Abbey-Roads2

Looking for the devil in the details.

There is a group in the Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis who seem to travel from church to church looking for heretics and homosexuals.  They seem to have set themselves up as inquisitors for their own Holy Office.  Disagree with them or criticise their tactics and you are labeled a liberal, a progresive, a gay, or an outright heretic.

The latest brouhaha is over the upcoming Republican National Convention - and the gay activist boycott or protest that is rumored to take place there.  Whatever - how does this concern the Inquisition?  Well, I already got one crazy email suggesting a respectable Catholic man, and a group of religious would be supporting whoever is planning to protest.  That is outright defamation and calumny.  Yet this person claims she is working for the Church.

Idle hands…

This morning I received another email - which is why I am posting when I said I wouldn’t - claiming our local dissident parish, St. Joan’s hosted an event with Buddhist monks.  The title of the email was, “Buddhist monks concelebrate Eucharist at St. Joan of Arc.”  That is an out and out lie - again, it is defamation and calumny.  This is what really happened - a month ago!  (And yet the email arrives today as if the event is taking place this weekend - that is dissimulation at best.):

“St. Joan of Arc Church is hosting an interfaith prayer for the people of Tibet that will include blessings from nearly every faith practice from Catholic and Lutheran to Hindu and Zen.

Highlighting the event will be reflections by the former abbot of Kumbum Monastery in Tibet, Arjia Rinpoche, and sacred chants by the Gyuto Tantric Choir. Twin Cities vocalist Robert Robertson also will perform.” - Mpls Star/Tribune Dated July 25, 2008

Witch hunt.

From what I understand it was simply an interfaith service - not a Eucharist - and it was held in the gym, where Sunday liturgies take place, even though it is not a consecrated church - St. Joan’s has a separate church.  After checking with the parish, I realized the event was held a month ago - nothing is scheduled for this Sunday as was implied in the email alert.  Several years ago, progressive staff at St. Paul Seminary hosted a Buddhist prayer service in the seminary chapel, wherein a monk sat upon the altar.  Those days are over in our Archdiocese however - and it is quite obvious these self-appointed inquisitors do not know what to do with themelves in the meantime.  (Why would they send out old news items a month later?)

We have Archbishop Nienstedt now!  So pray and don’t worry.  (Although these people seem intent upon finding devils even in Archbishop Nienstedt’s actions.  False emails defaming a woman recently named as chancellor of canonical affairs for the archdiocese have been circulating ever since the announcement was made.  I think it is fairly obvious where the devil is in these details.) 

Once there were two sisters…

Martha was the sister of Mary - the Mary people used to say had been a whore - but when morals plummeted in the 20th century and whores became commonplace, Mary became known as a feminist and an evangelist.  Both sisters lived with  their brother Lazarus - who was thought to be quite a stinker until Jesus raised him from the dead.  (Did you know when he was raised from the dead he was naked except for a winding cloth?!)

So anyway, Martha had panic attacks and would get very nervous while doing all the housework, while Mary usually sat calmly, sipping tea, twirling her hair, studying ”A Course In Miracles”.  This may explain why she (Martha) took a lot of valium, only it really wasn’t valium in those days, although she did grow poppies in the garden along with hemp - just to make rope and sandals of course.  (Martha knew the truth about Mary’s past and that is probably why she often became so indignant with her.)

Nevertheless - Martha loved to entertain (sounds like another Martha, doesn’t it?), and that is why she had the apostles over so often.  One day, while very busy on the set of her home-decorating-cooking show for the Bethanites, everyone showed up unexpectedly, hoping to eat and drink.  Mary, always the party girl, joined the guests and just sat on the window sill, with a goofy smile on her lips, listening to all the repartee.  After awhile, Martha complained about Mary being such a lay-about, although, when she was told she (Mary) had chosen the better part, Martha literally “threw in the towel” (which is how we got that saying today BTW), and told everyone to help themselves to the food (which is how buffets originated BTW), and Martha decided to do her own thing (which is what hippies did in the late ’60’s BTW).  Of course the family was always very fashionable, if not countercultural, and the story might have  ended there…

Yet few people knew Martha had been a portrait artist - that is why so many icons of Our Lady are mistakenly attributed to St. Luke instead - St. Luke was a doctor - a podiatrist in fact.  Some say that after rehab, Mary worked for a time as his nurse-receptionist, and she ordinarily washed the patients feet (with her hair!) before they could see the doctor - although that may have been a medieval invention.  (But you see how these stories can get all mixed up when you have an agenda.)  Anyway, that day Martha decided to paint her lay-about sister Mary’s portrait - as she sat on the window sill.  Yes, you guessed it - the painting became known throughout the world as the “Mona Lisa” and has been wrongly attributed to Leonardo Da Vinci ever since the 16th century. 

I know, I know - but the family name of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus was Winschki (’W’ pronounced like ‘V’), which Italianated became Vinci - the name of the town Leonardo was from in Italy.  (Leo’s mother’s maiden name was Winschki - his dad’s name was Nardino - so Leo took Leonardo as his nome de plume, if you will - and someone else attached Da Vinci - the “Da” meaning “of” or “from” Vinci in Italian - I forget which.)  Anyway, how the painting came into his possession is still a mystery, and another story entirely, although it could possibly make an interesting book and movie.

The End

(This story is totally fabricated, just like the Da Vinci Code and dissident interpretations of scripture.  You know - like the one about the centurion and his gay-slave-lover he asked Jesus to heal.  As if!) 

“Tell me lies, tell me sweet little lies…”

One reason I usually refrain from silly posts on this blog is because I hope what is written here will have some credibility.  On my other blog, Abbey 1, I often post ridiculous and humorous things, along with real news items.  If I engage in jocuse lying, I label the post humor or something else to indicate it is not factual.  I never deliberately try to deceive the reader.  Lately I have been posting photos from spurious apparitions, and doing satirical posts on the same, in order to bring attention to the openess of even the devout as regards absurd lies and deceptions masquerading as heavenly messages.  In the Gospel, speaking of the last days, our Lord warns, “Even the elect will be led astray if that were possible.”

“Teach your children.”  

This week we have seen how Hillary Clinton  has been exposed in one her lies, this one regarding her visit to Bosnia  with her daughter.  I suppose she lied in order to make herself appear more macho, more capable of being the Commander in Chief.  She described the visit as extremely dangerous, landing amidst sniper fire and so on.  CBS blew the story out of the water with footage from the visit, proving Hillary and Chelsea were lying.  Hillary dismissed what she said by explaining that she misspoke, and Chelsea backed her up on that.  (Proving to me that Bill and Hillary taught Chelsea to lie like they do.)

“If there was a universal law that it was generally OK to tell lies then life would rapidly become very difficult as everyone would feel free to lie or tell the truth as they chose, it would be impossible to take any statement seriously without corroboration, and society would collapse.” - bbc.com.uk 

A week or so ago, I did a post about liars on the internet, implying that I knew of some bloggers who lie.  I wasn’t referring to anyone in my sidebar, rather other blogs I happen upon when I surf the net.  I particularly had in mind a couple of dissident Catholic blogs where the writers pretend to be faithful Catholics, although they are really schismatics and heretics.  They do not love the truth - in fact, they invent their own truth in opposition to the Church.  (They know who they are.)

“Stop lying to one another.”

I’m not here to single anyone out, I just want to bring attention to the fact that we are being lied to on a daily basis by media, big business, government, politicians, people pretending to be holy- the list goes on and on.  We know that, but can’t we do something about it?  Can’t we start saying, “She didn’t misspeak, she lied!”  “He isn’t telling the truth, he’s lying!”  “The president wasn’t misinformed, he was lied to.”  Call a spade a spade and stop lying to one another. 

(Photo:  Scene from “The Talented Mr. Ripley”) 

Yesterday I took a friend out antiquing, and as we were driving, I happened to pass by Planned Parenthood.  I glibly pointed the building out to him and said, “That is where they do abortions - they kill babies there.”

My friend, who is around 65 years old remarked, “I thought they just helped people with family planning and birth control there.”

“Really?  You didn’t know that?”  I answered.

Obviously he is amongst those who believe what they want him to believe by using such a benevolent sounding name as Planned Parenthood.  Others may call it denial. 

[Photo:  Margaret Sanger.]