secular world that isn't seen as counter-cultural, and coincidentally, thereby will preserve their position in the world in economic and social terms.

If this were just a Bishop here and there, we could write it off, because Bishops are human, and humans fail, and sin.  No biggie.  But when one considers things like that fact that 24%--24%-- of grantees who have received funds from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development either actively promote causes antithetical to the faith--abortion, contraception, gay rights, sexual license--and that the CCHD is an official outreach of the USCCB, one must consider the possibility that at best the American Hierarchy is riddled with ineffectual moral cowards, and at worst a hotbed of crypto- schism and heresy.  Especially when this has occurred after years of the faithful exposing such shenanigans.

It's time we face the  facts, as demonstrated not by words, but deeds, and purge the Episcopacy, the Presbyterate and the Laity.  Yes, it would result in Schism, but we would find, in the end, that fewer of the faithful would fall into schism than one would expect, and that the Church, free of this cancer, would emerge stranger and freer than before.

WE, the faithful, need to stand up, shout and say "Enough"--our bishops need either to man up and do their job, or to cringe when they see us, and leave the Church physically, as well as theologically, politically and morally.  Sometimes, I think their handling of the Abuse Scandal was more abut keeping us distracted from a sort of material apostasy than covering up for their sodomite buddies.  It's time for a purge, a ruthless, Ultramontane and rigorous purge, and let the chips fall--because that way, fewer souls will fall into hell.

Wierded Out

Things this week have been wierding me out.  I'll just list some of these things here, and maybe I'll feel better about them.

Fashion:  Fetish Wear used to be the purview of a sexually oriented sub-culture, and was worn basically by enthusiasts at venues catering to their special interest.  Then it moved into the realm of Haloween Costumes, then into Club Wear.  Now, from what I see on the streets, it's become part of the mainstream of Fashion, and is considered, with certain modifications, to be suitable for day wear on the streets.  I asked a friend of mine who is in her early 20s if she, as a woman, didn't find this trend demeaning.  She did.  What is wrong with our society, that women, who a generation ago used the phrase "Women can wear whatever they want" to break free of an imposed role that made them dress more or less to emphasize an given gender role, and to play up their physical attributes, to proclaim that they can "Wear whatever they want" to mean that it's a positive thing to dress in such a way as depict themselves as objects of lust--and kinky ones at that?  It's like the "Slut Walk" thing--that proclaims that somehow, not only should women be free to dress as they choose with out risk of assault, but that somehow not dressing like a prostitute or a slut is demeaning.  It's almost as if women have decided that their value is derived solely from their potential as sex objects, and if they can't give a man a boner by appearance they are somehow substandard or oppressed.

Crazy People on the Street:  So Tuesday on the bus, a fellow sat behind me who reeked of old beer, sweat, stale patchouli and cannabis.  he thing began to conduct a very rational discussion about the "program" he was enrolled in--except there was no one there.  So rational did he sound that at first I assumed he was using a blackberry--then I realized he was electronics free.  How is it, that in the mane of "dignity" and "rights" for the mentally ill, we leave these people to wander the streets, uncared for, with even basic functions such as bathing left unfilled?

Child Haters:  Yesterday on the bus, a young woman with a child in a stroller, and an infant in a baby sling was trying to get off.  On our buses, the only ramp is at the front door, and people are expected to wait for those who need them to dismount before entering.  A couple in "Alternative Apparel" pushed on, blocked her exit and told her she needed to get out of the way so they could go to their seats--before they had even paid their fair--and allowed that just because she wished to be "Bred like some cow" they shouldn't be inconvenienced.

That One Chick:  Who walked past a group of JNROTC cadets, popped out a tit, shook it at them and called them fascist fags.

Racist Welfare Policies:  I've gotten used to seeing poor men going through the trash picking out aluminum cans to sell as scrap.  What i have come to realize is this--although part of the way our Government tries to make us think things are better than they are is by dropping long term unemployed from the rolls, and ending their benefits, it seems strange to me that the only people I see foraging for scrap in trash cans are white males-where is the support system?  I see Women and Black/Hispanic people getting benefits that take care of them, but these guys have to forage for trash to get fed.

They Miscalculated--You Can Help

I love my Parish--I don't know where I would find one I liked as well, short perhaps, of St. John Canutius, and that's a five hour drive away!  Maybe six.  We have a depth and breadth of Liturgical practice that I've never found in a parish, and a social outreach that is sterling--we operate an outreach to the poor and homeless that serve 5-600 individuals and families a month, and an outreach to single mothers who are at risk for abortion that serves around 400 women and their children a month.

And there's the miscalculation.  It's time for the annual fundraiser, and the response is less than tepid.  The problem, I think, isn't lack or commitment to the cause, or the ministry; it's cost.  Tickets to this years fund raiser cost $75 a couple.

We're a pro-life parish in more than theory--we have lots of families with kids.  Lots of kids.  That's part of the dynamic, because the fundraiser has been moved later in the year.  Since Kids grow all the time, they tend to need a new coat, every year.  That runs about $75 bucks.  Many of the families have lots of kids, so they can pass coats down, but still--at least one of them needs a coat, every year, and the families with lots of kids have less slack in the budget.

What they have done is priced most of the parishioners out of the event--a miscalculation resulting in part, I think, from the social class of many of the movers and shakers.  One of the problems that has developed over the last 40 or 50 years is a segregation by economics--neighborhoods tend to be fairly uniform in economic position to an extent that they hadn't been before in the US.  Many people do not realize that other people don't live like they do.  Couple this with the fact that TV and movies tend to depict upper middle class circumstance, even when dealing with people who supposedly are not in that bracket, and a sort of ignorance occurs, in which people don't know how much money a large segment of the population hasn't got.

The thing is, the folks who can work for little or nothing, to make these ministries function come from that bracket, but see the poorest, and their neighbors--they don't see the big lump between them.  They're good people--they take these jobs, either for very low wages or for free (they seem to have successful spouses or be doing this as a second career).  We couldn't do it with out them.

but if they had set up an event that cost $25, maybe even $50, they would have gotten a bigger response.  Likewise if they had set it a little earlier in the year, when people weren't trying to get their kids coats, or weren't thinking of Christmas gifts for their young 'uns.

I have no idea how we're going to get more money for the outreaches--but it has to be found.  The poor do need the help, even when they're drunks and addicts--drunks and addicts freeze int he cold too, and we don't have lepers anymore--we have them instead, and the mandate to care and help doesn't go away.  And the Golden Arrow, well, it saves lives of babies who would otherwise end up in a bio-hazard bag.

If you can see it clear, please send some money to the Golden Arrow, and save a baby, and maybe a mother too:

The Golden Arrow Center
639 South Shelby Street
Louisville, KY 40202

Thank you for even considering it.