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I Think It’s Time for the Weekend to Start

I don’t live anywhere near the beach, but if I did, I think I’d be headed there right now.

I’ve spent most of the day looking at the news, trying to pick out the most important stories so I can share them with you.

I thought about writing more about Cardinal Paglia, who has been making excuses for himself and defending his homoerotic mural, but I really didn’t want to talk about that.

I considered a followup on our profile of the Venezuelan crisis earlier this week, with additional details from yesterday’s meeting between Pope Francis and the Venezuelan bishops, but it sounded like the upshot of that was pretty much a big nothing…although Francis did recommend the bishops work with Caritas Internationalis, the Church’s umbrella group for a “confederation of Catholic social justice and charitable organizations around the world” that also happens to have a seat “on the governing board of the World Social Forum – an organization whose members and events promote pro-communist, pro-homosexuality, and pro-abortion ideas and action.”

Sigh.

So let’s see, there was the story about the thieves that stole either the entire brain or a relic of the brain (it’s not entirely clear) of St. John Bosco earlier this week, with speculation that they might want to use it in a Satanic ritual.

There was also the one about the priest who was suspended from Facebook for a week for a historically accurate post about Islam. I’ve been waiting for that to happen to me, actually. Because:

Pretty much everywhere I look, there are stories that just make we want to throw my hands up.

We had some good news this week, too — like the Polish bishops standing up for the Church’s traditional teaching on marriage, but even that story had me wondering, Why in the world are we celebrating when our shepherds are doing their minimum duty? Has it really come to this? 

Maybe I just need more sleep. Maybe I need a glass of good whiskey. Maybe I need to go find a beach. All I know is that if I’m being honest, my cynicism reserves are hitting toxic levels, and I think it’s time to start the weekend early.

I’m guessing you feel pretty much the same way, so thanks for sticking with us this week — and every week. Here’s to a better one starting on Monday.

Oh, and one more thing: we’re getting close to mid-month now, and the June fundraiser is looking pretty anemic. If you’d like the help us fight the good fight — we’re putting our backs into it as hard as we can — please consider a contribution to the cause.

See you next week.

34 thoughts on “I Think It’s Time for the Weekend to Start”

  1. As the late great AB Sheen said “such is the world in which we
    live”.

    Peace and quiet is a God given drug to be taken periodically
    as needed.

    Rest well good soldier.

    Reply
  2. Commenting at the other feature about John Allen in opposition to your reasonable understanding of him, I thought to myself “How does this guy put up with this tragic story everyday?”
    You do it well. You have a lot of fortitude and good common sense. 1Peter5 is a superior site and your work is very much appreciated.
    That picture of the ocean is almost as good as the real thing.

    Reply
    • As somebody commenting on Allen, I have know idea what you mean by tragic story? It’s tragic that people disagree?

      The rest of your post was great.

      Reply
      • The tragic story is Roman Catholicism fractured, dismembered and self-consumed in a frenzy of deconstruction, bent on metamorphosing into a post-Christian cult. That is the tragic story.
        What the Bergoglian ilk regards as a healthy exercise in merciful open-mindedness, a well-grounded exercise in mendacious “renewal” — that is the tragic story.
        Unrelenting dissent from the faith is not normal healthy productive ecclesial life, despite the fact that it has been raging for fifty-two years.
        I had the misfortune this week of viewing the desecration by terrorists of the Cathedral of St. Mary in Marawi City in the Philippines. A life size crucifix of
        compelling beauty lurched to the ground, a statue of our Lady, Mediatrix of All
        Graces smashed and the camera leaving the atrocity aimed to catch entire site, the tabernacle burning, I could not help but think this is what happened in the
        sixties, is happening again, and at our own hands.
        The Islamic terrorists need only leave us to our own devices for another fifty years and we will do it for them – the evisceration of the Sacred Mysteries held in Holy Scripture, the Apostolic Tradition and the perennial Magisterium of the Church.
        It is sacrilege.
        It is tragic.

        Reply
    • It takes a toll. I have to find outlets.

      You know, I have a picture of ocean waves as my desktop background. I also listen to a recording of them while I work. It helps me focus better than anything else I’ve found.

      Reply
  3. You are a good and steady man, Steve, with a heart for Christ, and a wonderful intellect, if I do say so.
    BTW, I truly got your point regarding John Allen. Great patience is so needed between families, and within our Catholic community……you are correct.

    Have a blessed weekend.

    Reply
  4. “Why in the world are we celebrating when our shepherds are doing their minimum duty? Has it really come to this? ”

    THANK YOU for saying what I’ve been thinking since that story was posted.

    Besides, these are either the bishops or their picked successors who petitioned (successfully, natch) Benedict XVI for Poland to permit Communion in the hand (John Paul II turned them down more than once; I don’t think he was in his grave six months when they petitioned for this). So, rinse a sense of the sacred from ecclesial life and then get credit for making a “courageous stand” against a position that is one of the results of secularizing the sacred. What a racket.

    Reply
  5. Nothing warm and fuzzy coming out of Casa Santa Marta today which might give us solace as we move towards the weekend?

    Reply
  6. This really has nothing to do with today’s article. It is also a bit dated, but only because I was waiting for someone else to begin it. Did not any one miss the significance of the gifts exchanged between Preaisent Trunp and Pope Francis? The Pope, who knows the President does not buy into his climate change stance, presents the President with his encyclical praising this theory; and in return, President Trump, who somehow realizes that Pope Francis is making moves in the Church that undermine Catholicism, has presented him with The Life of Martin Luther. There is a certain humor in this exchange, or is this the “velvet glove” instead of a “punch in the nose”? Or am I making something out of nothing?

    Reply
  7. Yes, Steve it’s time for a break. And it would be nice if God would give us a little more clarity to His helping hand.

    Reply
  8. There is no doubt beaches are nice, but in warm weather do you not think they are places we should flee from due to the risk of difficulties with concupiscence? I love the sea but I do wonder about our 20th-century-developed habit of going there wearing virtually nothing?

    And by the way, I’ll contribute a little bit. All the best Steve.

    Reply
        • I think it was Chesterton who said that you should drink when you’re happy, not when you’re sad (I’m paraphrasing here).

          I’ve had whiskey *once* in my entire life and that was at a wedding. Horrible stuff. 🙁

          Reply
  9. We can’t afford for you to be cynical! We are cynical enough already and you have done an enormous amount in quelling or cynicism with good old-fashioned encouragement and Catholic devotion. Remember, there’s no reason for cynicism when we know “in the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph”, and “in time, one faith, one Lord, one baptism, one Holy Catholic Apostolic Church— in eternity, Heaven.”

    Reply
  10. Thank you for all you do. No doubt the state of the Church is enough to make anyone need a break. When I was getting tired of fighting over abortion coverage in a proposed bill some years back, I expressed frustration to someone who reminded me of Mother Teresa’s words: “God didn’t call me to be successful; He called me to be faithful.” Maybe it’ll help encourage you as much as it helped me then.

    All the best to you and yours!

    Reply
  11. Steve–I am going to make a contribution. Before the day is out I will ante up. Sorry I’ve taken advantage of reading your site for months without doing so. Tight budget but I have decided your excellence requires sacrifice. Thank you for the fine work you do.
    Next, I “hear your pain,.” I too am just running a trajectory from gnashing my teeth to praying the Rosary to playing solitaire on line to just not “think” about anything. Your picture of the ocean is so wonderful, so soothing, such a good reminder of the immensity of God and the very small, insignificance of these things around us that want to beat us down. God is still God and we are His children and everything that happens to us comes from His Hand. All glory and praise to Him.

    Reply
  12. Steve, I did try to donate on line but it wouldn’t accept my card which is a perfectly good active card. Very strange. And then I downloaded the PDF so I can send you the donation and it downloaded all garbled up. Is it just me or is it your site or is it some imp trying to get in the way of my helping out? Hmmm. Right now I’m going with the imp theory. So the trite cliche operates here. “The check is in the mail.” God bless.

    Reply
    • Every once in a while we have strange problems like this. And no, I wouldn’t put it above the enemy – did you ever read about my weird car right to Fox News to talk about Amoris Laetitia? That poor driver had never seen anything like it.

      If you continue to have issues, I can look at the records on our end. Just email me at steve at onepeterfive dot com with any information you can share.

      Reply

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