Month: June 2023
SAINTS JOHN AND PAUL (362 A.D.) Martyrs and what they can tell us about going along to getting along and what happens when you don’t
They lost their heads over their faith. In their own back yard.
[They] were brothers and officers of the Roman army in the days of Constantine the Great, and life was good. But their preferments and rewards for loyal service were about to go away.
New man in charge, Julian the Apostate raised a Christian, had returned to the cult of idols and was attempting to re-establish it in the empire. dropped all that and embraced paganism and would restore it to its former ascendancy. The brothers resigned their position in the palace, seeing many who went along with this and prospered.
Not for us, they said. The emperor tried to win them back. Gave them ten days to think it over. They spent the time giving everything they had to poor people. The emperor sent the imperial officer Terentianus, who brought “a little idol of Jupiter for their adoration.” He found them in prayer. They said no and in the middle of that night were decapitated in their own garden, secretly because the emperor feared their execution might cause a sedition.
He instigated a rumor that they had been exiled but demons used people to broadcast their martyrdom, including the officer’s son, and it was only after the father prayed at the martyrs’ tomb that the child was liberated. This so impressed him that he became a Christian, with all his family, and wrote the history we have reported.
The brothers? By their renouncement of favors and their heroic resistance, they purchased never-fading glory, more than the emperor could provide in a million years, figuratively speaking.
Their basilica
. . . sits atop one of the seven hills of ancient Rome and since the fifth century, their names have been included in the Roman Canon of the Mass. Their feast day is celebrated on June 26, the date of their martyrdom.
Such a little thing the officer asked, just worship this little idol and we’re outa here. Nothing would have happened here. Was that too much for the emperor to require? Turns out it was, and we 21st-century worshipers can pray these days,
O Almighty God, let our joy be doubled on this feast of the victory of blessed John and Paul, for they were made true brothers by sharing the same faith and the same martyrdom. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with God the Father almighty and the Holy Spirit, world without end.
Amen.
The Homosexual Infestation of the Catholic Church. The predominance of homosexuality within the ranks of Catholic clergy is a chief cause of the clerical sex abuse crisis and it fundamentally undermines the Church’s core mission
Sunday sermons, weekday observations
The Catholic bishops of Spain released a clerical sex abuse report at the beginning of the month, based on testimony from nearly a thousand abuse victims and revealing a staggering 728 predators, over 99 percent of whom were male. The report also revealed that nearly 82 percent of victims were male.
This statistic shouldn’t be shocking, as it is consistent with clerical sex abuse reports across the globe, demonstrating that the chief and even the root issue behind clerical sex abuse is homosexuality.
Oh?
In 2004, the U.S. Catholic bishops commissioned a now-infamous report from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, which reported that 81 percent of clerical sex abuse victims were male. In France, a landmark clerical sex abuse report released in 2021 reported that over 330,000 children were abused by priests and other diocesan employees and noting that 80 percent…
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Japanese get trained in ‘Hollywood’ smiles as masks slowly come off
TOKYO, June 5 (Reuters) – In one of Keiko Kawano’s recent classes, more than a dozen Tokyo art school students held mirrors to their faces, stretching the sides of their mouths upward with their fingers: they were practising how to smile.
It’s not something most people would think to pay for but Kawano’s services as a smile instructor are seeing a surge in demand in Japan, where mask-wearing was near universal during the pandemic.
Himawari Yoshida, 20, one of the students taking the class as part of her school’s courses to prepare them for the job market, says she needed to work on her smile.
“I hadn’t used my facial muscles much during COVID so it’s good exercise,” she said.
Kawano’s company Egaoiku – literally “Smile Education” – has seen a more than four-fold jump in demand from last year…
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VP of blather speaks truth out of turn
Oh to know this about Joe and remember, he has a history . . .
This fellow has Biden?s number:
It takes years of yoga to learn the posture necessary for speaking clearly with all your feet in your mouth. But for some the skill comes naturally, which brings us to Joe Biden.
Those who saw Dick Cheney as an evil genius crouched silent in the shadows of the Oval Office like Nosferatu must enjoy Biden’s high profile: he’s out there daily with the sunny enthusiasm of Ronald McDonald opening another store.
And, quite often, telling everyone to have a Whopper.
It?s James Lilek in NY Post. Can?t remember when I?ve read anything that good in a Chicago newspaper, unless Kass and before him Royko. Any other suggestions? I might have missed someone.
Explaining one of the ?gaffes,? he says:
What Biden meant to say, in his puckish way, that they misunderstood what an economy is, and how it works. Piling up a mountain…
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Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times suppress news of national scandals
Wirepoints has it:
Strong evidence has led the majority of Americans to see four recent, national scandals. Even the most biased of leading mainstream media have reported at least something on the stories – The New York Times, NPR, Washington Post and CNN, among others – albeit belatedly and distortedly.
But if you relied on the Chicago Tribune or Chicago Sun-Times for news, you’d know nothing about these:
- Nine members of Joe Biden’s family, including some grandchildren, got paid a total of over $9 million by foreign entities, almost certainly as part of a massive influence peddling operation centered on Joe, which he repeatedly and dishonestly claims he knew nothing about . . .
Etc. etc. etc. . . . In re: Hunter Biden laptop, Durham report, the Censorship Industrial Complex (?)
The Tribune and Sun-Times have suppressed essentially all coverage on any of that, the sole exception I…
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Blithe Spirit 