Tea at Trianon: Desecration at St. Patrick’s Cathedral

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

Sunday, February 25, 2024

Desecration at St. Patrick’s Cathedral

From First Things:

And that is where the irony becomes tragedy. As a number of individuals associated with the funeral commented to the press, Jesus did not turn people away and even welcomed prostitutes. That is true. But the key thing to remember is that he did not offer them affirmation. He offered them the possibility of forgiveness and grace and liberation from the self-destruction to which they were in bondage. Affirmation of such self-destruction and of rebellion against God is neither loving nor kind. And it too is a form of desecration—the desecration of man, man denied the opportunity to live freely as God intended. Billy Porter might use the word “grace,” but upon his lips it is an empty cypher that connotes nothing but feckless sentimentalism and impotence in the face of an overwhelming reality—death—to which he has no response. And, most tragically of all, he and his friends seem to think that is something to celebrate. Desecrating the cathedral is not the only thing they should be ashamed of. (Read more.)

From The Catholic Thing:

Father James Martin, SJ, to no one’s great surprise, had been invited to serve as ringmaster for that circus but, conveniently for him, he was on the other coast for the congress. It’s a pity the organizers didn’t think to invite Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, who might have found some suitable passages from his theo-erotic book Mystical Passion to read at the Gentili funeral, the deceased being described enthusiastically by one eulogist as the “mother of all whores.” A touch of cardinalitial erotic accompaniment would have fit it quite nicely.

About the funeral, plenty of comment has been offered elsewhere, with the flamboyant entourage of the deceased now disgruntled to have learned that instead of a funeral Mass, they got a simple Liturgy of the Word before the casket and congregation were hurried out the door. At the time, no one seemed to notice the difference, their liturgical piety apparently having become rather attenuated.

Meanwhile, back at the congress on the left coast, Cardinal Robert McElroy of San Diego was on hand to accuse those who oppose the papally-approved blessings for same-sex couples – but not same-sex unions! – to be driven by anti-gay “animus.” Be that as it may, what caught my attention was the response when Cardinal McElroy was asked whether synodality will outlive Pope Francis. (Read more.)

From American Thinker:

The playbook of the French Revolution has come to New York City. Once again, we are seeing the attempted destruction of an existing class system, and with it the Catholic Church. Those who recall Kathy Griffin’s photo of a decapitated Donald Trump will recognize the parallels to the beheading of Louis XVI of as the symbolic and real beheading of the French aristocracy.
For the revolutionists of New York City, the person they see as the king of capitalism must die, and along with him the moral foundations of the rule of law as formerly known and undergirded by the Christian church. The old capitalist aristocracy will be beheaded, first by the confiscation of its wealth and properties, as Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron (who resembles an aged Maximilien Robespierre) have decreed.
The lawfare of the Left will enable the destruction and eventual reconstruction of major societal institutions, including the Catholic Church. Trump has seen the desire of the Left to tear down Christianity’s foundations, protesting their desire to remove the symbol of the cross. Doubtless, he and others opposed to the Left’s most current outrages have observed the recent attack by trans activists on the Catholic cathedral of St. Patrick’s in New York City.

There, a celebratory ritual invented by leaders of New York’s trans cult defiled the liturgy of the Catholic mass. The revolutionaries’ ceremony celebrated the tenets of the transgender faith, the occasion essentially being turned into a beatification ceremony for Cecilia Gentili, a trans activist. (Read more.)

From The Federalist:

As it turns out, the trans activists who recently held a sacrilegious funeral in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City for one of their peers likely committed a hate crime. Writing in a letter to New York Attorney General Letitia James, Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, a leading Catholic advocacy group, called for an “investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding the recent use of St.Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City by transgender activists to deceptively gain access and advance ideas and beliefs hostile to doctrines of the Catholic Church, while openly mocking these beliefs.” (Read more.)