Tea at Trianon: Outrage and Action

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, August 21, 2015

Outrage and Action

From Fr. Frank Pavone:

In various key moments in our struggle against abortion, something happens that gives the American public a chance to see abortion — and the abortion industry — for what they are. The veil is lifted off of the corruption and horror of these atrocities, which continue not because the American people support them but because abortion industry hides them. This lifting of the veil happened during the trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell. Many realized, during those weeks, that “legal abortion” does not mean “safe abortion.”

Now, with the undercover videos of Planned Parenthood, a similar phenomenon kicks in, whereby many realize for the first time that abortion is not the serene and innocuous thing that slogans made them think it was, and that Planned Parenthood is not the caring, service-oriented organization that its marketing masters make the public think it is.

But it is not enough that jaws drop or that eyes that have long slumbered suddenly open to a glaring light. Things can easily go back to normal, and slumbering eyes can all too easily slumber again. And if they do, then as Scripture says, “the last condition of that person is worse than the first” (Mt. 12:45). It is easier to come to repentance when the lie that one once embraced is first exposed as a lie, and the evil that one once thought was good is first exposed as evil. Here’s why. (Read more.)