Outside The Asylum

From Fr. Don, in the bulletin for St. Clare's Church in Portland, OR.  The Archdiocese is being attacked in the media for the information in this link.   I want to re-emphasize what I wrote about last week: the recent media articles about Catholic schools. I was personally at the meeting with the archbishop that got all this media storm started and I don’t expect any changes here at St. Clare School. In spite of what the media is trying to imply, the bishop is NOT asking us to go to a “classical education” model, nor is he asking us to make changes in our gender policy: we have always treated a person in a girl’s body as a girl and a person in a boy’s body as a boy. That’s not new and I don’t think it’s radical. St. Clare School is an outstanding school that loves and supports every student and we will continue our long-standing tradition of nurturing the spiritual and educational development of the whole child.

 This post was originally written about the Presidential race in the United States, but it could easily be adapted in many of its planks to fighting back against the pornocracy at any level of government. These are the party planks I want to see in a primary from *any* primary race.  You can easily tailor them to the jurisdiction you are running in. - Be pro-life to the point of supporting unwed mothers and heterosexual marriage for parents of children between conception and age 21.   - Eliminate bigotry against the unwanted and disabled in the forms of euthanasia, abortion, and transgender mutilation - Fund marital counseling services to reduce and eliminate divorce.   - Bring us a *workable* plan to start rolling back the Imperialistic financial aid and armed forces from the United States that the pornocracy has been using to push homosexuality, abortion, and birth control on the third world. - God's Children are Not for Sale; repurpose those troops to fr...

Aging hippies claim that the reason the sexual revolution happened was because love got replaced in American culture with righteousness. I disagree.  Love is an essential part of righteousness, and does not exist in the sexual revolution. Let us begin with "what is Love?" For the righteous man, there can be only one answer: love is willing what is BEST for other people. Thus sexual orientation, when not oriented to procreation, can never be love, but rather, abuse. Including heterosexual birth control and divorce, of course. Abuse is not love. This is not a reason to hate, it is a reason to mourn- mourn the loss of reason, the loss of the ideal agape love, that wills what is best for the other. And thus mourn the loss of righteousness itself, in favor of something far less.

 As we were cooking the Knights of Columbus Breakfast at St. Clare's in Portland on June 4th, our pancake flipper Scott Young brought up the Dodgers controversy for First Deadly Sin Month, and I was surprised to hear that many of the men there were unaware of the problem. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal published a few opinion pieces about this blatant anti-Catholic group being honored by Major League Baseball.  I must admit, I've been a bit cowardly myself about defending the faith on this topic, as I work for a corporation that is very vocal about First Deadly Sin Month- and rather anti-Catholic about it. However, there comes a time when as Catholic Knights, we must draw a line in the sand, and this is sufficiently non-partisan, even if some elements on both sides want to make it partisan, that I think we need to stand together as brothers, to stand up and just say NO. Here is the EWTN interview with the author of one of those opinion pieces published in the Wall Street J...

 I think I'm almost done with my personal blog for a while. I'm certainly almost done with pride month. This is what I'm posting on any social media post that promotes the First Deadly Sin. https://theridgewoodblog.net/the-meaning-of-pride/ And with that, I'm snoozing you for 30 days. See you in July when you have recovered from insanity.   Including myself.  Pride is evil.  Time for Fidelity and Humility instead.

Two recent articles. Imagineing a Heretic Cardinal and Imagining a Heretic President , dare to take a canon law view of excommunication- and why a Catholic cannot, should never, teach against the church on matters of faith and morals, particularily sins against the fourth, fifth, and sixth commandments. But as much as American heterodox Catholics like to break the fourth, fifth, and sixth commandment, often in ruin and distruction not just for themselves but for their families out to the 7th generation; this is NOT the unforgiveable sin you are looking for. The whole intent of excommunication is as a teaching tool- to inspire conversion back to the true faith. Even heretics deserve salvation; all are called to be Catholic in deed in Heaven, the only question is, are you willing to give up your favorite sins to answer the call?

 With Apologies to Heather Heyring. Do you dare to share? Here's a list of pandemic related conspiracy theories that turned out to be predictions that were true. Did you cancel somebody from your family over one or more of them? Perhaps it is time to apologize and create a new bridge. Rest of post is from Heather Heying, with a couple of links to her content. Consider these ideas, and who knows what could happen. Early in the pandemic we thought that masks were broadly effective. We were wrong. First, we spoke about the importance of masks, and as new evidence came in, our position changed. We spoke about that, too. We also thought that short, early, and strong lockdowns had a chance of stopping the spread of SARS-CoV2. We were wrong about that. I don’t think lockdowns could have worked, in part because I don’t think sufficient worldwide compliance was possible to stop the spread. And as much as I am disappointed to have landed here: I no longer trust my government to borrow a...

 On facebook, a friend asked if racism was ever correct.  My answer, is nuanced. Perhaps at one time long ago (racism is a *culturally evolved* behavior, after all, protection of the clan/tribe from invaders) but I would argue that increases in travel technology and war technology defeated all positive reasons for this behavior more than 800 years ago. Evolutionarily, skin color has no bearing on intelligence, honesty, trustworthiness, persistence, or any other human behavior. It's merely an indication that you have a large percentage of ancestors who spend time in an area of the world that got a certain average amount of sunlight a year. Nothing more than that. And since your recent ancestors (within the last 6 generations) could have been from anywhere it isn't even a good predictor of ethnic culture anymore.

 The Synod has released the Document for the Continental Stage. It's extremely problematic in one significant way- censorship of cisgenedered heteronormative lifelong relationships. It starts with paragraph 11 of the introduction, which looks like it came straight out of a secular HR department, using language that pretends to be inclusive, but which we find later on is radically EXCLUSIVE, with a dismissal of the concerns in Catechism of the Catholic Church 2300-2400 inclusive. The one small concession we have to my way of thinking is in paragraphs 17-19, but even here conservative cisgendered lay Catholics and priests faithful to the 2000 year old teaching are called "rigid" thinkers who are unwelcoming of change. Paragraph 28, in particular, abuses the word of God to pretend that "enlarging the tent" means "welcoming diversity"- but we already know from the secular world that diversity is only for the minority, majorities are not included in the div...

 Dead Name  is a new documentary staring parents of trans children.  I think I need to watch this.

  It is time for Democrats to join Republicans and say that BIRTH MATTERS. Pro-choicers have claimed for years that they care about babies after birth- now is the time to prove it. Let's see this bill guaranteeing medical care to the most helpless members of the human species pass with no opposition. Providing medical care to infants who are born alive and trying to survive after an attempted abortion should be something that we can all agree on. Tragically however, Oregon does not afford this basic protection of human life, thanks to pro-death malthusian eugenicists, and so Congress must act on its responsibility to enforce the guarantees of equal protection of ALL races and abilities under law. Let's put bigotry, racism, and ableism behind us and speak out strongly for the least of these. If we can't even do that, how can we possibly claim to be a moral nation? Please vote “Yes” on the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act when it comes before the House. The bill would m...

Health of the mother (including mental health):  Past the 21st week with modern healthcare, the only use of pregnancy is to save two weeks in the hospital for the child for every week the pregnancy continues.  If the mother's life is in danger, an emergency c-section is safer for both her and the child than either abortion or inducement. Health of the child- so you kill the child rather than treat it?  How does that help?  This one is just ableist bigotry from people who fear the disabled. Wealth of the parents- this is the biggest fallacy of all.  Children are an investment that pays off in ways you'll never expect. They are ALWAYS worth bringing into the world. Race of the parents- how despicable is it that some medical professionals would rather abort a child of the wrong color or ethnicity than allow it to be born?  This needs to be eliminated from the medical profession. Biological sex of the child (including intersex children, but quite often female c...

 In 1978, I was one of the first classes of First Communion to receive "Eucharist in the Hand" in the Catholic Church in Oregon. But 9 years earlier, did Pope Paul VI ban the practice? Was this actually a missing encyclical from Vatican II, widely ignored in the United States?  The encyclical linked to above, shows the synodal votes on the subject just after the close of the council: Three questions were asked of the bishops, and the replies received by 12 March 1969 were as follows: 1. Do you think that attention should be paid to the desire that, over and above the traditional manner, the rite of receiving holy communion on the hand should be admitted? Yes: 597 No: 1,233 Yes, but with reservations: 315 Invalid votes: 20 2. Is it your wish that this new rite be first tried in small communities, with the consent of the bishop? Yes: 751 No: 1,215 Invalid votes, 70 3. Do you think that the faithful will receive this new rite gladly, after a proper catechetical preparation? Yes:...