Another subtler sign ....

That, however S L O W L Y it is happening, the human element in the Church is regaining its sense of taste and proportion, and with that, perhaps its focus on "the True, the Good, and the Beautiful." You know, it's focus on God.

Vatican Slams New Pope Sculpture

Compare that to what's going on in the elsewhere....I saw something where they redid the head on a classic statue of Pope St. Pius X so that it had Bl. JPII's head. Can't find it to link right now, but you can search if you haven't seen it already.

C'mon Everybody

Gimme a little kumbaya?

Hey Stan Hazlett!

It's been a couple of months since you put a break in your show-trial disciplinary hearing for Phill Kline, but I'm still wondering....

Are you actually on Planned Parenthood's payroll, or are you just a volunteer?

See the complete list of LSN stories by Peter Smith on the Kline trial:

* 107-count criminal case begins against Planned Parenthood in Kansas* Phill Kline ethics trial: Day 1 – Live update* Kansas abortionists failed to report 166 potential cases of child rape: Phill Kline trial day 2* Phill Kline attorney makes witness sweat in Planned Parenthood ethics complaint case* DA’s diary snatching brings new twist to Phill Kline ethics trial, potential crime* Kansas Travesty: 249 child-age abortions over 3 years, just four sex abuse reports: Kline Hearings* Kansas judge testifies ‘probable cause’ existed to investigate criminal PP activity: Kline Hearings* Kline did not violate judge’s order in secret Planned Parenthood case: judge’s legal counsel* Planned Parenthood gambit: beat Phill Kline charges, defeat Live Action?* Former Tiller attorney combed CD of sensitive records from Kline investigation * The Phill Kline saga: Planned Parenthood protected, children forgotten, the prosecutor prosecuted* Day 6 trial: Kline protected sexual assault victim privacy, Tiller compromised patient privacy* Video: Kline says ‘those in power’ blocked Planned Parenthood, Tiller investigation* Witness: Phill Kline didn’t need/want adult patient names* Prosecutor tells investigator: we don’t have to accept report clearing Phill Kline* UPDATE: Kline tells ethics panel, ‘You are violating my due process rights!’ * ‘It is wrong!’: Phill Kline blocked from presenting full defense, calling all witnesses * Phill Kline: Kansas Supreme Court ‘obstructed’ child rape investigation to save Planned Parenthood* Phill Kline ethics trial adjourns for now: battle has cost him $200,000 says Kline

Obama bin Laden's "death"

Ok, the real important question here is, now that we've invaded yet ANOTHER country and headshot an unarmed bin Laden, and he's supposedly dead (again), and yee-haw, we won the war on "terrorism" (whatever the hell that is), CAN WE SEND THOSE MOUTHBREATHING, KNUCKLEDRAGGING TSA PERVERT STOOGES BACK TO THEIR OLD JOBS AT BURGER KING?
Gosh, what a wonderful country this would be if you could walk onto a plane again in the "land of the free" (insert guffaw here) without being accosted, stripped, sexually assaulted, and irradiated by those bastards.

Man, Hitler, or Stalin, or Mao or Pol Pot would have wet their pants with glee if they'd have been able to be as intrusive into the lives of their ordinary subjects as our government has managed to be.

Do me a favor, and when you fly next time, and some TSA goon expects you to answer politely when he demands you speak to him, ask him point blank when he's going back into the fast food industry.

Yeah, unchanging Truth .... except ....

.... for this German guy named Martin (maybe you've heard of him?) a few hundred years ago who decided to drop a few books from the scriptural canon, to finesse a few minor passages here and there, and ... oh yeah ... decided that only two of the seven Sacraments are really of divine origin!

OK. folks at Risen Savior Lutheran Church, Basehor, Kansas, I know you're Missouri Synod (which means that you're likely actual Christians, like some of your friends in the ELCA who've entered the New Age). Quit kidding yourselves. There's one true Church, and it didn't start in Wittenburg.

Oops, look what slipped through the pro-abort filters at the Associated Press AND Microsoft

Here's an interesting article (at least it was interesting as originally published at 10:02 am Central time today). It was actually written in a truthful, matter of fact style. To think that it got through the mainstream media filter at Associated Press, and that it was posted on the Yahoo! news site!

Obviously, it states the case against the butcher too plainly to last before it's totally rewritten or removed altogether from the wires, so I've printed it off and linking it. I may post it later if it changes or disappears:

Pennsylvania Abortion Doc Charged with 10 Counts of Murder.

In praise of illiteracy....

As I was desperately looking for comfort, rationalizaton and self-justification for myself and Mrs. Curmudgeon, what with the fact that more than half of the little Curmudgeons are illiterate, I stumbled upon a passage from an "old friend" from graduate school, Richard M Weaver:

What the defenders of present civilization usually mean when they say that modern man is better educated than his forebears is that he is literate in larger numbers. The literacy can be demonstrated; yet one may question whether there has ever been a more deceptive panacea, and we are compelled, after a hundred years of experience, to echo Nietzsche’s bitter observation: “Everyone being allowed to learn to read, ruineth in the long run not only writing but also thinking.” It is not what people can read; it is what they do read, and what they can be made, by any imaginable means, to learn from what they read, that determines the issue of this noble experiment. We have given them a technique of acquisition; how much comfort can we take in the way they employ it? In a society where expression is free and popularity is rewarded they read mostly that which debauches them and they are continuously exposed to manipulation by controllers of the printing machine…. It may be doubted whether one person in three draws what may be correctly termed knowledge from his freely chosen reading matter. The staggering number of facts to which he today has access serves only to draw him away from consideration of first principles, so that his orientation becomes peripheral. And looming above all as a reminder of this fatuity is the tragedy of modern Germany, the one totally literate nation.

--from Ideas Have Consequences (1948), pp. 13-14.

Take THAT, Barbara Bush!

Gaudete!

If you're having trouble finding something to rejoice about on this third Sunday of Advent (and you're not a member of this parish), then rejoice about this:

You didn't have to assist at a traditional Latin Mass with the "Prom Queen of Guadalupe" shimmering next to the Perfect Sacrifice.

I'm guessing it's one of those "enlightened" nuns who've kicked the habit

Nun Embezzles $850,000 from New York college.

Yep, it was a good guess! She's part of a "dynamic union" that is trying to "speak to our contemporary society and be a positive influence for change." In other words, the Obama campaign.

Compare the traditional habit to the getup of the current "Executive Director" of the federation.

George Tiller, abortion martyr?

Let's stop the hand-wringing and be frank: Yes, he deserved to die, and no, the cause wasn't served by having him die THAT way. The last thing we needed was some sort of diabolical martyrdom. If the blood of the [true] martyrs was the seed of the Church, we can only expect the Evil One to try and turn that on its head and use Tiller's blood as seed for his garden of wickedness. Obviously the shooter didn't read observation #3 in my post below on Lincoln and the pro-life movement.

Now, I'm not saying that I doubt the sincerity and passion of the guy who did it, no more than I doubted the sincerity and passion of Timothy McVeigh, nor I doubt the sincerity and passion of Guy Fawkes. But (as the evidence shows in the Gunpowder Plot, which happened at a most convenient time to consolidate public feeling behind King James and permit him to expand an ungodly government's control over the populace ... and the evidence may someday show in the Oklahoma City bombing, which happened at a most convenient time to consolidate feeling behind the Clinton Administration and expand an ungodly government's control over the populace) the coincidence of this finally happening just a few months into the Obama regime is uncanny. What better way to create good cover for an assault on people like us?

Certain shadowy operatives for the protestant regime found in Guy Fawkes a man whose anger at injustice overwhelmed his reason, and pushed him under the parliament building with kegs of explosives. It has been posited that certain shadowy operatives found in Timothy McVeigh a man whose anger at injustice overwhelmed his reason, and drove him to the OK Federal building with a Ryder truck of explosives. Some future historian (certainly not our coopted contemporary press) may learn that certain shadowy operatives encouraged this Tiller killer guy in a very similar way. The Obama Justice Department goons will be swarming the state to find evidence of a conspiracy, and I wonder if they'll be really careful not to find evidence of that sort.

So I guess we brace ourselves to feel the boot from the Daley machine thugs in Washington and vermin in Kansas politics (the ones that didn't follow Kathleen Sebelius to DC). I'm sure that pro-death shill Dan Watkins in Lawrence (who abandoned the Catholic faith to ride Sebelius's coattails and Tiller's money to the US Attorney nomination) can't wait to get confirmed into his office at the Dole Courthouse so he can ramp up the persecution.

Decree from Pope Roger on the Williamson Affaire

The Remnant linked today to an important announcement in the Observatore Silicano. From the Taj Mahoney in Los Angeles, Pope Roger (in a declaration signed by himself and two officials of the American Jewish Committee) decreed that Bp. Richard Williamson was banned from Catholic facilities in the Archdiocese. So what? I can't imagine any member of, or lay adherent to, the Society, much less Bishop Williamson, spending a whole lot of time on Pope Roger's property. The whole point and beauty of being SSPX in L.A. is that you can ignore Pope Roger!

But his Holiness further declared as follows:

"Holocaust deniers like Williamson will find no sympathetic ear or place of refuge in the Catholic Church, of which he is not—and may never become—a member," said a commentary signed jointly by Mahony, head of the nation's largest archdiocese, and two officials of the American Jewish Committee.

"The cardinal wishes to send a clear signal to the Jewish community that Williamson is not a member or even welcome in the Catholic Church until he renounces his views," said Tod Tamberg, spokesman for the archdiocese.

Hmm. So Bp. Williamson isn't a member of the Catholic Church and may never become one? It seems that crazy Kraut antipope Ratzinger has it all wrong, huh, your Holiness? We're so glad we have you could take time from your liturgical dancing at the annual Religious Education Conference (and your federal grand jury investigation) to declare what Bp. Williamson's status is and to do so jointly with two Jewish guys who themselves aren't members of the Catholic Church.

I guess this is just one of the next logical steps after setting up your own liturgical rules contrary to Roman authority...to declare for yourself who is and who isn't Catholic, even if you don't have territorial jurisdiction over such persons.

Then again, wouldn't it be cool if Bishops could do such things? I can't imagine it would be difficult to find some Bishop somewhere to declare Pope Roger to be forever and irreconcilably outside the Church.

Lincoln and the pro-life movement?

On this President's Day, observing (among other silly things) Lincoln's 200th birthday, shall we consider what the pro-life movement can learn from Abraham Lincoln?

1. Never let your movement be coopted by someone with a different agenda. The abolitionist movement gave itself over as a vehicle for the agenda of an ambitious man who, when it played well, decried the injustice of Negro slavery, but really was out to centralize power in Washington and replace a federation of sovereign states with a single central ... even imperial ... government, and who made it clear that if he could "save the Union" without freeing a single slave, he would do so.

Everything worked out fine for his cabal of generals and railroad owners and other industrial interests, which within a few years were pushing the Indians out of (or underneath) the western territories. But for the southern Negros, slave and free, the result was resentment and racial tensions which are a political factor to this day, and which contrast to the relative racial harmony which one finds in the dozens of countries Western Hemisphere which simply ended slavery peacefully, without an internecine war.

And today, we have seen the Bushie neocons use pro-life voters and pro-life election manpower to launch their own agenda of building a new empire of coerced global democracy. The pro-lifers should wonder if they've been had like the abolitionists, in that the neocon politicians and their war profiteering backers paid their lip-service and got what they want, but abortion on demand is still the law of the land, and the pro-lifers must now operate in the Obama backlash.

2. Read the Fine Print. It's commonly believed that Lincoln freed the slaves. Nonsense. He simply pulled a propaganda stunt by purporting to free slaves in unconquered Confederate territory. If you'll read the Emancipation Proclamation, you'll see he didn't free a single slave in territory Northern invaders controlled.

Likewise, pro-lifers today should pay attention to what really was written, in Roe and Doe, and their precedents, as well as what has happened since (and didn't happen) in Casey and other cases. Pro-lifers should also be sensitive to the federal Constitution. Justice Scalia is constitutionally correct, even as he's pro-life: this is not a federal issue. The way these cases are most likely to get rolled back is to establish that the subject of abortion, like almost all other regulatory and criminal matters, is properly the business of the states, which have plenary power.

If some post-natal person is chopped to pieces, it's a state crime, not a federal offense. So it should be. And so it should be, if some pre-natal person gets chopped to pieces.

Some dream case which rules a fetus has "personhood" will be no more sound Constitutionally than Roe or Doe (however morally sound). It will be a house built on the sand of inconsistent and incomprehensible due process jurisprudence, certain to be washed away by the next leftist wave. Pro-lifers should understand the constitutional issues, and be prepared to take their battle out of Washington to their own statehouses and state courts, where it properly belongs.

3. Don't turn monsters into martyrs. Before John Wilkes Booth's appearance, the balcony at the Ford Theatre was occupied by a man whose refusal to abide by the 10th Amendment to the Constitution caused over 600,000 deaths, who burned and looted massive swaths of his supposedly-beloved nation, and who destroyed a humane and thoughtful form of government that was founded on the Catholic notion of subsidiary (albeit by Protestants and Deists). With the pull of a trigger, Booth had suddenly created the secular saint we see in that hideous William Chester French sculpture.

And a few years ago, some loner idiots--not the organized movement--were popping off abortionists. Even if there's no sin against justice in using all necessary means, including deadly force, to stop the murder of an innocent, more harm than good is done when one raises such a vile person to to the altars of the pro-death crowd. Even for the organized movement that abhors such tactics, though, there's still a lesson here: Should we gain victories here and there, we must treat the vanquished pro-aborts with care, lest we cause a backlash and undo what we've accomplished.

And now back to the outrage...

Pennsylvania Judges lining their own pockets by sending teenagers to jail:

Using the government's monopoly on the use of force to intentionally and wrongfully imprisoning someone is something that deserves summary execution, in the Curmudgeon sentencing guidelines.

But of course, it's really not that big of a deal to the government---a few years at most:

Conahan, who along with Ciavarella faces up to seven years in prison, did not make any comment on te case.

The only hope is that they get sent to some prison where there's a once-innocent teenager, ruined by these bastards, with an axe to grind (yes, a literal axe).

But of course their buddies on the bench will look our for them. Maybe a few hours of picking up trash will be all they get.

But Curmudgeon how can you and a Christian say such things? How dare you suggest we (and the incarcerated kids) do anything but turn the other cheek! Christians are supposed to be merciful and forgiving!

I'm reminded of a scene from Henry V:

The mercy that was quick in us but late,
By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd:
You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy;
For your own reasons turn into your bosoms,
As dogs upon their masters, worrying you.

But of course, we aren't governed by a conscience any more...either a good one like Shakespeare's King Henry or a bad one. We're governed by the mob, and by the corrupt men who are its master. So we can expect these guys to get off with a weekend of picking up trash all the same. It will be curious to hear if this gets meaningful attention in this age where government is good.

On the other hand, it would be delightful if perhaps we could imprison 1,000 to 2,000 judges for parking tickets, minor offenses and arrogant behaviour. Turnabout's fair play!

A little break from the outrage....

We're about to go on vacation next week. We've been having trouble with the cassette adapter that we use to get our iPod sound into the radio in our (pre-iPod ready) van. It's cirtical on trips, because otherwise we're stuck listening to Western Kansas radio twang or lugging our CD library with us (if we can find our CD's, of course) We thought it was a problem with the casette adapter, so Mrs. Curmudgeon bought a new one at Target.

$18. Ouch.

Mrs. Curmudgeon suggested that we test to be sure it's the adapter and not the cassette player itself. How? I asked. She suggested I put a tape in and see if the player worked normally.

"Do you have a cassette?" she asked

"Umm of course I do...somewhere."

So I went down to the basement and pulled open a box that has been sealed for years. You know...a box containing remnants of our former worldly life.

The first cassette I pulled out was Van Halen II. One I didn't particularly enjoy even when I bought it in high school, and one which Mrs. Curmudgeon had never even endured. We agreed that it would be no loss if the cassette deck ate it. It was serving no purpose other than waiting for a more dramatic end in an old fashioned book-burning or TV-smashing party.

Well sure enough, there was a problem with the deck. It's stuck.

It won't play...God is merciful. The Curmudgeons wont be listening to "Dance the Night Away" over and over on a 15 hour drive. But it just keeps clicking and clicking.

I could not get the tape out. So, I got on the internet, looking for ideas.

As I searched, I ran across this:

$10
Metro on Craigslist. Project car, anyone? - Fuel Economy ...
Radio has "William Shatner Christmas carols" cassette tape stuck in deck, enjoy. ... must tow (preferably on a trailer with a solid deck and sides to avoid ... MPG - 2006
Toyota Corolla automatic. Latest project: pedal power bike 12v ...ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/10-metro-craigslist-project-car-anyone-671.html - 58k - Cached - Similar pages

Up until that point, I couldn't imagine anything worse than a minivan with Van Halen II stuck in it. Now I can. An '06 Corolla with Captain Kirk singing "Silent Night."

Beam me up, Scotty!

USCCB Collections Plan - sample letters

In yesterday’s post, I raised the issue of the many, many national special collections that the USCCB and our local Bishops subject us to, and I explained how and why we tradition-minded Catholics can be heard by our own Bishop and the USCCB about the importance of spreading access to the traditional Latin Mass. I hope you’ll spread the word (not for promoting my blog…I could care less…but for promoting our common cause).

In that post I went so far as to outline a strategy that readers can use part or all of, and I’ve already received a couple of comments, and a couple of email requests, for sample letters to use in the campaign. So see below, and remember that what matters here isn’t getting into an argument, but in helping the larger Church and getting your Bishop and the USCCB National Collections Office to start thinking about helping our fellow Catholics who are attached to tradition in less-fortunate parts of the world.

Sample Letters:
For the Parish Collection:
(remember to skip this one on subsequent collections if your parish returns it to you the first time. We don’t need to tick off our own pastors and collection counters)

This special collection contribution is to be used solely for the [support of traditional Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form) apostolates in Central and Eastern Europe]. Please forward it to the diocese and the USCCB subject to that restriction. If you are unable to do so, please return it to me.

For the Diocesan Letter
(send this one every time unless you are specifically told not to by the Bishop)

JMJ
Date/Traditional Feastday

Most Rev N. [Cardinal] N.
Bishop/ Archbishop of X
Chancery Address
Chancery City, State/Province

Your Excellency (Your Grace, Your Emminence):

Enclosed please find a check in the amount of $____ which I am sending for the diocesan special collection for [the Church in Central and Eastern Europe], which I was unable to contribute in our parish collection last Sunday. I am mindful of our duty to support the wider Church beyond our own parishes and communities, and I want to do so in a way that directs my contribution to an important apostolate that is often neglected by the larger Church.

Therefore I am directing that my contribution be used solely for the support of an a traditional Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form) apostolate in Central and Eastern Europe, and for no other purpose.

Please note this purpose as you forward my contribution to the appropriate recipient, in accordance with Canon 1267. If you cannot comply with my these directions, please return the check to me.

You are in my prayers, and in those of my family.

Sincerely Yours,

K.C. Curmudgeon

For the USCCB special collections office
(each special collection has its own director...imagine that bureaucracy. These directors are priests...some even Jesuits. If you want to send one directly to that collection's director, locate the name at this web page. Otherwise, send it to the head honcho below, Mr. Markey)

JMJ
Date/Traditional Feastday

Mr. Patrick Markey
Executive Director, Office of National Collections
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
3211 4th Street NE
Washington, D.C. 20017

Dear Mr. Markey:

Enclosed please find a check in the amount of $____ which I am sending for the national special collection for [the Church in Central and Eastern Europe], which I neither my parish nor my diocesan collections office was able to accept. I am mindful of our duty to support the wider Church beyond our own parishes and communities, and I want to do so in a way that directs my contribution to an important apostolate that is often neglected by the larger Church.

Therefore I am directing that my contribution be used solely for the support of an a traditional Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form) apostolate in Central and Eastern Europe, and for no other purpose.

Please be sure that my contribution reaches an appropriate recipient, in accordance with Canon 1267. If you cannot comply with these directions, please return the check to me as soon as possible.

Sincerely Yours,

K.C. Curmudgeon

Finally, if the USCCB bureaucracy has fails you, go direct:

(Find an organization with offices here in the US and apostolates in the appropriate place if you can, especially if you want the tax deduction. I’ll make some suggestions in another post.)

JMJ
Date/Traditional Feastday

Contact Name
Organization Name
Address
City State ZIP

Dear X:

Enclosed please find a check in the amount of $____ which I am sending for the support of one of your organization’s apostolates in Central or Eastern Europe. [Here mention the specific apostolate if you know of it]

During the national special collection for Central and Eastern Europe in February, I attempted to make a contribution targeted to traditional Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form) apostolates there, but neither my diocesan Bishop nor the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Collections Office was willing to accept my contribution.

Therefore, I am sending it to you, knowing that you have apostolates in [______ ]. Please contact me if you have any difficulty in honoring my directives.

We are grateful for the work your institute does here in the US and in Central and Eastern Europe, and you and your priests are in our prayers.

Sincerely Yours,

K.C. Curmudgeon

cc: Your local bishop & the USCCB Collections Person you contacted above.

USCCB Collections -- A plan of action!

Many of us who are in canonically-regular traddie communities are burdened with almost two dozen extra envelopes in our collection packets over the course of the year. These are "national" collections that are mandated by the Bishops who tow the USCCB boat, and in a couple of cases, they may just be extra diocesan slush fund collections. A PDF file listing the national collections can be found HERE.

They are:
For the Church in Latin America (January)
For the Church in Eastern and Central Europe (Early February/ around Ash Wednesday)
Rice Bowl (mid-February)
For Black and Indian Missions (late February)
Bishops' Overseas Appeal (mid March)
For the Holy Land (Good Friday)
Priesthood - Present and Future (mid-April)
Home Missions Appeal (late April)
Catholic Communications Campaign (mid May)
Peter's Pence (early July)
Mission Coop (mid July)
Catholic University of America (September)
World Mission Sunday (October)
The [notorious] Campaign for Human Development (mid-November)
Retirement Fund for Religious (mid-December)

Most of us ignore these envelopes, because we know we'd be contributing to just another high-overhead USCCB operation and semi-pagan, commie Maryknollers at best, or at worst (in the case of the Campaign for Human Development) directly supporting political organizations which undermine the Church. We think the Bishops and their diocesan and national bureaucacies are just after our checkbooks, as it seems they are. We know that if we give to these collections, even the evil Campaign for Human Development, our pastors and chaplains are bound to transmit the offerings to the diocese (Canon 1266).

But here's a quandry. We really can't just not give anything outside our parish...ever. We do have an obligation to support the wider Church...not just our own community. Many of us do just that...by supporting faithful religious orders, for instance. But is that enough? Canon 1262 provides that "The faithful are to give support to the Church by responding to appeals and according to the norms issues by the conference of bishops."

Now let's acknowledge that checkbooks can be wielded as effective weapons. Wealthy leftist individuals and wealthy leftist foundations often use the checkbook as their weapon of choice. While we can't perhaps write such big checks and wield such big weapons as these guys (they've got .45s; we've got .22s), we can make ourselves heard using our checkbooks.

Think about it. If an average Bishop gets an angry letter from a traddy about waste and corruption and modernism and special collections, what will he do? He'll probably never see it, because his secretary will screen it. If he does see it, he'll probably ignore it. If you're lucky, he might dictate a curt reply to you ... but that's only if you're lucky. I tried that once myself, complaining to Bishop Finn's predecessor about the irresponsible and downright heretical activities that were being funded by the Diocesan appeal. Instead of assuring me he'd clean things up (which I expected him to do...heh...heh), Bishop Boland practically told me to go find a parish in Kansas and hassle Abp. Kelleher instead.

But what if you send the Bishop a check? Even a small check? What will he do then?

If you send a Bishop a check, he'll probably cash it,and he'll probably read the letter it came in...even if it's for $25 or so. In fact, he has an obligation to cash it. Canon 1267, sec. 2, provides that offerings "cannot be refused except for a just cause..."

And what if you send the Bishop a check with specific conditions as to how it's to be used? What will he do them?

If you send a Bishop a check with conditions, he'll have to use it for the purpose stated in giving the gift, or if he can't, he'll return it. Canon 1267, sec. 3, provides that "Offerings given by the faithful for a certain purpose can by applied only for that same purpose."

So what's your point?

If we want to be heard in the matter of all these special collections (or if you want to make a point about anything else), you can use your checkbook and canon law to be heard...even by the Bishop.

Nobody notices an envelope that's dropped into a trash can at home. Nobody even notices an envelope that's put into the basket empty (except perhaps the poor old guys that are counting the collection while you're enjoying coffee and doughnuts after Mass). But if there's a check in the Chancery or the USCCB office...eventually someone at the Chancery or the USCCB office has to deal with it.

How would you do it?

The method I'll propose will involve some stamps. You'll have to be willing to spend a couple bucks per collection on stamps, as well as be willing to put out $20 or $50 or more in a special collection.

• Step 1: Write a check and a very short note (not a long missive...less than 50 words) stating that you want your contribution to this collection to be used solely for X, and if it cannot be, it should be returned to the donor. In the case of the Latin America collection, "X" should be "solely for the support of traditional Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form) apostolates in Latin America." For the "mission" collections, "X" would be "solely for the support of the missionary activities of institutes regularly providing the traditional Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form) to to those they serve." For the Catholic Communications Campaign, it should be "solely for the communication of information and resources on the traditional Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form)." You get the idea. The only problem is the Campaign for Human Development...I'll cover that later.
• Step 2: Put that check and note in your special collection envelope and drop it, like an obedient Catholic, into the basket at the Offertory on the appointed Sunday.
• Step 3: Wait for your chaplain, pastor or parish office manager and call to complain that you're making their job harder, and then have them either forward the check and the note to the Chancery or return it to you so you can direct it to the Chancery yourself. If you get the check back from the parish, skip Step 3 on future collections and go directly to Step 4.
• Step 4: If your chaplain, pastor or parish office manager returns it to you, then mail a check for the same amount, payable to the Archdiocese, directly to your local Bishop with a polite short letter stating that you want to contribute to the collection, but you also want to make sure your gift is targeted to what you see as a critical need in the Church. Don't go beyond that (except perhaps in the case of the Campaign for Human Development, which I'll address below). Don't mention your own community or your own priest. Don't criticize the new Mass or the Vicar General's toupe. Don't even say you're a traddie (trust me...they'll know). Just keep the message focused on how they're to use your check. If you want, you might ask them to confirm with you that the check will be properly directed.
• Step 5: If the Bishop's office calls you (which is unlikely), then be prepared to state your reasons why you did what you did (here, use less candor and more prudence than you would with your own priest, except in the case of the Campaign for Human Development, where you can be candid). Just state that there's lots of money flowing to people who have the New Mass (Ordinary Form), and you want to make sure that those attached to the Extraordinary Form get something, too, because you worry that they might otherwise be neglected by the USCCB. Remind them that it's your right and their obligation under Canon 1267. But I would recommend that you not use the opportunity to bash the new Mass or comment on the Vicar General's toupe. Save that for another letter on another day.
• Step 6: if the Chancery returns the check to you, then send a check directly to the USCCB. I think you can probably get the address from one of the collection links above. The same principles apply to the accompanying letter.
• Step 7: if the USCCB returns the check to you, then send a new check in the same amount directly to an appropriate group (in the case of the Latin American collection, the Campos prelature would be a good one). In the letter, let the recipient know that this is a check you tried to give through a national collection, but that your local Bishop and the USCCB refursed to accept it for the purpose you intended. Copy your local Bishop and the USCCB collections office on the letter.
• Step 8: be happy that you helped the traditional Catholic cause by (a) getting money to a traddie group who can do some good with it and (b) letting the Bishop and the USCCB collections office that you're out there, and you're not stingy...just focused.

What about the Campaign for Human Development?

As for the Campaign for Human Development, I wouldn't use the above strategy at all. In this one case, I would suggest simply returning your empty CHD envelope to the Bishop about a month before the collection, with a polite letter stating that you cannot in conscience provide support to organizations which are enemies of the faith (perhaps enclosing a short, sober article you find online which details CHD wickedness). State that you're giving $x to a specific worthy organization that actually relieves poverty (outside your own parish or community) in lieu of giving anything to the CHD. Also ask him to stop permitting the CHD collection to be made in his diocese.

How's that for a curmudgeonly strategy for dealing with special collections? I'm open to refinements; please comment below, and forward this idea to all your friends (I don't have many readers now that I've quit blogging, so I could use some help disseminating the idea).

If this idea catches on, I'll try to rough up some sample letters for the steps above.

What's important at the USCCB?

When visiting the USCCB website for information on another post, I couldn't help but notice the LEAD article on the website. Now at a time when lots of important things are going on that will strengthen Holy Mother Church (the potential regularlization of the SSPX and the potential reunion of a large group of Anglicans), the USCCB won't have any of it. Instead, it features this:

Ch’an/Zen Catholic Dialogue Spreads ‘Welcome Table’ at Retreat

(I linked the permanent article, not the front page, above because I assume that it will all change in a day or two when they come up with some other goofy thing to put up.

"Rev Victoria" and "Rev Heng" must be loving all the attention they're getting, as must Sister Mary Ann (Sisters of Charity---surprised she's not an IHM or and RSM). I see we had a Bishop there, too. Bishop Wester of Salt Lake City. Well, I supppose Bp. Wester is used to hanging around people with some really strange religious beliefs, given where he's from.

Aren't you glad our Bishops are paying for this stupid stuff....excuse me...this EVIL stuff....while we're closing parishes and schools and convents around the country?

Sign me up!

The Regensburger Catholic theology professor Wolfgang Beinert classifies the SSPX as "reactionary and anti-democratic".

Dow Jones with 15 minutes 'til the bell.

We're gonna spread happineeeeeeeeessssss! We're gonna spread free-ee-dom!
Obama's gonna fix it...Obama's gonna change the world!

^DJI 3:43pm ET 7,872.71 DOWN 398.16 DOWN 4.81%

Seems the stimulous package he rammed through the Senate today is having an effect.

Eurotrash? Euroclerics?

Continually amazed at the nonsense coming from European Bishops these days. Gillibrand at CathCon is doing yeoman service translating it on the fly.

Now we see the fruits of Vatican II, eh? These guys make even Cardinal Roger Mahoney sound Catholic!