Cardinal Cupich Seems to Be the Vatican’s Choice| National Catholic Register

Sunday sermons, weekday observations

Remarkable rundown of popes, bishops, and cardinals in the last 75 years, recounting how it was often a bishop or cardinal’s duty to go against papal policy as regards dealing with rulers.

All popes have their favorites in the US. However, papal favor is not equivalent to wise pastoral leadership.

Not, notably, for two Poles, for instance:

The single greatest churchman of the 20th century, save for his “junior” partner, a certain Karol Wojtyła, was the soon to be beatified Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski of Warsaw, who battled the communists as Primate of Poland for 33 years, 1948-1981. He found himself at odds with Vatican policy for much of that time. First, under the Venerable Pius XII, when senior Roman officials thought that he was too accommodating, and then later, under St. Paul VI, when the Vatican thought him not accommodating enough.

Oh, that paragraph began with the sentence, “Historically, Archbishop…

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Charles Murray’s forthcoming book: ‘Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America’

Speaking truth to power, in this case the power of the woke-left and its allies in major media and corporate America, not to mention the illiberal legislators and operators in today’s Democrat party:

Coming out on June 15 titled “Facing Reality: Two Truths about Race in America.”

Here’s the description from Amazon:

The charges of white privilege and systemic racism that are tearing the country apart float free of reality. Two known facts, long since documented beyond reasonable doubt, need to be brought into the open and incorporated into the way we think about public policy: American whites, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians have 1) different violent crime rates and 2) different means and distributions of cognitive ability. The allegations of racism in policing, college admissions, segregation in housing, and hiring and promotions in the workplace ignore the ways in which the problems that prompt the allegations of systemic racism are driven by these two realities.

On the contrary:

. . . America’s most precious ideal is what used to be known as the American Creed: People are not to be judged by where they came from, what social class they come from, or by race, color, or creed. They must be judged as individuals. The prevailing Progressive ideology repudiates that ideal, demanding instead that the state should judge people by their race, social origins, religion, sex, and sexual orientation.

Not very progressive, when you get down to it. Problem:

We on the center left and center right who are the American Creed’s natural defenders have painted ourselves into a corner. We have been unwilling to say openly that different groups have significant group differences. Since we have not been willing to say that, we have been left defenseless against the claims that racism is to blame. What else could it be? We have been afraid to answer. We must. Facing Reality is a step in that direction.

Murray “must be the bravest man in America,” writes John Hinderaker, Power Line blogger (and president of the Center of the American Experiment), for taking on another controversial issue (after his The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life in 1994) that is sure to generate both intense praise and criticism.

Hinderaker also said:

Leftists obsessed with race generally only want to talk about two races, black and white, even though those categories are increasingly intermingled, with an occasional nod toward American Indians and “Hispanics,” a meaningless term concocted for the purpose of affirmative action in the U.S. But they prefer never to mention Asians. When liberals talk about income gaps, I like to ask why they think Asians, on average, earn so much more than whites, and what they think the government should do to correct that disparity.

As of 2019 Census Bureau data, whites are 15th among ethnic groups in median income, trailing not only just about every Asian minority, including Iranians and Pakistanis. The case for American “white supremacy” is ludicrously weak, but it may be a capital offense to point that fact out. I hope Charles Murray has the means to hire armed guards, and I hope Encounter Books can withstand whatever crackdown may be coming from the now-fully-regnant Swamp.

Murray takes it once again to the yahoos.

Off the ballot, on the ballot – Oak Park

Gearing up for an April (!) election . . .

Oak Park Chronicles

Wednesday Journal takes note of two village board candidates, both sitting trustees, dropping out as candidates for the April election, one of them for return to the board as trustee, the other for president/mayor, and comes up with its own mysterious observation:

What changed their minds? Not entirely clear. But we believe they made the right choice. As we have often said, campaigns are the place to sort out qualifications for office, whether that is debating a matter of policy or challenging a candidate’s residency. Voters should make these decisions.

They chose well but Wed J not sure why. Right choice: why?

Campaigns are where voters consider qualifications, it’s the time for voters to decide, they are the ones who should do so.

But to withdraw is to deprive voters of an option. But these candidates choose well. How so?

As for challenging a residency, neither of these withdrawing…

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May I recommend . . .

The Unz Review • An Alternative Media Selection

“A Collection of Interesting, Important, and Controversial Perspectives Largely Excluded from the American Mainstream Media”

A veritable cornucopia, believe me.

That said, included in the informative good stuff is some at the very least highly questionable stuff which does not predominate and at the very least keeps you up to date on some highly questionable thinking. Which has its uses.

 

The sermon is no joking matter

Dominus Vobiscum: Notes from a massgoer's underground

Lutheran pastor Burnell Eckardt mused about leading prayer at a church service and concluded that while doing so, he never has “the remotest thought of praying with levity or jocularity.”

Never is humor added as if to maintain the attention of people who might be silently praying along. Never in the prayers of the church, or for that matter, in personal prayers, is humor thought to be a helpful ingredient. . . .

This pastor thought it puzzling. “Whenever we speak to God we are dead serious. We are not trying . . . to be funny, or evoke laughter.”

(Let us hope so, though many the churchgoer who would not be surprised by ill-timed attempts at humor.)

“Why then?” he asks, “is there [the urge] to employ levity or evoke laughter when it is time for us to hear God, when there is preaching?”

In the sermon, “the…

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The cardinal’s tweetstorm: After Cardinal Cupich took a stand, what’s next? – The Pillar

Sunday sermons, weekday observations

The cardinal tweeted, bishops did not.

This week, numerous bishops have speculated to The Pillar that Cupich’s frustration [with issuance of the archbishop’s
tough-on-Biden letter] was a critical factor in the Holy See’s decision to intervene before Gomez’ statement was released, with an attempt first to shelve it, and then to delay it.

But if Cupich [sought] the Holy See’s intervention, his stock in Rome has likely declined after the embarrassment of public reporting about the intervention, and then the statement’s eventual release.

Vatican pushed in untimely fashion, acting at Cupich’s request, nothing moved.

If Cupich was relying on favor in Rome to exercise influence in the U.S. bishops’ conference — as he is believed to have done in the wake of the McCarrick scandal [when Vatican intervened in
opposition to bishops’ plans] — it seems that after this week, he will have fewer chips to play, at…

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How Does Reading Reduce Stress?

Not for attribution

We know it does, but by how much and how? Not something we have to know, you know, but it’s good to remind us of it sometimes.

Reading helps reduce stress, decrease blood pressure and improve heart rate which will release tension in our muscles. A study from the University of Sussex shows that stress can be reduced by up to 68% with just reading alone, and it’s more effective than many other stress relievers out there.

  • The Reading Agency found that reading reduces depression and dementia symptoms.
  • Reading for Six minutes a day reduces stress by 68 percent.
  • Regular readers show lower rates of depression compared to non-readers.
  • Reading is 300 percent more effective at reducing stress than going for a walk.

The study conducted by the University of Sussex found that reading is one of the most beneficial ways of reducing stress.

It found that reading…

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Long view on Oak Park policing – Oak Park

Oak Park Chronicles

Publisher Dan Haley looks back in barely concealed regret about policing.

But it is true that police departments come to reflect the communities they serve. And for all of Oak Park’s genuine progressive bonhomie, it always came with a giant side of “protect us from the West Side.”

That explains the cul-de-sacs all along Austin Boulevard. It explains the active othering of Austin, a neighborhood that when it was Irish, German, Italian and Greek, was our sister community.

He’s been biting his tongue about the cul-de-sacs, apparently, which to us at the corner of Humphrey and Randolph, to name one of the corners that welcomed them, were wholly beneficial as making for a pleasant block. Some, I know, saw it as a slap at black Austin. If it was that at all, and I think not, it was quite a bit more than that.

Dan closes, out of nowhere I…

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Dan Moroney withdraws from race for village president – Oak Park

He’s been there, done that, in Oak Park, but . . .

Oak Park Chronicles

Painting a gloomy picture of what’s in store for the village.

“I have come to a point where I no longer have the necessary drive, belief or desire to proceed with what I set out to do two months ago,” Moroney said in an email thanking his campaign supporters.

“Although my concern for Oak Park has increased during this time, my confidence has diminished regarding how much can be done to alter its downward political trajectory.”

Hopeless task, he says.

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