I give up.

Munich, Germany, Feb 3, 2018 / 09:31 am (CNA).- The president of the German Bishops’ Conference has declared that, in his view, Catholic priests can conduct blessing ceremonies for homosexual couples. - More here.

Remember When? Taki Theodoracopulos claimed Prince Albert of Monaco kidnapped and drugged the woman he supposedly forced into marriage.

Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco 

and H.H. Pope Francis of Rome

Talk about conspiracy theories and fake news and, and, and ...

Today the Prince and Princess remain happily married, but in 2011 a story went around claiming Albert was pretty much a current day Marquis De Sade, who 'kidnapped, drugged, and then forced fiancee Charlene Wittstock, to abide by the agreement she had signed with the Principality of Monaco.'  Oh, her dad was supposedly held hostage at the time as well.  (Story here.)

I posted about the story after it was posted on a blog by someone I lost track of.  It's amazing how little things have changed online, in fact, how much worse things have become.  People skirmishing about the same issues, though the principals may have changed - yet conservative conspiracy enthusiasts still fall for every sensationalist rumor that pops up in their feed.  I wrote the following at the time the story broke:

I came across a post on Prince Albert of Monaco claiming the Prince kidnapped and drugged the woman he supposedly forced into marriage. (Grounds for annulment!) Taki Theodoracopulos, a Greek socialite - or former playboy-sportsman turned conservative pundit/journalist, thus making himself appealing to the 'always right' wing, who supposedly makes a living denouncing vulgarity among the rich and famous, claims to have intimate knowledge on what goes on in the Court of Monaco. Maybe he does, since he appears to suggest the Prince is some sort of latter day Marquis De Sade with rumors that he plays around - quite roughly - with male and female sex partners - in groups. How very French. So how is it that such a story isn't red hot news all over the MSM/Hollywood gossip circuit? He drugged his wife and forced her to marry him in a ceremony broadcast on TV? C'mon! That's a Dynasty script.

Maybe the reason no one takes the story seriously is because few people care or follow anything Greek in these days of economic collapse, and maybe because what goes on in the Las Vegas-style Principality of Monaco stays in Monaco. - Court Gossip

It's a good reminder to 'document' the fake news cycle and rumor mongering - to some degree - in order to replay it to remind people that a great deal one reads online is made up and scandal inducing, to distract people from the truth.  I think it's safe to say much of the court gossip in the Vatican is just as unverifiable as the Prince Albert and Princess Charlene story.  Unless she's still drugged...  Just remember, there are sources online deliberately manipulating opinion with fake news and rumors to divide and anger people.  Especially those Catholics who never quite graduated from debate class and view everything through an academic/post-graduate-degree lens, as if they are writing and revising some sort of perpetual  dissertation.  (I think there is a priest who has been doing that for well over a decade now.)

They look very happy to me.

Not sure how I missed this one ... and here I thought there was nothing to blog about.

Blognicked.

Meet the Blogger Priest Who ...

“... is much more convinced about the Christian character of Donald Trump than of Pope Francis. That’s remarkable.” - Saith Faggioli.

The article itself begins with this anecdote:

Last January, a Catholic asked a priest for spiritual guidance. Upset by the progressive direction Pope Francis has taken the church since his election in 2013, the person wondered whether it was a sin to pray for the pontiff to abdicate, or even, to die. 

“No,” the priest, Father John Zuhlsdorf, replied. “It is not necessarily sinful to pray for the end of a pontificate, one way or another ... Popes come and go. In our prayers, we can, without sinning, discuss with God about His time table.” - Blogger Priest Firing Red Pills at the Vatican

Just the title of the article is scandalous.

So is some of the stuff Fr. Z writes.  That bit of advice praying for the demise of the Pope is not only scandalous but sure comes off as terrible advice proffered as spiritual direction.  That is not how we are to pray.  Not at all.  That is not the way of perfection - to which we are all called.  That is not humility.  It is a horrible instruction on prayer and the imitation of Christ.  A Catholic Christian prays as Christ taught us ...

Our Father
Who art in Heaven
Hallowed be thy Name,
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done -
On earth
As it is in Heaven ...

We do not tell God or ask Him to do our will. 

“Frankly,” Fr. Z told BuzzFeed News, “It’s not a sin."

It may not be a sin, but it seems to me it would certainly a fault and an imperfection, and certainly not at all pleasing to God.  Likewise, it's pretty bad spiritual direction.


I wonder what will happen now?

La Morenita

N.S. Candelaria

O, Son of God, who became man in the womb of the Blessed Virgin,

we thank you for giving your consent to be brought to the temple by your Mother
in order to be presented to God the Father in payment for our sins against divine justice.
By the infinite merits of your presentation in the temple of Jerusalem,
and through your act of redeeming us, grant us the grace we need.
O Jesus, Light of the World,
enlighten our minds and be our guide in this valley of tears.
Give us living faith, firm hope and a burning love of God and neighbor,
so that in the hour of death we can, like the prophet Simeon, say
“ Now O Lord you can dismiss your servant in peace
for my eyes have seen the salvation of your people – Israel.”

Not much to say lately.

Just not interested in writing right now.

Blessed Emilia Fernandez Rodriguez

Raul Beroza | RaulBerzosa.com

Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day on the same day - oh my!

Who cares?

Celebrate Carnaval on Tuesday instead of celebrating Valentine's Day then.  Is Valentine's Day a holiday now?  How dumb.  It's pretend - it's a Hallmark holiday. 

Oh wait.  Catholics must give up chocolate for Lent - like no meat on Friday.  The bishops need to declare a dispensation then, just like they do when St. Patrick's Day falls on Friday in Lent.  How dumb.

Creepy Catholic

I have a friend who has a site with a different name, but I always get mixed up and search for 'Creepy Catholic' before I realize that's not the name of his site.  LOL!

Anyway.  I think most Catholic sites are getting creepy, so I think it's more than a Freudian slip thing going on.  What?

Palmarian Pope

And then there is the Palmarian Church. 

I have had commenters who followed it at one time or another.  Baysiders seemed to have been attracted as well. So crazy. Some of these people 'infect' other trad groups with similar propaganda, which influences the more radical among them. Talk about the devil/smoke of Satan infiltrating the Church.  Anyway - a friend sent me a link to Damien Thompson's article on Dan Brown's new novel, which just happens to coincide with the title of my post.  Enjoy.

Dan Brown’s new target? The creepy Catholic sect with its very own pope and ‘Vatican’
Like most apocalyptic groups, the Palmarian church is quick to adjust the deadline when the end time fails to begin ... Read more at The Spectator

Pope Michael

Gloriously reigning from his mom's house.

Moved to compunction.

The only one to care for St. Roch

was a stray dog...

I'm not sure why I busy myself with the affairs of others.  It shouldn't preoccupy me.

For instance, I really do not need to defend the pope or criticize his detractors.  How does it affect my life that people chase after their 'tales' that way?  Why should it?

Why do I concern myself with what is true or false regarding locutions and apparitions and so on?  I think I do that in part because I have an interest in such things and there have been crazy interpretations floating around which I don't support, but to dwell on these issues seems vain.  No one really cares about what I have to say anyway.  Likewise, true or false, their effect upon the spiritual life is transitory, as they should be.

And politics?  What can I say?  No matter what, you lose friends.

So I need to pull back a bit.  I need to concentrate upon my conversion, and prepare for death, as it were.  I need greater compunction.  As the Imitation counsels: "Busy not yourself with other men's affairs, nor entangle yourself with the causes of great people."