L.A.’s Black Spoilers

Nicole Mokeme learned the hard way that the inevitable endgame of progressive prosecution is “black dude kills someone.”

Apparently, she didn’t see it coming.

Quite good here on the late Avery Dulles SJ . . .

“Out of control and he’s not in command.”

The man who masterminded both successful presidential campaigns for former President Obama, strategist David Axelrod, has harsh words for the current Commander-in-Chief saying, “There is this sense that things are kind of out of control and he’s not in command.” Appearing on CNN’s “The Lead with Jake Tapper” Thursday, he added, “so, you know, this is a very, very fraught environment for him right now.”

Took a house to fall on him.

Yes indeed!

Kathleen McDonnell writes about the pleasures and science of cold-water swimming: “For centuries, claims that cold-water swimming improved human health and well‐being were based largely on folk wisdom and anecdotal accounts. That began to change in the late eighteenth century with the work of Scottish physician James Currie, who used cold water in the successful treatment of a contagious fever in Liverpool. In 1797, he published an influential pamphlet, Medical Reports on the Effects of Water, Cold and Warm, as a Remedy in Fevers and Other Diseases, that contains the first English record of clinical observations using a thermometer.

My regular is cold shower. Gets the day started right.

Abort it, she says.

I gather from the recent hysteria that the Supreme Court has just ordered all 72 million American women of childbearing age to get pregnant and carry the baby to term.

This is big news, if true. I’m not at all surprised that every female journalist, activist and politician is threatening to burn down the Supreme Court over its decision last Friday in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

On the other hand, even accepting the abortion cult’s belief that members of the weaker sex are incapable of either keeping their knees together or mastering birth control, I still only count about 100,000 women who won’t have easy access to abortions without Roe v. Wade.

. . . which are mah-velous.

And announces condign sentence.

Fr. Treco, in the dock for heresy and/or schism, objected to Bishop Lopes’ “false, misleading or accusatory” comments about his homily and said nothing he had said called for excommunication.

Bishop L. said Fr. T. had retracted none of his “erroneous positions” and had spoken rather of his “candor” and willingness to undergo “instruction and correction,” failing “to address the heart of the problem.”

He has accepted only those doctrines and practices approved prior to the 1960s, the bishop said.

Not exactly.

Fr. T. had said,

We can choose to teach the true Faith, and only the true Faith to our children! In this regard, a helpful rule of thumb would be to return to those theological and spiritual resources that were approved by the Holy See prior to the revolution of the 1960s!”

In any case, the preacher had argued for his position at length in a long sermon full of sweeping statements — but also offering historical details which the bishop ignores, such as actions taken and comments made by Vatican 2 popes.

Bishop L. accused him of failing to accept Vatican 2 “as an expression of the authentic and universal magisterium of the Church.”

He’s correct. Fr. T. had mounted a frontal attack on Vatican 2, even recommending to his people, “We can Resist!”

Furthermore, he had implicated every Vatican 2 pope:

[Y]ou believe that the current crisis in the Church has been caused by Pope St. John XXIII, Pope St. Paul VI, Pope John Paul I, Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI, and Pope Francis who, in your words [5] all have denied Christ and [6] set aside the mandate given by Christ to St. Peter. . .

Oh my. Where can a bishop go with this stuff? It may not incite the faithful, but it incites bishops. Fr. Treco can use an editor.

Bishop L. said his “personal statement” about Vatican 2 “does not sufficiently reaffirm” his Profession of Faith taken in 2014 prior to being ordained a Catholic priest the next year and “intentionally calls into doubt the supreme magisterium of the Second Vatican Council….”

Score one for the bishop, who himself seems to be laying it on a bit thick. It was famously a “pastoral council” in which nothing was “defined,” as councils ordinarily do. So arguing with it seems not a capital offense. Tell that to the bishop.

The coup de grace:

Given these deficiencies, and having concluded that you are not recanting [reversing] positions that you take in your homily that [spread] confusion and [incite] animosity to the Apostolic See among the faithful, the question remains, Father Treco, do you stand by your homily or are you prepared to retract it and renew and sign the Church’s Profession of Faith.” 

Hardball!

I require you [not only] to retract the homily, [but also to ask] the websites where it is published to remove the text. A statement of retraction is to be published in your [parish] bulletin, as well as [on] your personal website, Facebook pages, and any other social media platforms you administer.

Erase it all, he says, and while you’re at it, remove yourself as a preacher and guide for souls.

So that further scandal can be avoided, your reaffirmation of the Profession of Faith is to be made known to your parish community.

To which he will return, their leader no more.

Moreover:

A copy of this retraction is to be sent to the Chancery for your personal file.

Moreover:

As your public dissent has caused harm to our Ordinariate and calls into question the ecclesial fidelity and ministry of every Ordinariate priest, you are to author a brief note of apology to your brother priests of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter. This you will send to me for publication to our presbyterate. 

Lest any think such a path as you have taken be an option for any but the very foolish.

More to come on this matter, but there’s a major aspect of the bishop’s overall response, that Fr. T. is in the way of poisoning the well of a very new, you might say experimental, operation, a welcoming to dissident Anglicans who have had it with Anglican shilly-shallying in re faith and morals, arriving in the bosom of Holy Mother Church, priests with wives and children. 

More later on the organization and its North American leader, appointed by Francis after a short but semi-meteoric Vatican career.

Case one:

The Inquirer profiles a number of people who wound up finding themselves in such unfortunate situations. One homeowner was standing outside his house smoking a cigarette when a mugger rode up on a bike, holding a gun and demanding money. Rather than grabbing his wallet, the homeowner pulled out his registered handgun and shot the mugger fatally in the head.

Two and three:

An assistant manager at a Dollar General store was confronted by a man in a ski mask brandishing a pistol and demanding money. That robber also failed to survive after the manager shot him. (The thief’s pistol turned out to be fake, but that didn’t matter.) A third person at a food market shot an armed robber dead in March when the thief attempted to rob him while he was playing a video game.

Word gets out on the street, bad guys get it. Or don’t.