Just a few thoughts without links or footnotes.

I wonder if I lost my sense of humor?  Or is it just because old men get grumpy?

I sometimes react rather than respond these days, especially when it is unlawful to say anything some one else will disagree with.  At least it seems that way.  If you say one thing against Trump, you're labeled a liberal.  Same thing when you support the Pope and the U.S. Bishops - you're a liberal.  I always like to think I do not fit those labels - but then again, it's other people who apply them.  That's all I need to say on that.

June, being gay pride month is all about the gay.  

Ask Church Militant and Michael Voris, who have a campaign against it, which includes defaming priests and bishops who are now labeled homosexualists.  The first concern here has to be the outright attack on bishops and cardinals who seem to support lgbtq concerns.  This carries over to the apparently general consensus among 'conservative' Catholics that the bishops are the enemies of Christ.  It's not a stretch to carry that over to looking upon Pope Francis as the enemy in chief.  The damage done with this line of thinking, speaking and acting, is soul-destroying.  It is not only divisive in the extreme, it does nothing for the defense of the Faith.  That Catholics subscribe to sites such as CM, 1P5, and Canon 212 which condemn the episcopate is scandalous.

I was searching online last night for some photos of Rome to post and a few images of Pride celebrations in Rome popped up.  I noted the typical parade of drag queens and speedos and the blatant sexuality which reminded me of the Pompeii frescoes depicting sexual license and sodomy.  I couldn't help but make the comparison of how Western culture has once again fallen into paganism, very similar to what is read in today's first reading from Kings - culturally we too have 'forsaken God's covenant, torn down the altars' and abandoned traditional morality.  The Pride celebrations mirror Carnival - be it men or women in provocative dances, parading their nakedness.  We look, and then look the other way when it appears, yet if it is appealingly heterosexual and theatrical - it somehow gets a free pass.  Today Gay Pride takes advantage of that permissiveness.

I'm not moralizing here.  Just pointing out what I see happening.  I think it's why I react sometimes, to the more conservative sites, who condemn everyone else - or look down upon others - yet subscribe to the same permissiveness when it suits them; whenever they take a fall or sneak out to satisfy their lusts.  These same people support conservative ideology and mock others who do not - yet they have the exact same propensities as those they judge.  They indulge in the same pagan entertainment.  They love the same sins and fetishes of those they damn.

The hypocrisy of our times is a grave sin.  Because Pope Francis is so attuned to it and frequently brings it to our attention is perhaps the main reason so many people despise him and seek to 'kill' his teaching.  The Holy Father talks about discernment, and everyone is too busy trying to tell others what to think, pointing out error, and calumniating their pastors, to actually discern what they are doing.  They blame the pastors for apostasy but they are the ones listening to false teachers who rely on dubious locutions and interpretations of signs and apparitions.

That said, looking online at all the homo stuff - pro and con, and seeing photos of Pride parades and festivities is indeed a real turn off.  I totally understand how Christians, striving for authentic holiness can be "tormented in soul at the lawless deeds that they see and hear," day after day.  Those who strive for holiness and chastity likewise struggle and are tormented, yet they need to stop promoting what they insist they are leaving behind.  They need to stop pretending.  Posting pious thoughts and political and ideological anthems does nothing for one's conversion.  Maybe one feels better for it, but it's unproductive and is a scandal.

It's like this blog.  I keep writing this stuff, but it's unproductive.  Except for the fact I think I have sorted through enough to finally see through the illusion - delusion of Gay Pride - and those who use it to promote themselves.  When you look it straight in the eye - or rather, with straight eyes - you can't help but see it for what it is.  You can see how it, and every other disorder which affects people, is opposed to the image and likeness of God.  The Holy Father has been teaching clearly on this, how we are made in the image and likeness of God - God made us that way, male and female.

The Image of God - that is it!  That is the secret made known in Christ - made visible!  That is why we must be 'rooted and grounded' in Christ - to be conformed to that image.  "Christ, . . . in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, makes man fully manifest to himself and brings to light his exalted vocation." It is in Christ, "the image of the invisible God," that man has been created "in the image and likeness" of the Creator. It is in Christ, Redeemer and Savior, that the divine image, disfigured in man by the first sin, has been restored to its original beauty and ennobled by the grace of God." - CCC 1701

So grow up.