It seems as if the SSPX may be more sinister than imagined - if it is true. One ought not to fool around with the Byzantine rite, which has equal status with the Roman rite - then and now. This is a point of contention the separated Orthodox have misgivings about, that Rome could impose Vatican II type “renewal” in their liturgies as has been done in the Roman rite - if they ever consent to union, that is. Of course, the Ukrainian Byzantine Catholics are in union with Rome, and autonomous as far as liturgical rites, nevertheless, the insurgence of SSPX and the Traditional Roman rite poses some serious problems.
We have this fellow who works in the warehouse at the Company I work for. He’s very bright, rather intellectual, and I like him a lot. He is also an amusing character - he loves meteorology and watches the weather channel - and not the cable one - the one on UHF, with the computerized voices - I know he watches just for those voices.
He always makes fun of Michael Brown’s Spirit Daily, especially his headlines, such as “Our sad time”. I laugh at that as well. I told him about today’s bit starting with “Our sad time”. It involved ‘pornaments’.
Spencer’s is selling tacky porn ornaments - not like the one I pictured however - at least this one is painted and has an element of art to it. Those ornaments Brown is referring to are just plain tacky - like a hula dancer figure on someone’s dash board. Stuff one would expect from Spencer’s or any other joke store. Tacky, sophomoric humor. It’s so not new. Someone is reaching for this story.
This crap has been around for ever, even in a more proper era, going back to medieval times, and of course, ancient Rome. Ribald humor is so not new.
In the ’80’s I saw Christmas cards with photos picturing nuns opening a huge gift package revealing a nude man in it. There has been a stream of gross Christmas ornaments and cards since, as well as jokes over time. Vulgar people somehow like this stuff. It’s been around forever. It’s cheap kitsch mostly about Santa and snowmen, etc. (Granted, the nuns and the nude was offensive to Catholics - so I am not condoning it in the least.)
However, when things get truly blasphemous and focuses on the Holy Family, or the Madonna - that’s when the Catholic/Christian defense should be aroused and put into action - not by this tripe though. It’s just vulgarity - not an attack upon Christmas or Christianity. We have to realize that not everyone observes Christmas as anything other than a “saturnalia” - a pagan festival.
Don’t drive the market by getting excited over this type of crap. As I always say - “Choose your battles”.
(And maybe Michael Brown might eliminate “Our sad time” from his repertoire. It’s easy to mock - we live in cynical times - marketing my dears, marketing.)
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