Tea at Trianon: The Voice of God No More

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

Wednesday, July 5, 2023

The Voice of God No More

From Tom Piatak at Chronicles:

Meanwhile, the Catholic Church enjoys less esteem in Los Angeles—a city named by Catholic missionaries in honor of the Virgin Mary, “Lady of the Angels”—than a gaggle of gay men styling themselves “The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence,” who dress up as nuns, observe Easter by holding X-rated “Hunky Jesus” and “Foxy Mary” beauty contests, and who make their acidic contempt for Catholicism crystal clear.

If the “Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence” had shown their mascara-drenched faces at Ebbets Field at the start of Vin’s long stint in the broadcast booth in Brooklyn, the only question is who would have ejected them first: the largely Irish cops, the predominantly Italian and Irish fans, or players from both benches. Today, the furor arose when the Dodgers temporarily rescinded the award scheduled to be presented to the “Sisters” at “Pride Night,” a relatively recent addition to baseball’s calendar, but now observed by every MLB team except the Texas Rangers.

The Los Angeles Times even speculated that the Dodgers might lose their ace pitcher, Clayton Kershaw, an evangelical Christian, because he publicly criticized the team’s decision. Kershaw’s courage stood in contrast to the actions of many on the Catholic left, who praised the “Sisters” and reserved their vitriol for the American bishops who had criticized them. Sister Jeannine Gramick, a long-time dissenter from Catholic teaching, opined that “the choice of clothing, even if offensive to some, can never trump the works of mercy.” One doubts that Sister Gramick would be as indulgent of men who enjoy wearing the flowing robes of the Ku Klux Klan or the Hugo Boss-made uniforms of the SS, no matter how many soup kitchens they ran.

The constant celebration of all things LGBTQIA may be reaching its peak, though. The reason that Americans generally made peace with gay marriage and have not strongly objected to “Pride Month” as is quickly becoming, borrowing a phrase from Sam Francis, “the month otherwise known as June,” is that most Americans became persuaded that sexual orientation is not chosen. Given the traditional American belief that life is much easier with a partner and the modern belief that life without sex is almost unthinkable, greater rights for gay couples were inevitable. If such rights had been secured by appeals to tolerance and privacy and expressed in legislation that provided for nonsexual unions as well as sexual ones, it is possible that the madhouse of Drag Queen Story Hour, the 37 genders, and the lionizing of anti-Catholic fetishists could have been avoided.

We are where we are because activists made their successful case for gay marriage by appeals to unfettered personal autonomy and absolute equality. If those are your guiding principles, our current destination is inevitable, as is the legalization of pedophilia. The only way out is by recognizing that the one thing that can be said with certainty in this area is that gay unions are in no way equal to real marriage.

If you doubt me, try this thought experiment. The habitable world is reduced to two desert islands. One island is given to 100 married couples; the other is divided in two, with one half going to 50 gay couples and one half going to 50 lesbian couples. A century later, which island will be a cemetery, and which a growing human habitation? (Read more.)