A Letter to CongressThe appended letter to Congress signed by many retired Flag Officers from every branch of our military was sent to me by a close friend.  The names of the signatories to this very well-worded letter are displayed at the end of the letter.
The letter itself does not include hysterical accusations or hyperbole, just facts, and is very well written.
I know personally several of the officers who signed this letter and all are men of integrity and honor including a Medal of Honor recipient.
I share this with you in the hope you will consider publishing it on your site. I did not edit or modify it in any way. I think it should be shared far and wide. 
Perhaps the singular most important issue raised, in my opinion, is the very serious, troubling, question about the health and vitality of the present occupant of the White House, a man who has suffered two subarachnoid hemorrhages (bleeds in the brain) and who has not shared his medical history with the people or had his physician pronounce him ‘fit for duty”. That is in no way an effort to demean the Commander-in-Chief but is essentially a basic fact. His other executive actions, bypassing the people’s representatives also are troubling in that many of them serve to weaken us economically, morally, and militarily.
E.P. Unum

Open Letter from Retired Generals and AdmiralsOur Nation is in deep peril. We are in a fight for our survival as a Constitutional Republic like no other time since our founding in 1776. The conflict is between supporters of Socialism and Marxism vs. supporters of Constitutional freedom and liberty.
During the 2020 election, an “Open Letter from Senior Military Leaders” was signed by 317 retired Generals and Admirals and, it said the 2020 election could be the most important election since our country was founded. “With the Democrat Party welcoming Socialists and Marxists, our historic way of life is at stake.” Unfortunately, that statement’s truth was quickly revealed, beginning with the election process itself.
Without fair and honest elections that accurately reflect the “will of the people” our Constitutional Republic is lost. Election integrity demands ensuring there is one legal vote cast and counted per citizen. Legal votes are identified by State Legislature’s approved controls using government IDs, verified signatures, etc. Today, many are calling such commonsense controls “racist” in an attempt to avoid having fair and honest elections. Using racial terms to suppress proof of eligibility is itself a tyrannical intimidation tactic. 
Additionally, the “Rule of Law” must be enforced in our election processes to ensure integrity. The FBI and Supreme Court must act swiftly when election irregularities are surfaced and not ignore them as was done in 2020. 
Finally, H.R.1 & S.1, (if passed), would destroy election fairness and allow Democrats to forever remain in power violating our Constitution and ending our Representative Republic.
Aside from the election, the Current Administration has launched a full-blown assault on our Constitutional rights in a dictatorial manner, bypassing Congress, with more than 50 Executive Orders quickly signed, many reversing the previous Administration’s effective policies and regulations. Moreover, population control actions such as excessive lockdowns, school and business closures, and most alarming, censorship of written and verbal expression are all direct assaults on our fundamental Rights. We must support and hold accountable politicians who will act to counter Socialism, Marxism, and Progressivism, support our Constitutional Republic and insist on fiscally responsible governing while focusing on all Americans, especially the middle class, not special interest or extremist groups which are used to divide us into warring factions.
Additional National Security Issues and Actions:•  Open borders jeopardize national security by increasing human trafficking, drug cartels, terrorist entry, health/CV19 dangers, and humanitarian crises. Illegals are flooding our Country bringing high economic costs, crime, lowering wages, and illegal voting in some states. We must re-establish border controls and continue building the wall while supporting our dedicated border control personnel. Sovereign nations must have controlled borders.
•  China is the greatest external threat to America. Establishing cooperative relations with the Chinese Communist Party emboldens them to continue progress toward world domination, militarily, economically, politically, and technologically. We must impose more sanctions and restrictions to impede their world domination goal and protect America’s interests.
•  The free flow of information is critical to the security of our Republic, as illustrated by freedom of speech and the press being in the 1st Amendment of our Constitution. Censoring speech and expression, distorting speech, spreading disinformation by government officials, private entities, and the media is a method to suppress the free flow of information, a tyrannical technique used in closed societies. We must counter this on all fronts beginning with removing Section 230 protection from big tech.
•  Re-engaging in the flawed Iran Nuclear Deal would result in Iran acquiring nuclear weapons along with the means to deliver them, thereby upsetting Mideast peace initiatives and aiding a terrorist nation whose slogans and goals include “death to America” and “death to Israel” . We must resist the new China/Iran agreement and not support the Iran Nuclear Deal. In addition, continue with the Mideast peace initiatives, the “Abraham Accords,” and support for Israel.
•  Stopping the Keystone Pipeline eliminates our recently established energy independence and causes us to be energy dependent on nations not friendly to us while eliminating valuable US jobs. We must open the Keystone Pipeline and regain our energy independence for national security and economic reasons.
•  Using the U.S. military as political pawns with thousands of troops deployed around the U.S. Capitol Building, patrolling fences guarding against a non-existent threat, along with forcing Politically Correct policies like the divisive critical race theory into the military at the expense of the War Fighting Mission, seriously degrades readiness to fight and win our Nation’s wars, creating a major national security issue. We must support our Military and Vets; focus on warfighting, eliminate the corrosive infusion of Political Correctness into our military which damages morale and warfighting cohesion.
•  The “Rule of Law” is fundamental to our Republic and security. Anarchy as seen in certain cities cannot be tolerated. We must support our law enforcement personnel and insist that DAs, our courts, and the DOJ enforce the law equally, fairly, and consistently toward all.
•  The mental and physical condition of the Commander in Chief cannot be ignored. He must be able to quickly make accurate national security decisions involving life and limb anywhere, day or night. Recent Democrat leadership’s inquiries about nuclear code procedures send a dangerous national security signal to nuclear-armed adversaries, raising the question about who is in charge. We must always have an unquestionable chain of command.
Under a Democrat Congress and the Current Administration, our Country has taken a hard left turn toward Socialism and a Marxist form of tyrannical government which must be countered now by electing congressional and presidential candidates who will always act to defend our Constitutional Republic. The survival of our Nation and its cherished freedoms, liberty, and historic values are at stake.
We urge all citizens to get involved now at the local, state, and/or national level to elect political representatives who will act to Save America, our Constitutional Republic, and hold those currently in office accountable. The “will of the people” must be heard and followed.
Signed by:RADM Ernest B. Acklin, USCG, ret.; MG Joseph T. Anderson, USMC, ret.;  RADM Philip Anselmo, USN, ret.;  MG Joseph Arbuckle, USA, ret.;  BG John Arick, USMC, ret.;  RADM Jon W. Bayless, Jr. USN, ret.;  RDML James Best, USN, ret.;  BG Charles Bishop, USAF, ret.; BG William A. Bloomer, USMC, ret.;  BG Donald Bolduc, USA, ret.; LTG William G. Boykin, USA, ret.;  MG Edward R. Bracken, USAF, ret.;  MG Patrick H. Brady, MOH, USA, ret.;  VADM Edward S. Briggs, USN, ret.;  LTG Richard “Tex’ Brown III USAF, ret.;  BG Frank Bruno, USAF, ret.;  VADM Toney M. Bucchi, USN, ret.;  RADM John T. Byrd, USN, ret.; BG Jimmy Cash, USAF, ret.;  LTG Dennis D. Cavin, USA, ret.; LTG James E. Chambers, USAF, ret.;  MG Carroll D. Childers, USA, ret.; BG Clifton C. “Tip” Clark, USAF, ret.;  VADM Ed Clexton, USN, ret.; MG Jay Closner, USAF, ret.;  MG Tommy F. Crawford, USAF, ret.;  MG Robert E. Dempsey, USAF, ret.;  BG Phillip Drew, USAF, ret.; MG Neil L. Eddins, USAF, ret.;  RADM Ernest Elliot, USN, ret.;  BG Jerome V. Foust, USA, ret.;  BG Jimmy E. Fowler, USA, ret.; RADM J. Cameron Fraser, USN, ret.;  MG John T. Furlow, USA, ret.; MG Timothy F. Ghormley, USMC, ret.;  MG Francis C. Gideon, USAF, ret.;  MG Lee V. Greer, USAF, ret.;  RDML Michael R. Groothousen, Sr., USN, ret.;  BG John Grueser, USAF, ret.;  MG Ken Hagemann, USAF, ret.;  BG Norman Ham, USAF, ret.;  VADM William Hancock, USN, ret.;  LTG Henry J. Hatch, USA, ret.; BG James M. Hesson, USA, ret.;  MG Bill Hobgood, USA, ret.;  BG Stanislaus J. Hoey, USA, ret.;  MG Bob Hollingsworth, USMC, ret.;  MG Jerry D. Holmes, USAF, ret.;  MG Clinton V. Horn, USAF, ret.;  LTG Joseph E. Hurd, USAF, ret.;  VADM Paul Ilg, USN, ret.; MG T. Irby, USA, ret.;  LTG Ronald Iverson, USAF, ret.;  RADM (L) Grady L. Jackson, USN, ret.;  MG William K. James, USAF, ret.;  LTG James H. Johnson, Jr. USA, ret.; ADM. Jerome L. Johnson, USN, ret.;  BG Charles Jones, USAF, ret.; BG Robert R. Jordan, USA, ret.;  BG Jack H. Kotter, USA, ret.;  MG Anthony R. Kropp, USA, ret.;  RADM Chuck Kubic, USN, ret.;  BG Jerry L. Laws, USA, ret.;  BG Douglas E. Lee, USA, ret.;  MG Vernon B. Lewis, USA, ret.;  MG Thomas G. Lightner, USA, ret.; MG James E. Livingston, USMC, ret.;  MOH MG John D. Logeman, USAF, ret.;  MG Jarvis Lynch, USMC, ret.;  LTG Fred McCorkle, USMC, ret.;  MG Don McGregor, USAF, ret.;  LTG Thomas McInerney, USAF, ret.;  RADM John H. McKinley, USN, ret.;  BG Michael P. McRaney, USAF, ret.; BG Ronald S. Mangum, USA, ret.;  BG James M. Mead, USMC, ret.; BG Joe Mensching, USAF, ret.;  RADM W. F. Merlin, USCG, ret.; RADM (L) Mark Milliken, USN, ret.;  MG John F. Miller, USAF, ret.; RADM Ralph M. Mitchell, Jr. USN, ret.;  MG Paul Mock, USA. ret.; BG Daniel I. Montgomery, USA, ret.; , RADM John A. Moriarty, USN, ret.; RADM David R. Morris, USN, ret.;  RADM Bill Newman, USN, ret.;  BG Joe Oder, USA, ret.;  MG O’Mara, USAF, ret.;  MG Joe S. Owens, USA, ret.;  VADM Jimmy Pappas, USN, ret.;  LTG Garry L. Parks, USMC, ret.;  RADM Russ Penniman, RADM, USN, ret.;  RADM Leonard F. Picotte, ret.;  VADM John Poindexter, USN, ret.;  RADM Ronald Polant, USCG, ret.;  MG Greg Power, USAF, ret.;  RDM Brian Prindle, USN, ret.;  RADM J.J. Quinn, USN, ret.;  LTG Clifford H. Rees, Jr. USAF, ret.;  RADM Norman T. Saunders, USCG, ret.;  MG Richard V. Secord, USAF, ret.;  RADM William R. Schmidt, USN, ret.; LTG Hubert Smith, USA, ret.;  MG James N. Stewart, USAF, ret.; RADM Thomas Stone, USN., ret.;  BG Joseph S. Stringham, USA, ret.; MG Michael Sullivan, USMC, ret.;  RADM (U) Jeremy Taylor, USN, ret.;  LTG David Teal, USAF, ret.;  VADM Howard B. Thorsen, USCG, ret.;  RADM Robert P. Tiernan, USN, ret.;  LTG Garry Trexler, USAF, ret.;  BG James T. Turlington, M.D., USAF, ret.;  BG Richard J. Valente, USA ret.;  MG Paul Vallely, USA, ret.;  MG Russell L. Violett, USAF, ret.;  BG George H. Walker, Jr. USAR Corp of Engineers, ret.; MG Kenneth Weir, USMCR, ret.;  BG William O. Welch, USAF, ret.; MG John M. White, USAF, ret.; MG Geoffrey P. Wiedeman, JR. USAF, ret.;  MG Richard O. Wightman, Jr., USA, ret.;  RADM Denny Wisely, USN, ret.;  LTG John Woodward, USA ret.

The Ascension is a festival of joy and hope, a preparation for Heaven

The Risen and Ascended Christ remains with us today in and through His Church, most especially through her fidelity to His teaching and to the celebration of the sacraments.

May 13, 2021 Peter M.J. Stravinskas The Dispatch 0Print

Editor’s note: The following homily preached by the Reverend Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Ph.D., S.T.D., at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Walsingham (Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter), in Houston, Texas, on the Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord (May 13, 2021).

The Jesus of the Ordinariate (and a few other ecclesiastical jurisdictions around the country) always catches His flight to Heaven on time, while His flight home is delayed throughout the majority of American dioceses, thus rendering the feast Ascension Sunday instead of Ascension Thursday, supposedly because a mid-week holy day is too much of a burden for either the clergy or the laity. Not only is this an embarrassing assertion, it also breaks a definite linkage with New Testament chronology (which tells us that Christ ascended to His Father “forty days” after His Resurrection); it also destroys the centuries-old novena to the Holy Spirit, whereby Catholics have joined with Our Lady and the Apostles in the Upper Room, waiting in prayer for ten days after the Lord’s Ascension for the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. This deviation is particularly sad because it eliminates the biblical grounding for the Catholic practice of novenas; indeed, the first novena in the history of the Church was the one observed by the Infant Church from Ascension Thursday to Pentecost Sunday. Enough bemoaning liturgical silliness; let’s move on to rejoice in the profound significance of this lovely feast.

A French proverb declares: Partir c’est mourir un peu (To leave is to die a little). That adage encapsulates the almost universal human experience of sadness at the departure of a friend or relative, whether through death or a simple move to another place. In this regard, the Apostles were no different – except that they had been “catechized,” we can say, by Christ Himself on many occasions during His earthly life and ministry on this very point, but most especially as found in St. John’s account of the Last Supper. Thus we hear the Master say things like this:

Let not your hearts be troubled. . . I go and prepare a place for you. . . I will come again and will take you to myself. . . And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever. . . The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things. . . Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. (John 14, passim).

Then, in His High Priestly Prayer, on which Jesus had allowed His disciples to eavesdrop and recorded in the seventeenth chapter of the Fourth Gospel, we hear Jesus speak with filial devotion and serenity to His Heavenly Father:

I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. . . . I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me. . . I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one. . . That they be one even as we are one. . . . I made known to them your name, and I will make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.

The promises Jesus had made to His chosen ones thus become the “stuff” of His prayer of union. He is faithful to His promises, just like His Father.

So, yes, there is an end in view. But that is not the whole story. Significantly, St. Luke concludes his Gospel with the Lord’s Ascension as he likewise begins Volume II of that work in the Acts of the Apostles with the Lord’s Ascension. In other words, Christ’s departure ends one act of the divine drama, even as it begins the second act. In a somewhat amusing scenario, we see the Apostles gazing up into the heavens as Jesus leaves them, only to be brought back to reality by heaven-sent messengers: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

In other words, “Get busy, boys. There’s work to be done.” And what is that work? It is none other than “the Great Commission” conferred on the apostolic band at the Lord’s departure in St. Matthew’s Gospel: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (28:19-20). And, how can I omit the last and most important line: “Behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”

So, the Eleven got divine commands and assurances. That’s all quite lovely, but where does that leave you and me? Must we not conclude that this was not a one-day sale? That Our Lord, in some way, enfolded us in His prayer at the Last Supper? Most assuredly, as we read these most consoling words: “I do not pray for these [the disciples] only, but also for those who believe in me through their word” (Jn 17:20). That means that all the confidence the Apostles garnered from Christ’s valedictory words to them apply to us, two millennia on.

What further consolation can we have on this festal day? Some lovely hymns provide beautiful and holy thoughts. “Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise” offers these reassuring verses:

Highest heaven its Lord receives; Alleluia!
yet He loves the earth He leaves. Alleluia!
Though returning to His throne, Alleluia!
still He calls us all His own. Alleluia!

Still for us He intercedes; Alleluia!
His atoning death He pleads, Alleluia!
near Himself prepares our place, Alleluia!
He the first-fruits of our race. Alleluia!

There we shall with Thee remain, Alleluia!
partners of Thine endless reign, Alleluia!
see Thee with unclouded view, Alleluia!
Find our heaven of heavens in Thee, Alleluia!

No, He has not left us; He has gone to prepare a place for us, even as He promised (Jn 14:3). “Alleluia, Sing to Jesus” puts it most poetically:

Alleluia! Not as orphans are we left in sorrow now
Alleluia! He is near us, faith believes nor questions how
Though the cloud from sight received Him when the forty days were o’er
Shall our hearts forget His promise, I am with you evermore?

No, we are not orphans. In truth, Jesus is closer to us now than He was to His first disciples during His earthly life and ministry. How so? Once again, our hymn instructs us:

Alleluia! Bread of Heaven, here on earth our food and stay
Alleluia! Here the sinful flee to Thee from day to day
Intercessor, Friend of sinners, earth’s Redeemer, plead for me
Where the songs of all the sinless sweep across the crystal sea.

Alleluia! King eternal, Thee the Lord of Lords we own
Alleluia! Born of Mary, earth Thy footstool, Heaven Thy throne
Thou within the veil hast entered, robed in flesh, our great High Priest
Thou on earth both Priest and Victim in the Eucharistic Feast.

And so, our faith informs us that in every celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, Christ our Priest presides and Christ our Priest feeds us with His very own sacred Body and Blood. In this way, He is not only near us, but in us. Through our baptism, we were made members of His Mystical Body, the Church, and through every worthy reception of Holy Communion, our relationship with the Lord is strengthened – strengthened to fulfill His “Great Commission.” We do this by witnessing to the truths of our holy Faith when they are questioned or presented in a muddled fashion even within the Church herself, always having recourse to the firm foundations laid for the “new evangelization” by John Paul II and Benedict XVI. We do this by witnessing to a wobbly culture on the sacredness of human life from conception to natural death, on God’s design for marriage and family, on the need to fill the “naked public square” with the presence of Almighty God and His Church.

To put a yet finer point on this: The Risen and Ascended Christ remains with us today in and through His Church, most especially through her fidelity to His teaching and to the celebration of the sacraments. Permit me to invite you to take a journey back on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus on that first Easter night as two disheartened disciples of Jesus encounter a Stranger, to whom they express their dismay and distress (see Lk 24). What does that Stranger do? He provides them with a guided tour through all the scriptural passages which have to do with the long-promised and long-awaited Messiah and shows how they apply to their beloved and presumably-dead former Master. Intrigued and, in all likelihood, buoyed by the Stranger’s exegesis, they invite Him to “break bread” with them. And, in a marvelous reversal of roles, the Guest becomes the Host as He breaks bread for them. And, in that ritual action, they finally recognize the Stranger-Guest-Host as none other than their Risen Savior.

What has St. Luke given us in that pericope? Nothing less than the outline of what we Catholics have experienced every Sunday for 2000 years: The Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The Risen and Ascended Lord is indeed true to His promise: He is truly with us “always, to the close of the age” in each and every celebration of the Holy Eucharist, which is where we gain not only consolation for His seeming absence but also confidence to pursue the work of evangelization to which He has commissioned us.

Therefore, regardless of the opposition or scorn of “the world,” we Christians know that our efforts will bear fruit, ultimately, because they are taken up into the saving work of the Savior of the world. Hence, we understand the assuredness exhibited by St. Mother Teresa, who could encourage her Sisters – and us – by reminding all that God does not call us to be “successful, only faithful.” Of course, in being faithful, we are successful. Our work is His work, which is why one of the lovely prefaces for this feast has us pray that “he ascended, not to distance himself from our lowly state but that we, his members, might be confident of following where he, our Head and Founder, has gone before.”

But where “has [he] gone”? He has “gone” to Heaven. Now, to hear some theologians and even clerics talk, Heaven is not a “place” but a “state” of being – some kind of ethereal existence where “souls” can engage in a holy encounter. Such a notion, however, is contradicted by settled Catholic dogma: At least Christ and His holy Mother are in “Heaven” in their bodies! Many Orthodox Jews believe Moses to be there in that form as well. The Bible also tells us that Elijah exited earth into the heavens in a fiery chariot. Heaven’s being a “state” and not a “place” is not a new theory; few really are. The Gnostics in the Early Church had an absolute antipathy to the flesh, and so denied that Jesus had a true human body; that He truly suffered and died; that He rose from the dead; and that the Eucharist was His true Body and Blood. Closer to our own time, many – influenced by the so-called “Enlightenment” in a Platonism-gone-wild – scoffed at the idea of a heavenly dwelling, supposedly because “modern” cosmology makes such a position untenable.

None other than our indomitable Cardinal Newman, who had great respect for science, took on this approach as he teaches:

First, Christ’s Ascension to the right hand of God is marvellous, because it is a sure token that heaven is a certain fixed place, and not a mere state. That bodily presence of the Saviour which the Apostles handled is not here; it is elsewhere,—it is in heaven. This contradicts the notions of cultivated and speculative minds, and humbles the reason. Philosophy considers it more rational to suppose that Almighty God, as being a Spirit, is in every place; and in no one place more than another. It would teach, if it dare, that heaven is a mere state of blessedness; but, to be consistent, it ought to go on to deny, with the ancient heretics, referred to by St. John, that “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,” and maintain that His presence on earth was a mere vision; for, certain it is, He who appeared on earth went up from the earth, and a cloud received Him out of His Apostles’ sight. And here again an additional difficulty occurs, on minutely considering the subject. Whither did He go? beyond the sun? beyond the fixed stars? Did He traverse the immeasurable space which extends beyond them all? Again, what is meant by ascending? Philosophers will say there is no difference between down and up, as regards the sky; yet, whatever difficulties the word may occasion, we can hardly take upon us to decide that it is a mere popular expression, consistently with the reverence due to the Sacred Record.¹

Simply put, as the Act of Faith asserts, God “can neither deceive nor be deceived.” While a Heaven with a zip code may challenge certain contemporary assumptions, such a position is not irrational, supra-rational perhaps, but not irrational. Why do I spend time on this issue? Because the essence of the Christian Faith is at stake. St. Paul put it starkly when he declared, without fear of contradiction: “Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? . . . if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Cor 15:12-14, passim). Then he went on, even more fiercely, if that is all true, then “we are of all men most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:19). And so, if Paul is right, namely, that Jesus rose in a body, then that body has to be in a “place.” Jesus and Mary are in a “place”; we have the right to expect to occupy the same space, God willing. This is no fairy tale, no “myth”.

Today, then, is a festival of joy and hope. Yet another beautiful preface would have us sing: “. . . after his Resurrection he plainly appeared to all his disciples and was taken up to heaven in their sight” [lex orandi, lex credendi]. Why? “That he might make us sharers in his divinity.” Indeed, as so many of the Fathers of the Church taught, “God became man, that men might become gods.” By the process of “theosis” or “divinization,” begun at the baptismal font and strengthened in every worthy reception of Holy Communion, we are being prepared for an eternal dwelling place in Heaven. With good reason, then, we can say that because Christ is in Heaven, you and I – members of His mystical Body – are already there.

Amen, amen, I say unto you: Heaven has a zip code; therein lies our consolation and the reason for confidence in our Christian vocation.

Feast of Corpus Christi) Sacrament of Love

J.M.J.

Dear Fr. Thomas,

Two years ago I was returning from a pilgrimage in Europe. A movie was playing on the airplane. I don’t remember the name of it, and I fell asleep before it ended. But one particular scene was noteworthy. 

Robert Di Nero returns to his old neighborhood after a ten year prison term. He visits a schoolboy friend who now owns an expensive restaurant. As they talk he asks his friend about his sister. All during his prison term Robert Di Nero thinks about his friend’s sister and wonders how long it will take for her to find someone else and forget him. As young people they enjoyed each other’s company and loved to dance together. Their favorite song was “Ammapola.” 

But now things were different. He has been away so long, is a social outcast because he is a convict, and has no money in his pocket. He feels ashamed because he is a total disgrace, a misfit with nothing to offer her. Surely she is no longer interested in him and is probably married to someone else. 

The brother told Robert Di Nero that the sister has not married and was, as a matter of fact, present at the restaurant that very evening. The brother points his sister out. Now that she is grown up, she is the most gorgeous woman that Robert Di Nero ever laid his eyes on. 

The brother makes a signal to the orchestra as Robert Di Nero and the sister meet. They start dancing to their old favorite song “Ammapola.”

Scared and nervous because he feels so inferior, he finally asks the question. “Please tell me. Was there even a time that you thought of me while I was gone?”

Her answer: “There was never a time I wasn’t thinking of you while you were gone.”

She waited and each day made her longing even greater. Why I write this today on the Feast of Corpus Christi, Thomas, is because of what Our Holy Father tells us about Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. “Jesus waits for you with open arms in this sacrament of His love.” (Dominicae Cenae)

In other words, Jesus is there waiting for you in the Blessed Sacrament. If He didn’t care, he would not be there. It’s like the old song says “If I didn’t care … more than words can say … If I didn’t care … would I feel this way … is that not love … for, if I didn’t care … would it be the same … would my every prayer begin and end with just your name … be sure that this is love beyond compare … all of this is true because I care for you …”

The purpose of today’s feast day is to remind us of how much Jesus cares for us in the Blessed Sacrament. In the 13th century He appeared to Saint Juliana and showed her a moon with a dark spot on it. He explained that he moon represented the Liturgical Calendar and the dark spot represented a feast day that was missing that He wanted instituted. 

Jesus said that as the church progressed in time, it would decline in faith in His Real Presence. This is in keeping with His gospel question of finding any faith at all when He returns. For this reasons, He said it would be necessary to have a special feast day to remind everyone of His Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament. St. Juliana remarked that there was Holy Thursday dedicated to the Eucharist. Jesus answered that Holy Thursday also celebrated the holy priesthood. He wanted a feast day exclusively to honor His Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament. And that is how the feast of Corpus Christi came about. 

On August of 1980 a major hurricane hit a city in Texas called Corpus Christi. We call it a typhoon. They call it a hurricane. It started in the Caribbean between two islands, one St. Vincent, the other St. Lucia. 

Soon after the hurricane a very brave and courageous Bishop was named the ordinary of the diocese of Corpus Christi. His name is Bishop Rene Gracida. He writes this for Immaculata magazine:

“On the occasion of an Ad Limina visit several years ago, our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, made the statement that it must be very fortunate to be bishop of a diocese, the only diocese in the world, named Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ. I told him on that occasion, as I have told many others, that I do indeed feel very privileged.”

Bishop Gracida was the first Bishop in the United States to invite the Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament into his diocese. Many parishes in his diocese now have perpetual adoration as the result. 

This invitation came about through a letter Kirk and Katie Pfeffer wrote to Rex Moses. Rex was working in the diocese with Operation Rescue. Kirk and Katie wrote Rex about perpetual adoration.

Rex showed that letter to Bishop Gracida. This is when the Bishop invited Fr. Martin Lucia and the Missionaries of the Blessed Sacrament into the diocese. 

From Corpus Christi, Texas, the Missionaries were invited by four different Bishops to the State of Louisiana. From Louisiana to Alabama, Tennessee and Arkansas. 

Through the super-dedicated efforts of lay people like Mary Ann Becksted and Pat Forton, they have been invited into dioceses from Georgia to Michigan. 

When I think of the name hurricane, the wedding of Cana comes to my mind. To “hurry” the “wedding,” Perpetual adoration will bring about and hurry the wedding between God and His people. 

Fraternally yours in His Eucharistic Love

Msgr. Pepe

Feast Day of Corpus Christi, June 5, 1994

 Biden’s First 100 Days100 Days, 100 Mistakes That Have Changed the Face of America

By E. P. Unum

May 13, 2021

HAT TIP: RIP MCINTOSH

 If you have been watching the news these days, I am sure that you have noticed the following: ●      Inflation has reared its ugly head hitting a high of 4.2% the fastest pace in twelve years. Consumer prices rose 0.8% from March.  Interestingly, prices for used cars and trucks jumped 10%.  Contributing to this rise was a global microchip shortage that has hurt new car manufacturing, reminiscent of the crisis Japan auto manufacturers had a few years ago when an earthquake curtailed the production of piston rings for autos. It slowed production by almost a month because you can’t build a car without piston rings…even though they cost only $1.50 each.
●      There are now 8.1 million job openings in our country, the highest rate ever recorded. Yet employers widely complain they cannot find workers because they are happy to stay on enhanced unemployment benefits implemented by the Biden Administration. If you could stay at home, go to the beach and pay your bills because you are being paid not to work, what would you do? Foolish and economically unsound.
●      The unemployment rate in April now is 6.1%, up slightly from March even as more of the economy heats up.
●      The Middle East is ablaze as Hammas and the PLO fire rockets into Israel and Israel, defending itself, strikes back with devastating results for the Palestinians. In the face of this, Biden wants to reopen talks with Iran, the arch-enemy of the United States and the largest state sponsor of terror in the world. A cargo ship containing thousands of weapons bound for the Houthi rebels in Yemen and originating in Iran was seized by the American Navy. Yet, Biden wants to engage Iran towards the goal of reinstituting the Iran Nuclear Agreement which Obama so proudly hailed. Why?
I raise these points and observations to serve as an introduction to some far more important observations that do not bode well for our nation. With each passing day, I shudder at the weakness of our President and his inability to be proactive rather than reactive. But I am equally fearful of the cadre of people with whom he surrounds himself. They lack business acumen and a sound foundation in economics and finance. They are profoundly lacking in leadership and moral principles and guideposts. Virtually none of them have ever run or managed a business enterprise nor offer any particular expertise in negotiating complex multi-faceted international agreements. Taken as a whole, they contribute little to moving America forward in the world we live in today. 
There is no clearer illustration of this than taking a perspective on the first 100 days of the Biden Administration and the executive actions President Biden and his administration have enacted. Few of which have made a positive contribution to America or benefitted Americans. These are delineated in the list of Biden’s First 100 Days and how his actions have changed the face of our country. The conclusion I have drawn is simply this is what you end up with when you build an organization around you made up of people who lack experience, a sense, and perspective of history and are fundamentally not the brightest or the best we have to offer. But beyond this admittedly harsh but, I believe accurate assessment is something more pernicious and detrimental to the America we know and love. That potentially devastating and corrosive thing is our preoccupation with Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the cancel culture phenomenon that has engulfed our country. Both are concepts that owe their origins to Marxist and Communist Ideology. Both are cancers on American democracy, meritocracy, due process, and freedom of speech. And, both are abject failures whenever or wherever they have been tried in the world. 
CRT, now taught in some elementary and high schools as well as colleges and universities would have you believe that America is a racist country founded on racist principles. Our children, thanks to the progressive liberal left, is creating via CRT an education system that teaches children to hate people who are white fomenting anger and class warfare. For a President of the United States to allow this to happen is disgraceful. For people working in his administration to tolerate and push it on all of us is downright sinful. Yet, here we are. So, as you reflect on these points, I ask that you review President Biden’s First 100 Days and the 100 major errors, mistakes, and expressions associated with this period. Then ask yourselves this one simple question: How is any of this helpful to our country and to Americans. I come up empty on this. How about you?
President Biden’s First 100 Days-Warts and All
1. Repealing the Mexico City Policy, forcing taxpayers to subsidize abortions overseas. How does a self-proclaimed practicing Roman Catholic take such unilateral unforced action?
2. Reversing Trump Administration pro-life rules that prevented tax dollars from going to pro-abortion entities like Planned Parenthood.
3. Canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, costing thousands of jobs and immediately increasing the cost of oil from Alberta, CA from $10 a barrel to $36 per barrel as it must be delivered by truck or rail…in a pandemic when there is a shortage of truckers. Wonder who benefitted from this unilateral action? Certainly not America. With the stroke of his pen, this action and others wiped away decades of striving for energy independence achieved under Trump.
4. Canceling new oil and gas leases, limiting future energy supplies. See # 3 above. Killing Trump’s Energy Independence which we achieved for the first time in our nation’s history.
5. Shutting down the 1776 Commission on patriotic education in our public schools. At the same time, extolling Critical Race Theory as a curriculum for elementary and high schools. CRT is a Marxist Communist philosophy and essentially is a cancer on American democracy, meritocracy, due process, and freedom of speech. It erases history, mis-educates youth, empowers extremism, and creates a cancel culture mentality. It destroys nations. For examples of this look at Cuba, Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Venezuela, Argentina,…the list is long and undistinguished. For an American President to get behind such garbage suggests to me that he is ill-suited to lead our great people.
6. Rejoining the Paris Climate Accord when there is no consensus that climate change poses an immediate “existential” threat. The science is very much unsettled on this issue, although the radical left will never admit to it.
7. Rejoining the World Health Organization who is controlled by China.
8. Kowtowing to communist China by banning the phrase “China virus.”
9. Creating a crisis at the southern border leading to a record number of illegal aliens entering the country.(178,622 in April which includes 17,000 unaccompanied minors; this followed 173,000 in March with 12,000 unaccompanied minors) then echoing that “everything is under control; there is no crisis on the border”
10. Stopping construction of the border wall at a cost of $6 million a day, not to mention wasting the millions of dollars in materials laying on the ground collecting dust.
11. Preventing most arrests and deportations of criminal illegal aliens.
12. Ending Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” order for migrants seeking asylum in the U.S.
13. Allowing border detention facilities to operate at 1,500% capacity during the pandemic.
14. Preventing the media from seeing the horrific conditions at migrant border facilities.
15. Ending Trump’s travel ban on nations known to be hotbeds of terrorism.
16. Ordering the Census to include illegal aliens in congressional reapportionment.
17. Repealing Trump’s public charge rule preventing immigrants from becoming a burden on public welfare services.
18. Reinstating Obama’s catch and release program for illegal aliens crossing the border. 19. Releasing illegal aliens into the country without COVID tests. What could go wrong?
20. Releasing illegal aliens into the country without court dates. What could go wrong?
21. Flying illegal aliens to the Canadian border for faster processing at a cost to U.S. Taxpayers.
22. Paying nearly $90 million to house illegal migrants in hotels.
23. Proposing a massive amnesty bill that does not require the use of the E-Verify program.
24. Allowing 900,000 deported aliens to return to America.
25. Repealing Trump’s executive order limiting legal immigration during the pandemic.
26. Proposing a COVID vaccination plan that prioritized illegal aliens.
27. Reopening child detention facilities that Kamala Harris vowed to close.
28. Allowing transgender individuals to serve in the military, including paying for sex-change surgeries. Let that one sink in.
29. Signing an executive order including “gender identity” in the enforcement of civil rights laws. What the hell does that mean?
30. Ordering the State Department to make LGBTQI issues a foreign policy priority and giving priority to LGBTQI refugees. What could possibly go wrong?
31. Supporting the Equality Act, which would severely limit religious liberty.
32. Creating a White House Office on Gender Policy. Is this needed?
33. Redefining Title IX and 

Words That Don’t Matter

By:  Victor Davis Hanson

Victor Davis Hanson // Private Papers

May 12, 2021

HAT TIP: RIP MCINTOSH

From time to time, I’ll try to update our contemporary American vocabulary.

Diversity/DiverseThis noun and its adjective have lost all currency. Ostensibly, diversity assumes that variety, in general, is better than uniformity. In some cases, perhaps it is, although the Japanese, for example, might argue their homogenous society avoids many of the problems in contemporary America. And, after all, our original motto of uniting states into the union was e Pluribus Unum, not ex uno plures.
“Diverse” has become a very narrowly defined adjective. It means solely different from white, male, Christian, and heterosexual—such as Latinos, blacks, women in general, Muslims or Buddhists, and transgendered and homosexuals. In other words, the “diverse” community comprises about 67-70 percent of America; the non-diverse, and supposedly dominant enemy of diversity, is only about 30-33 percent of the population. Under no circumstances can diversity imply hopes for political heterodoxy in hiring or admissions. Instead, political diversity is supposed to be as incendiary as racial diversity is calming.
Privilege/White PrivilegeThis buzzword implies that 90 percent of citizens at the Founding were of Northern European (e.g., English, Scots-Irish) descent and rigged the country to favor their interests in perpetuity against a series of many different immigrants (Irish, Catholics, Jews, Eastern Europeans, Asians, etc.) as well as Native Americans and blacks. The word is data-free and cannot withstand cross-examination that might suggest that lots of groups (e.g., Punjabis, Koreans, Japanese, etc.), who are markedly different in appearance and religion from the founding norms, enjoy a great deal of wealth, status, and influence. 
Usually, elite whites and minorities with privilege use the term “privileged” to castigate middle class and poor whites without it (e. g, “dregs,” “deplorables,” “Neanderthals,” “clingers,” “chumps,” etc.) As a rule of thumb, those who accuse others of having “privilege” or even “white privilege,” enjoy it, or something comparable to it, themselves. 
Recently the adjective “unearned” has been attached. But its use is usually confined to scripted and public self-serving apologies, such as the sort that deans, provosts, and college presidents offer—as in “I have been the beneficiary of unearned privilege….” Such usage is meant to deflect the incoming fire of woke mobs and hysterias to someone else, through the use of preemptive and empty confessionals that do not entail any sacrifice or concrete concessions, or proof of contrition.
Racism/RacistThe inflation and promiscuity in the use of these once critical nouns and adjectives render them now empty and without meaning. If everyone and everything is racist, then nothing is. Increasingly, calling a person a “racist” is good proof that he is not, but that the accuser likely is. Like “Shut up!” or ‘F—k you!”, “Racist!” is simply an interjection used to end abruptly all conversation. It is as common and empty as the introductory adverb, “Well…,” or the pause word “uh.” Soon we may see people use the word in a similar manner, “Racist, how are things going?” and “Racist, now let’s turn to another subject.” Or,“ hmmm, racist, racist, racist, hmmm, as I was saying….”
“Underserved” or “Marginalized” CommunityThese adjectives should suggest the pathologies of a geographical area or particular group are not an individual’s or a community’s fault—but largely to be blamed on society at large. Mostly they are euphemisms for “crime-ridden” or “dangerous.”  The charge of “underserved” or “marginalized” is frequently lodged but rarely substantiated or documented. Ethnic or minority groups, who perform better on college entrance tests or have higher per capita incomes than do the majority of Americans, or lower crime rates, are rarely if ever termed “overserved” or “de-marginalized.”

Vatican II on Catholics in Public Life

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Published in George Weigel’s weekly column The Catholic Difference on May 12, 2021

BY GEORGE WEIGEL
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The Second Vatican Council’s Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (often referenced by its Latin title, Gaudium et Spes) is typically regarded as the most “progressive” of the 16 documents of Vatican II: the conciliar text that bespoke a new Catholic embrace of modernity while aligning the Church with liberal democratic political forces throughout the world.

Like every other conciliar document, however, the Pastoral Constitution only comes into clear focus when it’s read through the prism of the council’s two most authoritative texts, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (Dei Verbum) and the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium). Dei Verbum taught that God really does speak to humanity in history, and that the revelation of God’s intention for humanity, definitively manifest in Jesus Christ, is binding for all time. Lumen Gentium taught that the Church is a “sacrament” or “sign and instrument. . . . of communion with God and unity among all men.” The Church embodies that by heeding the Great Commission: by proclaiming and living the gospel of Jesus Christ, thus bringing the truth about God and us to the whole world.

That, according to the two fundamental documents of Vatican II, is the best thing the Church can do for the modern world: evangelize it. Everything else flows from that.

There were to be no exceptions to the scope of the Church’s evangelization. So the council taught that public life, including the tangled world of politics, was a field to be evangelized and thereby revitalized with the leaven of Christian truth. That meant, in the main, lay Catholics working in the public space to promote the dignity of the human person and the common good.

Gaudium et Spes had a lot to say about the Christian responsibility to contribute to the common good, about which it took a broad view: by the “common good,” Vatican II meant not just a prosperous economy, environmental protections, proper health care, and the legal protection of basic human rights, but the ongoing pursuit of a social order characterized by truth, justice, virtue, solidarity, and mutual responsibility. Meeting that responsibility to advance the common good, the council taught, required Catholics to lead coherent lives. The Pastoral Constitution therefore reminded the people of the Church that “it is a mistake to think that, because we have here no lasting city, but seek the city which is to come, we are entitled to shirk our earthly responsibilities.” There could be no such shirking, for “by our faith, we are bound all the more to fulfill these responsibilities according to the vocation of each.”

Thus life in politics, which the council described as a “difficult yet noble art,” ought to be lived as a vocation by Catholics. And there could be no bifurcation in living out that vocation, or indeed any other. “One of the gravest errors of our time is the dichotomy between the faith which many profess and the practice of their daily lives.” The prophets of the Old Testament had “vehemently denounced this scandal,” Gaudium et Spes noted, as did Christ himself, who “with greater force threatened it with severe punishment.” There could be no “pernicious opposition” between a Catholic’s “professional and social activity,” on the one hand, and his or her “religious life,” on the other.

Coherently Catholic public officials, whose faith illuminates the truths that make for human flourishing and who integrate those truths into their political lives, are the Catholics who best reflect the Church’s intention to “establish and consolidate the human community according to the law of God.” Catholics who promote or who refuse to take effective action against grave offenses against human dignity (among which Gaudium et Spes listed abortion, euthanasia, and violations of the human person through mutilation) not only fail to contribute to the common good while doing severe damage to society; they also declare themselves incoherent Catholics, who are, objectively, not in full communion with the Church.

This is the challenge that the most progressive document of the Second Vatican Council puts today before the president of the United States, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. senators from both sides of the aisle, and the many other public officials who persist in living a “pernicious opposition” between their “professional activity” and their “religious life.” It is not a partisan challenge. It is not a traditionalist challenge. It is not a politicized challenge. It is Vatican II’s challenge.

Their fellow Catholics among the laity have an obligation to bring this challenge of coherence to the attention of these brethren in Christ. So do their pastors.

George Weigel is Distinguished Senior Fellow of Washington, D.C.’s Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he holds the William E. Simon Chair in Catholic Studies.