Pope Francis said to be fuming after priest arrested. [Not surprising.] Vatican rocked: Police raid drug-fuelled gay orgy at cardinal’s apartment Vatican police have raided a cardinal’s apartment where a drug-fuelled homosexual orgy was taking place. Police entered an apartment at the former palace of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (or Holy Office) last month, not far from the Vatican City. The occupant of the apartment is alleged to be a priest who serves as a secretary to cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, the head of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts and a personal adviser to the Pope. The occupant of the apartment is alleged to be a priest who serves as a secretary to cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio. Photo / Getty Images The allegations of the orgy were first published by newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano. According to the paper, neighbours became suspicious before complaining about irregular behaviour of those coming and going at the apartment. [!!] When police showed up at the apartment, they reportedly found drugs and a group of men engaged in sexual activity. The priest was then arrested and taken for questioning. Il Fatto Quotidiano suggested that Pope Francis was infuriated by the news and may force Coccopalmerio into retirement. The alleged orgy is symptomatic of a difficult period for the Pope. Four years into his papacy the Catholic Church appears racked by conflict and scandal. Critics blame the Pope’s choice of personnel: cardinal George Pell, appointed to clean up the Vatican’s murky finances, has taken a leave of absence to defend himself against sex abuse charges in Australia. Source: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11886097

Moody’s clears the air: Illinois under review for possible downgrade to ‘junk’ status because of debt crisis Though the Illinois House of Representatives appears close to overriding Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of a tax hike budget plan, and thereby ending Illinois’ more than two years without a full-year budget, Moody’s Investors Service has said it might still downgrade the state’s credit, largely due to Illinois’ unsustainable debt. Moody’s Investors Service issued a statement July 5 explaining that Illinois is in a deep debt crisis, which the tax hike passed by the General Assembly won’t resolve. Moody’s is reviewing Illinois’ debt and might downgrade the state’s credit to “junk” status even if lawmakers override Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of the tax hike and budget proposal and they become law. That’s because the tax increase and budget proposal passed by the legislature don’t tackle the state’s core problems; they merely address the symptoms. . . . . more more more . . .

 

Consider this from a teacher at Fairfield U., a Jesuit institution:

Taking the thesis seriously, Sealey said, means “to acknowledge that any critical investigation of race should devote some time to the problem that is whiteness.”

She should look up Moby Dick and the pursuit of the white whale seen as dangerous.

It is little wonder that Ahab’s demonic pursuit of the White Whale has become an arch metaphor for our distrust of the other, from racial purity to global terrorism.

“Pondering all this, the palsied universe lies before us like a leper,” as Melville concludes, “and like wilful travellers in Lapland, who refuse to wear coloured glasses upon their eyes, so the wretched infidel gazes himself blind at the monumental white shroud that wraps all the prospect around him. And of all these things the Albino whale was the symbol. Wonder ye then at the fiery hunt?”

I’d take a class that took a Melvillian approach. Otherwise, no.

Our great state — as state rep Camille Lilly (D.-Oak Park and a string of other towns and neighborhoods as designated by Democrat district-makers) repeatedly referred to it in voter meetings recounted in my Illinois Blues: How the Ruling Party Talks to Voters — faces a huge income tax increase.

The plan [just passed in both houses] is defined by a massive, 32 percent income tax hike on Illinois residents, who are now witnessing the nation’s worst income growth. If signed into law, the House plan will hike the state income tax rate to 4.95 percent from 3.75 percent, and the corporate income tax rate will rise to 7 percent from 5.25 percent.

My debt here (for the “squeezing” adaptation) is to the post-WW2 Great Britain diplomat as regards reparations to be demanded of Germany, which got its revenge 20 years later.

No revenge is likely from Illinois citizens, however, tax-paying or otherwise — especially the otherwise, who will suffer most as the economy craters.

​Some good news on the smaller-government scene.​

The Senate still hasn’t voted on ObamaCare reform, U.S. workers are still waiting for tax cuts to drive economic growth and President of the United States Donald Trump is trading insults with the co-hosts of an MSNBC talk show. Yet Mr. Trump appears to be making progress in what might have seemed the most difficult task given to him by voters in 2016: reducing the power of Washington’s permanent bureaucracy.

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State Dept. especially, but also Employment Prevention Agency (heh) and Energy.

​A first-term Oak Park trustee’s rude awakening​:​

Trustee  [Deno] Andrews, who owns Felony Franks on North Avenue ​[first-year man, had raised the issue as bad for business], said the issue has been divisive for Oak Park, and was discouraged by the tone of the arguments.

“I’ve gotten hate mail, calls and messages,” Andrews said. “I’m a little disappointed, to be honest with you.”

Regarding his own restaurant, Andrews said he has paid his workers more than the current minimum wage, and pledged to keep his wages above the new minimum, while also asking those in the audience to continue assisting the village’s local businesses.

“We are at risk because of this, but it’s worth taking,” Andrews said. “The small business community is going to need your help. I don’t mean just talking about it, I mean doing it.”

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And the which-side-are-you-on crowd made enough noise, the vote was called off. Yes.

​Go figure.​

​Hard reading.​

​It’s Pell’s last stand. He’s had a target on his back for decades​, has a record for uncompromising support of what he considers the right thing.

​He is a blunt speaker, a tough and practical manager, a theological conservative, a supporter of the Pope, and an outspoken critic of contemporary social mores. He was the plumber of the Australian Catholic Church, the man who fearlessly waded into the sewer of its sex abuse scandal and cleared the blocked drains.

So Pell has no shortage of enemies. When Australia had a referendum on changing the head of state from the Queen of England, he was a leading supporter of Australia becoming a Republic. That was divisive. He opposes homosexual activism, which is divisive. He strongly opposes same-sex marriage, which is bitterly divisive. He supported John Paul II to the hilt and amongst his clergy that was divisive. He set up his own sex-abuse protocol and amongst the Australian bishops that was divisive. He shook up the Melbourne seminary and that was divisive. In his role in the Vatican, he has worked hard to set finances right and root out corruption and that was divisive.​

​Now he has to “prove his innocence.”​

The attacks on ​[him] ultimately stem from a loathing of the Church and its moral teachings amongst the left-leaning Victorian political establishment. At the moment it is in government, noisily campaigning for euthanasia and transgender rights and quietly gloating over the possibility of destroying Australia’s best-known Catholic.

It has been Pell’s misfortune to be a good man, an effective manager and a loyal priest. In today’s world that is a dangerous combination. Ensuring that he gets a fair trial will be the ultimate test of the fairness of Australia’s courts​.

​We may hope they are up to the task.​

​It’s not easy being a theologian, lesson # 3,053 (?), twisting and turning, giving self a spiritual hernia:

​With Mary as model, Christian spirituality recognizes in every birth, accepted by a woman in faith, an experience of the salvation that has come in the end time.

​He’s a man dreadfully unemployed, to have time for this sort of thing. Squaring circles.​