Tuesday, February 27, 2007

SOLD OUT!

Less than a week after a friend of mine forwarded me the announcement of Fr. Charles Curran's forthcoming appearance in Kansas City, I hear again from him and learn that the venue is full, and they're taking no more reservations for the speech by the dissident priest and discredited theologian on March 24. Too bad, so sad. I'm just glad my correspondent got a seat reserved before registrations closed. We'll wait to hear his report in a few weeks.

In the meantime, wouldn't it be cool to have a lecture by a real Catholic theologian at the same time, and very near the same place? Anyone want to set that up? Anyone?

Kansas City's Ecclesiastical Ruins.

The air cleared this afternoon a little bit, and the leaves aren't on the trees yet. So one can see a fair bit out my office window. I pulled my binoculars out of my drawer today, and looked out. And I counted. St. Vincent's. Blessed Sacrament. Holy Name. Annunciation. St. Michael. Holy Trinity. St. John the Baptist. St. Stanislas. Those are just the seven parish churches I can see that have been shuttered by the Diocese in the last few years. But for topography, and for demolition by-the-bye, I'd be able to see at least seven more.

No doubt, there are people working in Boston and New York and St. Louis office buildings who can see more recent ruins outside their windows.

But their more recent experience doesn't do much to lessen the shame of ours.

Monday, February 26, 2007

My last trip to that barbershop.

I asked Mrs. Curmudgeon what she thought, and she thought I was way past due. She reminded me that she had told me I was way past due last Saturday, too.

So I got in the car and drove over the river to get my hair cut in a quaint little working class barbershop. No real man really wants to go to some chain for a haircut...you know where the guy cutting your hair is a little too...stylish...and a little too friendly. No man wants to schedule weeks ahead of time and pay $40 for a foo-foo haircut where the whole place is a little too...stylish...either.

So I went to an old fashioned barbershop. I'd been there a couple of years before, and I figured it would be easier to get in and out of there than it would be to drive over to Kansas, and I had another stop north of the river anyways.

But apparently, the old guy in the white smock from the Norman Rockwell painting had since sold out to a couple of women at that barber shop I chose.

Well...ok. The line didn't look too long. And at least the TV wasn't blaring, and there wasn't an issue of Penthouse under the TV (like I noticed on my last trip to the quaint downtown barbershop I frequented a few times, years ago). It's not quite the same, having one's hair cut by a woman who wasn't wearing a white smock and didn't step out of a Norman Rockwell painting, but we must have some commerce in the world as it is...maybe.

Unfortunately, though, I wished the TV had been blaring. The two barber women were talking about their planned Mediterranian cruise, which was a week away. I wondered how they afforded such a vacation, at 12 bucks a head, because I certainly couldn't afford it. But that was none of my business.

And then the topic turned to a particular nude beach on the French Riviera. Apparently, in a whole shop of working-class folks, everyone had heard of this beach but me, and the conversation got lively--not disgustingly prurient, but lively. I wondered if I should walk out, but it was my turn in the chair, and so I hopped up, thinking surely they'd stop.

But they didn't. And I heard the woman cutting my hair tell the other woman that she had told her 16 year old daughter to "get over it and quit being so modest."

Wow.

Maybe a few years ago when I watched more television I wouldn't have been so surprised to hear such a thing come out of a mother's mouth. But believe me, I was surprised.

I did let her finish my head (where else on earth could I have gone to have it finished?) paid with a small, undeserved tip, and got the heck out of there without words, only a slight nod and an insincere smile. I probably should have said something, but I was at a loss. What does one say to such a mother?

I suppose an experience like this is good once in a while, particularly for the head of a family, so long as youngsters aren't in tow. Being in a group of people totally unlike you, socially and religiously, without the boundaries one has in a workplace (at least in my workplace) that keeps things from getting outright raunchy....being in a place like that serves as a bit of a reality check from time to time.

We forget, when we spend our social time with like-minded folks, and when our co-workers tend to practice at least a modicum of discretion, what inroads the Enemy has made, and why it's so important to protect our families from the world out there.

In the meantime, does anybody know of a Catholic barbershop around town?

Sunday, February 25, 2007

Thanks.

Thank you, whoever you are. You know why. I'm grateful and I look forward to the read.

--Curmudgeon.

Friday, February 23, 2007

Reminiscences

Permit be to revisit a couple of daydreams.

This was a fun post. Someday maybe I'll follow up with a chapter 2:

http://curmudgeonkc.blogspot.com/2006/07/massachusetts-interdict.html

I rather enjoyed this one, too:

http://curmudgeonkc.blogspot.com/2006/04/not-me.html

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Thursday Musings

1. What on earth happened to my Blogroll? It was out of date before. Now it's just flat gone. Must have happened when I converted my template to the newfangled Google one. Hmm. Didn't notice until I went to clean out my Evil Trad reference. Maybe I'll just steal Wolfie's blogroll.

2. Standing in line this morning, to get some protein in my after yesterday's fast and abstinence, I had a good look at Ronald McDonald (yes, I know, but it was the most acceptable option where I was. The mom-n-pop place nearby has closed, and the other quick place has too much foo). Anyways, back to Ronald...has he always been so effeminate? I never noticed when I was a kid.

3. Mark your calendars! That paragon of Catholic theology, Fr. Charles Curran, will be speaking for the "Topics to Go" leftish crowd on "Loyal Dissent" at 9:30am on Saturday, March 24, at All Souls Unitarian Universalist "Church," in the shadow of Jim Stowers' American Century towers. Anyways, will Charlie wear his clerics? Well, probably. Media might be there, ya know. I'm sure he still has a suit in his closet, and by now he's taken a lesson from Richard McBrien and Andy Greeley to always have a picture of you in your clerics above some heretical caption. Better to undermine the church with, my dear.

4. Was Ronald McDonald always so effeminate? I never noticed when I was a kid.

5. Finally, I'm Evil no more. Yesterday, I quit. After some time of chafing under certain directives imposed by the Evil Overlord, who has transformed the League of Evil Traditionalists from a fun ring of good natured (mostly) traddies, both indulters and "irregulars," into a boring ring where "docility" is de jure, I'd had enough. The League of Docile Traditionalists? Naw, I'll pass. You'll notice I'm no longer sporting the "Evil Trad" button. I still greatly admire Hilary and certain others in the Ring, (including, but not limited to, Mary and the newest member, Gillibrand) though.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Forget about the SSPX

Okay, over at Kansas City Catholic, he had over 50 posts on the SSPX situation (one of which was mine). I'll spare you my usual rant about the arrogance and uncharitableness of the typical SSPX critic, and the harm that such a person does...for now. Like it or not, whether you view them as damned schismatics or noble warriors for the faith, they're not coming into a regular situation until they see evidence that there's a new wind blowing in Rome. Some folks don't think they'll ever come back.

So, let's just all forget about them for a couple of years. After all, they've been around for over 30 years, and during most of that time, they've been largely ignored. Let's all go back to ignoring them, and in the meantime....

In two days, I'm told by the latest internet buzz, the Holy Father will be finally acknowledging the right of every priest to say the old Rite (I'm sure it's true....this time). He ought to simply follow it up by freeing not just the Mass, but also the faithful who are attached to it.

Let's give the FSSP, and the other canonically regular traditionalists what the SSPX wants. Eh? Your Holiness? Nevermind Fellay and Williamson. Call Fr. Berg in. Consecrate him a Bishop...yourself...in the ancient rite...right there before the tomb of St. Peter. Dismiss the Ecclesia Dei Commission altogether and set up a new office to moderate traddie Catholic concerns. Send Msgr. Perl to work as a teller at the Vatican Bank, and bring in somebody from OUR side. Maybe Msgr. Schmitz? Send Cardinal Ricard back to drink his Bordeaux, and appoint in Bp. Bruskewitz and Abp. Burke (and their foreign equivalents, if any) to serve on the new commission alongside Bp. Berg. Give the FSSP the authority to operate worldwide in their own chapels, and serve their own faithful, without the intermeddling, the taxing, and the politicking of the modernist chanceries. Make the ICRSS an institute of pontifical right and do the same thing for them. Consecrate Msgr. Wach, too.

And then just ignore the Society of St. Pius X for a couple of years.

And then, sometime in 2010 or 2011, when you can point to the FSSP, the ICRSS, and the many smaller institutes that have sprung up to operate under the pre-1965 regime, and you can demonstrate that Rome has lived up to its promises....the promises (by the way) your predecessor apparently made in 1988 to the founders of the FSSP (but didn't follow through on), and the promises you seemed to make to the Institute of the Good Shepherd just recently (but your own Ecclesia Dei Cardinal, Ricard, has already undercut ), maybe then you can call Fellay into your office, and say "Hey, look at this, Bernard. We're doing exactly as we promised. Look at Southern California. There are ten apostolates in Orange and LA, and I told Tod Brown and Roger Mahony to pound sand. Look at the Diocese of Linz. Traditionalists are the only ones left. Look at how Campos is spreading throughout Latin America. Look all over the place. It's what you've been asking for all these years. Now either be part of this or go into formal schism."

And then, having manifested your good faith, and having the traditionalist movement in full blossom....then the choice will be clear to them, and you'll be able to separate the faithful Catholics who (I believe) make up the bulk of the SSPX and their adherents from those who are truly outside the Church.

Or is such a suggestion somehow ridiculous?

Monday, February 19, 2007

British media faux pas; a bad report on the culture of death

One of my physician friends sent this over....
MUM GIVES BIRTH ..AFTER ABORTION
By Martyn Halle
EXTRA checks have been introduced at a hospital after a woman gave birth to a healthy baby - even though she'd had an abortion. Managers at Derby City General Hospital said additional measures have been implemented to prevent a repeat incident.

It seems that the British press isn't quite so savvy as ours. You'd never have the Wichita Eagle Beacon reporting on something so hideous as the birth of a child happening at Tiller's chop-shop on Kellogg, although one surmises that such a thing happens on a regular basis there, but is quickly . . . . corrected. My physician friend notes the quote at the end:
The local NHS trust carried out 1,301 abortions last year. A hospital spokesman said: "Although this happens rarely, a continuing pregnancy is a risk of this procedure. We take great care to minimise this."

I'm sure they do.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

I have a disgruntled fan!

Well, most of my old fans (maybe four out of the five of them) were disgruntled about one thing or another. Why else would they have followed my 15-month, 500-page saga of hair-tearing, windmill-tilting, and foaming at the mouth?

But there's one who's disgruntled about me....the Slackjawed Trad.

I kinda like him, so far.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

More on the Society of St. Pius X

Interesting, intelligent discussion re obedience and the traditional orders--with local implications--over at Kansas City Catholic. (No, I wasn't just surfing the net; Wolftracker told me about it personally).

I got my twocents in...perhaps late...but I got 'em in.

Oh, how I miss blogging!