Tea at Trianon: A Crisis of Clerical Manhood

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

Saturday, July 6, 2019

A Crisis of Clerical Manhood

From Church Militant:

The role of a father — biological and spiritual — is to sacrifice himself for the sake of his family. The weak, the cowardly, the emasculated cannot and do not inspire men to follow; instead, they repulse them. This is why, since the 1960s, the Church has been bled nearly dry of committed Catholic laymen.

Lay Catholic men have a pivotal part to play in rebuilding the priesthood. They must return to their God-given roles as priests, prophets and kings of their homes and ensure their family's fidelity to the Faith.

In doing so, they'll make men of their sons. Some of these will go on to establish their own households. Others will repopulate the priesthood's depleted ranks as faithful spiritual fathers. Catholic clerics must give their all to cultivating holiness in themselves and in their flocks. By challenging men spiritually strive, faithful shepherds inspire men to follow their lead and grow their numbers. Until priestly ranks recapture authentic masculinity, pews will continue to empty. (Read more.)