Our hearty congratulations!

There is an old joke that goes,
You know how at an Episcopal Ordination, the three participating Bishops stand behind the ordinand? Do you know what they're doing? They're removing his spine.
Congratulations are in order for several Bishops who have managed, by the grace of God, either to avoid that part of the rite, or have managed to grow their spines back. One by one, or as is the case in Dallas/Fort Worth two, they have come out with statements about the need to vote like Catholics.

• Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City/St Joseph MO
• Bishops Kevin Farrell (Dallas) and Kevin Vann (Fort Worth), TX
• Bishop Joseph Martino, of Scranton, PA
• Justin Cardinal Rigali and Bishop William Murphy, speaking as chairmen of the committees (USCCB) of pro-life activities, and Domestic Justice and Human Development, respectively, released this today.
• Bishop Robert Hermann, the Archdiocesan Administrator or St Louis
• Archbishop Charles Chaput, Denver, CO -- in a statement in which he speaks as a private citizen -- was able to remove the gloves.

These Bishops are teaching clearly about how to form our consciences. At last they are responding to the argument that there are other issues, so we can't be single-issue voters. All of this is true, but some issues do take precedence over others. The Son of Man, when he comes, will not ask us how our vote helped the economy.

Why???

I just don't get it. How can a man spend years in the seminary and then within months of leaving be involved in a relationship? Not just involved, but intimate. I truly see the diabolical here. When a man is preparing himself for the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, he becomes the target of Satan's wrath.
I have seen it time and again. Someone leaves the seminary and the next thing you know, he's taking trips with his girlfriend, and acting like a wild dog. One would think that the normal course of action is that you leave the seminary and spend the rest of your days as a much better Catholic than when you entered. Instead, it seems the powers of Hell are unleashed upon the man.
We can only pray for grace for the men in the seminary. We can only pray that they will not fall to the prowling lion, as St Peter describes him.
On the other hand, perhaps some just need to experience the Snipping Rite created by Fr P.

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine!

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of the great Pope Pius XII. Truly he was a holy man, who continues to inspire many by the life he lived, and the lives he saved.
He became an example of Christian virtue in so many ways. Let us not forget that he saved an estimated 860,000 Jews from extinction by the Nazis. He refused to have the papal apartments heated while the rest of the people in his diocese did without. He stood against the excesses of the liturgical movement, many of which later became par for the course. At the same time he laid down rules for modern scholarship of Sacred Scripture.
May God raise him to the Altars soon!