Archbishop to speak at man night

I just got this email from the local Catholic Men's group here in the western X-urbs of the Twin Cities. Anyone reading this who is within range of attending (or even if you arent), whether Catholic or not, please attend and stand in solidarity with Archbishop Nienstedt on this issue.

Dear Brothers in Christ,

 Next Thursday, August 2, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. there will be a special CatholicManNight at the Church of St. Michael in St. Michael.

 We will be gathering to hear Archbishop Nienstedt teach about Jesus Christ - Defender of the Family. This is a particularly timely and important topic as we prepare for the Marriage Protection Amendment vote in November 2012.

 Please help us get the word out for this event! We pray for a large outpouring of support for our courageous Archbishop.

 

The Catholic Man Night is a great thing. There is a well put together message given by a priest (or in this case an Archbishop!), confession, and there are always ample priests on hand so everyone has a chance. There is adoration during that time followed by benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, and then a meal. The whole experience is one of quiet interior reflection on how we are living our vocations as men, whether called to marriage, holy orders, or singleness.

Archbishop Nienstedt rocks.

He has been out front protecting marriage in this state, and he is very orthodox. I can't wait to hear him next week. I think I will bring a crucifix or statue for him to bless as well.

Directions to the Church of St. Michael can be found here. 

Will There Be Zombies? Look around.

I love Zombie shows. The Walking Dead on AMC has been my surprise favorite viewing entertainment of the last several years. And even he movie Zombieland strikes more than a funnybone. There is some underlying truth that makes it so funny and entertaining. I have often wondered why we love zombie stories though. I think these shows (particularly The Walking Dead) are the most culturally relevant art available at the moment. They are relevant because they are true. What follows is an excerpt from an article with some of the most profound social commentary I have ever read. It answers my question about zombies better than anyone (including myself) has yet done, and it has an extended prophecy of the coming collapse, its causes, and what we can do to be prepared. It is sobering yet encouraging.

From Will There Be Zombies? by John Médaille:

...it is often so that popular culture, guided only by its intuitive and communal wisdom, sees what can’t be seen, but is nevertheless real. But having gained some trust in that, I was still confused by the rather odd phenomenon of the zombies. Why did this rather obscure Caribbean cult of people in a drug-induced catatonic state get so easily transformed into such an elaborate metaphor of the post-apocalyptic world? And why did they think that the world after the collapse would be filled with people stripped of their souls, stripped of all feelings, whether of pain or pleasure, anger or joy, who spent their time relentlessly pursuing one product?


And then it struck me: they aren’t looking into the future, they are looking at the present moment; and they aren’t looking at what will be done to others; they are looking at what has already been done to themselves. The image, so silly on its face, resonates with the young because they know, at some intuitive level, that we are already in the midst of the apocalypse, that the world wishes to strip them of their minds and their hearts and make them pure consumers, and relentless consumers of one product, the advertiser’s dream. They know, in their heart of hearts, that the world is out to get them, and means them no good. They have seen a deeper truth than anyone cares to admit.

And what they have seen is something for which there is no parallel in history. Literature and the arts have always had, as their purpose, the transmission to the young of the most important values of a culture; they were the means of initiating the young into their own history, of telling them their own story. But never in history have such vast engines of persuasion and manipulation had, as their sole purpose, the degradation of the young, the stripping them of their minds and spirits; never has any society deliberately dedicated so much energy and wealth to corrupting its own young, to sacrificing its children to the idol of mindless consumption. There have been, to be sure, periods of bad literature and awful art, but even the worst was done with the best of intents; its purpose was never deliberate degradation for mere commercial advantage. Indeed, the Supreme Court of the United States has once again affirmed that the organized corruption of the young is a commercial right, even as it has affirmed in the past that exposing them to prayer in the classroom would be a violation of their rights. No civilization has ever committed such crimes against its own children.

Or perhaps there is a precedent. The Carthaginians, under siege from the Romans in 146 BC thought they could revive their fortunes by sacrificing their children; 300 children were thrown into a furnace to the god Moloch, but the city fell anyway, the inhabitants were sold into slavery, and the ground sowed with salt so that nothing would grow there, so deep was the Roman revulsion with the city. Carthago delenda est, and no city more deserved its fate.

But what of our fate? Have we not, in a way, committed the same crime to be condemned to the same fate? Have we not condemned our children to be sacrificed to the fires of a commercial Moloch, and must we not suffer a fate much worse than Carthage? Well, after all of this, I have a rather odd message: be of good cheer. We can get through this; we can do this, and perhaps it is only us, and people very much like us, who can do it. I believe that if we keep our wits and our faith about us, we can show our neighbors how to live—once we relearn the art ourselves.

We start by asking what happens in a collapse. ...

Read the full article here.

The Four Sins that Cry to Heaven (And USA's report card)

Dr. Taylor Marshall has a great post that comes just in time for the 4th of July season. I like his take on politics. For instance he does not believe the HHS mandate is really a freedom issue, but thinks we should be proclaiming the gospel instead:

Is Religious Freedom a God given right and if so, what are its limits? That is, should I pray my Rosary so that Satanists have the protected human right to practice Satanism? Are we merely asking for a toleration of our beliefs or should we be speaking with the voice of Christ and the holy martyrs against an evil empire. Should we be on offense or defense?

Read that post of his here.

And yesterday he had another post right in line with that one concerning the true state of our nation which lists the 4 sins that cry to heaven in Scripture, and gives our nation a report card. Here is an excerpt:

According to the Holy Spirit speaking through the Holy Scriptures, there are four sins that cry to Heaven for vengeance.

From the Douay Catholic Catechism of 1649
CHAPTER XX - The sins that cry to Heaven for vengeance
Q. 925. HOW many such sins are there?
A. Four.
Q. 926. What is the first of them?
A. ........

Ok, now thast you are interested, go read the post for yourself.

Catholics: Acid in Uncle Sam's Belly

Burning of St. Augustine's Church in the 1844 Philadelphia Bible Riots

I want to link to a great article about Catholics in the US from the blog Forgotten Altars. The author makes the case that Catholics will always be acid in the belly of Uncle Sam, particularly the older, fatter, and more cranky he gets (these are my words not his). My take is that yes, we need to fight these "battles" like the homosexual marriage and HHS mandate stuff. But let's not kid ourselves. This country's fate was sealed when the good guys lost the civil war, and it will end the way all empires end... with coliseums and killing of Catholics. I think the final death throes are as much as a century or so in the future, but we need to be prepared for this eventuality. Don't get me wrong, I love America. This is still probably the greatest nation on earth. But as Chesterton has said:

 "My country, right or wrong is a thing that no patriot would think of saying except in a desperate case. It is like saying My mother, drunk or sober."

There comes a point where our patriotism becomes entirely something that looks back... to what our country once was, and to the men who in days past have died for it. But when increasingly our country ceases to resemble the former one, and our primary freedoms are taken from us, it gets harder and harder to wave the flag out of anything but mere nostalgia.