Month: June 2019

Cardinal Burke on Ristgate: “We seem in the Church to have fallen into a kind of totalitarian mentality.”

First, “Ristgate” refers to the papal punishment of Professor John Rist, a Catholic historian and philosopher who challenged Cardinal Cupich during a lecture in Cambridge England in February, 2018, about Pope’ Francis’ “revolution of mercy” which Cupich had just defended as a “paradigm shift” in Catholic practice. Rist more recently joined 90 other scholars in a letter accusing Francis of heresy.
“This is hardly surprising,” says Fr. Hunwicke, commenting on Cardinal Burke’s comment, “considering the papolatrous uebersuperhyperultrapapalism of the ideological cronies who support the Bergoglianist errors.” (Big words offered humorously refer to granting authority to the pope that is not rightly his.

It’s a severe criticism of Pope Francis as a pope exceeding his remit — as severe as you will find, and considerably more intriguing than most criticism.

Hunwicke continues: “Indeed, we . . . actually have so ‘fallen’!!”

Totalitarianism, he says, “has often (. . . always?) in so many cultures been accompanied by the unhealthy, unmanly adulation of the Dear Leader.” (Emphasis added.)

But “totalitarianism eventually cracks. Readers will remember those . . . video clips of the late [Romanian communist dictator] Ceausescu suddenly realising that the crowd spread out beneath his balcony are shouting against him rather than, as they had . . . been drilled to do, in mindless adoration.

“This one will crack, too. . . .” Hunwicke said.

“One detail intrigues me,” he added. “After the fall of totalitarianisms, the custom is that all of a sudden everybody turns out to have been a secret member of the Resistance! In 1945, this proved, miraculously, to be true of every single Frenchman/woman.”

And then he makes reference to the Chicago archbishop, unrelenting defender of the Pope: “Will even dear little Cupich turn out in the next pontificate to have been (behind the scenes, of course) a relentless and indefatigable opponent of Bergoglianism?”

Rist has more recently been banned from access to pontifical (Vatican-backed) universities, including one in Rome where he was turned away from the parking lot without notice and told he could no longer help a student with his dissertation.
He had joined the other scholars in signing a letter issued publicly in April accusing the Pope of heresy.
Fr. Hunwicke was one of the signers, as was Dr. Peter Kwasniewski — who, FYI, will be speaking on June 14 in Chicago at the regular Catholic Citizens of Illinois luncheon at the Union League Club.

WANT Summer General Meeting — West Andersonville Neighbors Together

Had to leave a trifle early last night, but caught a lot that was very good. First, our new alderman, Andre Vasquez, was a huge success, and deservedly so. The questions of course were all about potholes and flooding etc. He was on top of every issue raised. Perfect delivery, even when asked about a political reality by an older person (am a bit sensitive about that) who allowed she was not “political” and he answered with crystal clarity and nary a note of condescension. How good that was.

On other issues, as I say, he was never at a loss, demonstrating wide, detailed knowledge that I found near astounding. Especially as he got it on his own with help of his staff. Quick study, he, which he has to be in view of his having spoken to his predecessor not at all since their last debate. Wow. No help from the grizzled veteran, which I found slightly sickening.

He went on a good half hour, maybe 45 minutes, got polite applause when introduced (and offered a chair, to which no thanks), and hearty applause at the end. The West Andersonville (W.A.N.T.) regular meeting followed, with intelligent complaining from the floor and response from the five-member board sitting in front of us in card chairs, 35 or so, I’d say. It was a place where you could learn a lot about the ‘hood — Foster to Bryn Mawr, Ravenswood to Clark — where the lady of our house and I have lived four years.

Moved from Oak Park, where I was a hound for meetings, mostly in the audience, often reporting on in the local paper and on my blog. Never sat through a better one than last night at Ebenezer Lutheran on Foster. Very encouraging all in all.

In Springfield, the same old crap | The Barbershop: Dennis Byrne, Proprietor

How much stuff hit the fan? Lots.

Including:

  • Illinois drivers will be left with the second highest total gas tax burden??in the nation as lawmakers voted to double the state’s??gas tax to 38 cents from 19 cents a gallon. This would??cost the average driver about $100 more per year. Additional??fee increases include those on??car registrations,??electric car registrations, motor homes, parking garages and diesel fuel.
  • The budget relies on a number of gimmicks such as fund sweeping, overly optimistic assumptions that may not materialize, and one-time revenue sources from areas such as sports gambling licenses
  • Lawmakers filled the budget with millions in wasteful spending for items such as decorative streetlights, construction for parks and gazebos, and exposing ???youngsters to the game of golf.???

Not to mention:

A proposal by Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi to reform the crooked and broken Cook County method for assessing commercial buildings failed after an??onslaught against it by special interests.

With governor one of theirs, the ruling party runs with it . . .

Enclosed in Silence: Cistercians’ Life of Prayer Draws Millennial Women

Something there is (in Wisconsin) that doesn’t like the world, or has a new way of showing it does like the world, enough to put all chips on living in or near it as something good for all concerned. (Something like that.)

As other religious communities face declining vocations and the need to downsize as a result, the Wisconsin Cistercians attribute their growing membership to young women seeking to live radically for God in a religious vocation, together with the community’s simple, centuries-old silent life of prayer and manual work. In another part of the Madison Diocese, set in the countryside where weather extremes can sometimes feel penitential, the community plans to build their new monastery that incorporates beauty, Cistercian architectural principles and modern environmental practices.

All in for prayer and the simple life for these ladies.

Chicago City Hall’s Latino Caucus Moves Left | WBEZ

Main target the demon gentrification,

[Ald. Roberto] Maldonado [new chair of caucus] identifies gentrification as the biggest threat facing Latinos in Chicago. ???We are being pushed out at a very fast pace,??? Maldonado said.[Biggest threat? Neither gangs nor crime nor bad schools?] On the Northwest Side, homes in the Puerto Rican stronghold of Humboldt Park are selling for over $1 million dollars as homeowners flip three-flats into single family homes. Wicker Park and Logan Square, once Hispanic strongholds, are now majority white.

And this threatens Hispanic incumbents with loss of elections?

On the Southwest Side, Pilsen has become a nationally recognized neighborhood. [There’s your problem, loss of
anonymity!] That has created a real estate boom [stop it! now!] that???s now spreading to adjacent historically Mexican working class neighborhoods.

???Some of our communities are being completely gentrified,??? Maldonado said. ???We need to stop that, we need to slow it down.??? [Which? Stop it or slow it down! Hey, it’s political
speechmaking.]

Ah socialism.

But wait. Neighborhoods are changing? Egad. As if it’s not probably the oldest internal migration pattern in the city’s history. But this time it’s bad, says the head of the Latino Caucus, flexing its muscles in this brave new world that has come upon us. [It’s
our moment, says Ald. Andre Vasquez of the 40th.]

Wow. people are making money out of building new and better housing or rehabbing the old to make them newer and better. We can’t have that. There oughta be a law. Rent control? Not mentioned these days. It drove NYC’s housing shortages sky high, to provide one example.

Nope. Now it’s government-mandated affordable housing, worthy of immediate close scrutiny because it interferes with the free market and like many such programs makes matter worse, as argued in this 2016 LA Times opinion piece. And discussed frequently at this site.

All in all, if an alderman says he loves to give you things, check it out.