The usual Open Thread rules apply: be concise, be charitable, and, above all, be amusing!
Open Thread
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
When I was a kid, it was common for people to say “I can say what I think, it’s a free country!” whenever given grief for holding an unpopular opinion.
I honestly cannot recall the last time I’ve heard anyone use that expression. It might be decades ago…
I’ll still say it, but I qualify it either with “ostensibly” or “it’s still allegedly a free country!”
What I have found, as everyone here has encountered as well, is the “right” to be offended has been superseding free expression in our culture in recent years. How long this has been going on is debatable…since the 90’s? Earlier?
I am a cradle Catholic and the concerns raised are justifiable. In my teens and twenties I did go to Sunday Mass out of habit or just the idea that the risk was too great in case the whole “go to hell for missing Mass” thing was true. My friends teased me with comments like, “You are SUCH a Catholic!” I think secretly they envied me. Later I came to appreciate the faith and consider it a gift from my parents and ancestors.
But the comparison to Cradle Americans is apt. But I also think most of those who take citizenship for granted will change their views. I was draft age during the Vietnam War. I was classified 1-A during my lottery year, but my birthday number was 125 and they got to 112 in my district so I didn’t have to serve.It remains a relief and a regret.
a cradle Catholic and cradle American (b 1960) i have distant memories of Altar Rails and a Great Love for America..
let’s demand both return in full again.
Happy 250!
Let’s see if Leo XIV sends any sort of message to his home country or to the leader of the United States of America or to any of its official representatives on the 250th birthday of the American republic.
Hmmm.
I am a Catholic convert, but if Bob Prevost or Jorge Mario Bergoglio had been Pope when I converted, then I would not have done so.
I am a cradle American and I had communism, especially when it is disguised under the false gospel of social justice, the common good, and peace at any price.
I despise all the things that so characertizes the Institutional Church: environmentalism, unfettered illegal immigration, homo-eroticism, sentimentality disguised as charity, inability to preach the Gospel from the pulpit – there’s too much to list. I just hate it all. I loathe the effemminate pusillanimous weakness with all the fiber of my being. From the “scholarly” notes in the Catholic NABRE to the elevator music of Novus Ordo, it is all abhorrent and an abomination. Often I know more about the Scripture readings for Mass than the weak kneed, yellow bellied, cowardly priest doing the preaching.
I have grandchildren who make me take them to Mass. That’s the only reason I go. I am just done with Pope Leo’s Church. If there were an Eastern Orthodox or Orthodox Anglican Parish near me, then I would go there. Rome is overrun by corrupt lecherous profit-mongering sex perverts.
LQC-
All 3 of the following statements can be true at the same time.
The monarchy is legitimate.
The king is the rightful king.
The king is an ass and a scoundrel.
We forget, as citizens of a republic that has temporary rulers, that that both statements 2 and 3 can simultaneously be true.
Any resemblance to the Church in the above statements is up to the reader’s interpretation.
However, there is only one Church. It is the best option and the worst option because it is the only option.
If I do a Mass with all the trappings, with all holiness, with no previous unconfessed sin on my soul, it is still a sinful and useless act. If a fornicating sodomist of a priest does he Mass in a rainbow robe and tinfoil hat using a red solo cup and frisbee but pronounces the words required, Christ is present and it is the Holy Mass.
I don’t like it. Most days I have to dial back my anger at the clergy for the sake of my own soul. But, Christ promised that the sh!tashow wouldn’t overwhelm the entire Church and if I don’t believe Him, what’s the point?
Matter, form and intention.
Of course, TBO is assuming that said priest has the intention of doing something other than attract attention to himself …
CAG-
We can see matter and form, we can only guess at intention – and so must guess charitably.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.”
~ John 6:23
Sorry brother, I understand where you’re coming from, but I’m not leaving this up to guesswork.
LQC,
Find an SSPX chapel or FSSP parish near you.. if far, travel there once a month.
Pray a full Rosary every Sunday.
Ne nothi te descendant.
i’m able to sit through a reverent NO Mass switching to TLM other Sundays but it can be difficult.
Thank you to the Bruised Optimist and David WS.
“Let’s see if Leo XIV sends any sort of message to his home country or to the leader of the United States of America or to any of its official representatives on the 250th birthday of the American republic.”
He is giving us a message in the form of a middle finger.
https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/travels/2026/documents/lampedusa-4luglio2026.html
Happy Fourth everybody!! God bless America and especially our great president Donald J Trump, without whom we’d all be suffering in various and sundry ways, as many as they could dream up.
If apostates can be pope, Pope Leo went to Lampedusa to avoid associating with Americans or appearing to celebrate the land of his sorry birth on Independence Day. He went to continue his effort to fill the west with its enemies and bloodsuckers even more.
Regardless of that dolt, oorah for America, friends! Greatest nation in earth, lets keep it! Vote in November!
Phillip:
“He is giving us a message in the form of a middle finger.”
Donald Wuerl said Mass at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in D.C. for our 250th anniversary.
Why not his best friend McCarrick?
If that isn’t the middle finger, what is?