Tea at Trianon: Our Bishops Can’t Handle the Truth

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

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Our Bishops Can’t Handle the Truth

From Deal Hudson at the Christian Review:

A firestorm has erupted within the American, Catholic world. A humble and orthodox parish priest, Fr. James Altman from the Diocese of Lacrosse stands in the eye of this conflagration. This controversy is nothing new: Every four years there is a debate within Catholic circles about the duty of Catholics and their responsibility as faithful citizens to exercise their right to vote for the highest office in the land.

Again, as always, the main issue is the matter of abortion. A stain on this great country that will never go away as long as innocent human life is being taken in the name of “freedom,” choice,” and “reproductive rights.”

In a YouTube video of August 30, Fr. Altman instructed the faithful that the Democrat Party cannot be supported by any Catholic because of its extremist position on abortion. He stated, “Here is a memo to clueless baptized Catholics out there; you cannot be Catholic and be a Democrat. Period.”

Then, of course, the gates of hell opened up, and the ‘progressive wing’ of the Church denounced him. And then, right on cue, his Bishop denounced Fr. Altman for his “tone.” Bishop Callahan (La Cross) released a statement that read like a press release from a contrite corporate CEO appeasing the cancel culture crowd. I guess Catholics who speak the Truth are expected to be ‘nice’ about it. Tell that to John the Baptist and the Old Testament Prophets.

Such episcopal behavior has become commonplace: Archbishop Wilton Gregory recently chided President Trump and his Catholic wife, Melania, for making a trip to Saint John Paul II Shrine. Gregory fumed, “I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people even those with whom we might disagree.” What has the Church come to that the President of the United States and the First Lady cannot visit a Catholic shrine without the Archbishop of Washington, DC announcing they are not welcome?

Archbishop Wilton Gregory is the poster child for the Deep State Catholic American Hierarchy. Doesn’t Gregory realize his pontifications mean nothing when he sits in the seat of two previous archbishops who are predatory homosexual molesters? The U.S. bishop’s loss of credibility has only grown worse when, all but a handful, lack to desire or the courage to point out that Trump’s opponent, who calls himself Catholic, wants to make abortion legal until the moment of birth (and after, presumably).

The Deep State Catholic Church’s Godfather is Ted McCarrick. McCarrick famously ignored instructions from Benedict XVI to withhold Communion to “Catholic” officeholders who voted for and furthered the abortion regime and the “Culture of Death.” Of course, while ignoring the Pope, at the time he was abusing seminarians and cozying up to communist regimes. (Read more.)