THE TAOS TATLER.

Reader GR kindly sent along a Bill Donahue piece from the Catholic League announcing the less-than-surprising news New York’s Mayor Mamdani, “likes anti-religious bigots.” Donahue then presents a list of some of the more virulently anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish bigots with whom Mamdani associates and is close with many. He even has appointed some of them to positions in his administration.

The news comes as little surprise, hard-core bigots being tediously among the left and most practicing their bias on Catholics and Jews.

Donahue closes his short piece with an amusing anecdote.

Spellcheck does not recognize the word Mamdani, offering as a substitute the word “Madman.” It looks like it is a lot smarter than the people who voted for him.

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. . . there’s little need for an Episcopal seminary.

From WPIX News

There is a new mission coming to a New York City landmark.

There is history on West 21st Street between Ninth and 10th Avenues in Chelsea. For 200 years, the General Theological Seminary has had a bell tower and trees add to its landscape.

In the near future, the space will be occupied by roughly 200 undergraduate students of Vanderbilt University, based in Nashville.

Long ago the Episcopal Church taught its seminarians theology. Now it is hardly needed.

Thanks to GWR

The alleged music at my church is the worst of any I have experienced anywhere. It is provided by teenaged girls singing in a bad “pop” style. I am sure the girls are sincere and pious, working hard at what they do and  doing the best they can, but the sad fact is they are tone-deaf and, since they apparently cannot keep time, they must rely on a digital rhythm device to do it for them. Adding to the woes, voices, rhythm box and the other instruments, guitars of course, are amplified to high levels, making it impossible to ignore them or tune them out. It’s as if we are forced to pay penance at every mass, no matter where we are on the liturgical calendar.

This church is one the most historic and well-known in the nation, the subject of many paintings by distinguished artists. It deserves better. I have no doubt that before the so-called reforms of Vatican 2 the music in the church was simple, but effective (there is no organ and likely never was), consisting of–and I hazard a guess here–plainchant, which would be vastly more suitable in a church like this one.

What an improvement it would be if the powers in charge directed a return to plainchant. It would not only be far more appropriate in this ancient church, it is not difficult to learn. An added bonus is that masses using plainchant tend render the wretched Novus Ordo mass far more palatable.

Addendum: will wonders ever cease! It turns out the digital human device is a human being.

Tina Thompson found a different way to be Catholic . . . never mind that it was the wrong way.

She was ordained [sic] in November as a Roman Catholic Woman Priest, an international group that has tethered itself to the Catholic Church but isn’t officially recognized . . . That is to say it isn’t recognized, “officially,” or unofficially, regardless or not being “tethered” to Holy Church–it takes two to tether. Needless to say, her so-called ordination was nothing of the sort.

Perpetrators of spurious ordinations like Tina Thompson’s do more damage to Holy Church than she does, as presumably they were once faithful Catholics before egregiously straying. Worse, they have encouraged Thompson in endangering her soul, as well as their own. This unfortunate event is not helped by foolish news organizations like Yahoo, having zero knowledge of the Catholic Church, reporting Thompson’s “ordination” as fact.

Tina Thompson is merely a deluded fool, an accessory to the farce. Those involved in her “ordination” are guilty of worse by their encouragement of her goimg against the rules. Eventually, she will learn that not only is her priesthood a joke, she will have to, just like the rest of us, duck into a box and confess her sins; not to hear those of others.

I predict, in time, Tina Thompson will find her way to the Episcopal Church, where she will be warmly welcomed.

From here.

El Salvador president Nayib Bukele’s radical policy of imprisoning convicted murderers has resulted in them being prevented from committing additional murders. A consequence of such an unorthodox approach is that beleaguered country, which used to suffer one the highest murder rates in the world, seeing it drop drastically.

Other crime-ridden countries and neighborhoods might wish to adopt that strategy.

Under Mayor Lindsay, it was “Fun City.” Under Mayor Mumdani, it’s “Done City.” But done can be fun! Come and watch the show!

Thanks to APF.

Whoever made this, it’s brilliant 😆

RIP New York pic.twitter.com/T9BFKg38mN

— Chaya’s Clan (@ChayasClan) November 5, 2025

Once again, the Catholic voters, who are 38% of the city population could have defeated the Marxist Muslim, if they had been more intelligent. 
And of course one can guess how Catholic Charities voted.

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And, the friend of a friend, the estimable Bill Donahue, writes all that needs to be written about yesterday’s catastrophe and catastrophes yet to come.

Bill Donohue

November 6, 2025

Who voted for Zohran Mamdani? He is the young radical Muslim socialist who was elected the next mayor of New York City. He took 50.4 percent of the vote; Andrew Cuomo received 41.6 percent; and Curtis Sliwa picked up 7.1 percent.

Let’s start with the two most important demographic segments who voted against Mamdani: Jews and Catholics. Jews voted for Cuomo over Mamdani by a margin of 63 percent to 33 percent; Catholics split the vote 53 to 33 percent, respectively. Among those with no religious affiliation—who are second in size to Catholics—Mamdani won 52 percent of them.

Mamdani walloped Cuomo with the two least sophisticated segments of the voting population, namely first-time voters and young people. He won 65 percent of the former and 62 percent of voters under 30. The older the voter the more likely he was to vote for Cuomo. No matter, seniors were outdone not only among the youngest voters, middle-age voters also broke for Mamdani.

The socialist led the field among those of every race and ethnicity, save for white voters (Cuomo won by 1 percent). An impressive 62 percent of Asians voted for the man of mixed African and South Asian ancestry. Blacks voted for Mamdani over Cuomo 57 percent to 38 percent, and the split for Latinos was 52 to 39 percent.

Men did not turn out to vote (they are 48 percent of the New York City population but they made up only 44 percent of voters) and they chose Mamdani (50 percent) to Cuomo (41 percent). Women are 52 percent of the NYC population, but they accounted for 55 percent of the voters; 50 percent voted for Mamdani, and 43 percent went for Cuomo. Mamdani creamed the field among young women voters—they are the most radical segment of the electorate—winning an astonishing 84 percent of them.

It is incontestable that in recent times both the New York Times and the Washington Post have moved far to the left of their traditional center-left position. But they drew the line with Mamdani.

Last June, the Times not only refused to endorse him when he was running in the Democratic primary, they said, “His experience is too thin, and his agenda reads like a turbocharged version of Mr. de Blasio’s dismaying mayoralty.” A few days ago, the Post said that if he succeeds with his radical policies, “New Yorkers will begin to flee.”

In other words, New Yorkers are more left-wing than the editorial boards of the New York Times and the Washington Post. This is amazing.

Does this mean that New Yorkers really believe that a man whose only full-time job outside politics was working as a counselor at a non-profit organization for about a year has the chops to do the job? No. They don’t believe him. Only 39 percent of New Yorkers say he is up for the job, as compared to 47 percent who say he isn’t.

Mamdani prevailed at all income levels, doing best with high-income voters. He tapped into a lot of economic fears. For example, New Yorkers said that their number-one issue is the cost-of-living, and Mamdani ran on a campaign to make New York “affordable.” But his basket of goodies—free bus fare, free child care, a rent freeze—cannot be done without raising taxes. Here’s the kicker: 60 percent of voters said raising taxes will “hurt the economy.”

So is Mamdani being realistic when he sports his budget-busting policies? No. Only 44 percent of voters said his polices are realistic. Cuomo, by contrast, was believable—58 percent said his policies were realistic.

In other words, a majority of New Yorkers voted for a man whom they believe (a) can’t do the job (b) will pursue measures that will hurt the economy, and (c) will promote policies that are unrealistic.

From the National Catholic Reporter news I somehow missed.

A top American cardinal celebrated a traditional Latin Mass on Saturday (Oct. 25) in St. Peter’s Basilica with the explicit permission of Pope Leo XIV, thrilling traditionalist Catholics who had felt abandoned after Pope Francis greatly restricted the ancient liturgy.

A few thousand pilgrims, many of them young families with multiple children and the women covering their heads with lace veils, packed the altar area of the basilica to standing room-only capacity.

Cardinal Raymond Burke, the conservative American figurehead, presided over the 2 1/2-hour liturgy, which was rich in hymn, incense and priests bowing to the altar, their backs to the faithful in the pews.

For many traditionalists, the moment was a tangible sign that Leo might be more sympathetic to their plight, after they felt rejected by Francis and his 2021 crackdown on the old liturgy.

This is indeed good news, but TLM enthusiasts should be watchful that the Latin Mass being celebrated at St Peter’s, one time only, is merely a friendly gesture by His Holiness to them, and little else.

If the Pope orders TLM to be celebrated regularly at St Peter’s Basilica, or smilarly, then there is a good possibility His Holiness is considering the reversal of Pope Francis’s apostolic letter, Traditionis Custode and successors, which have all but prohibited celebration of the Latin Mass by requiring churches adhere to elaborate, virtually impossible-to-meet restrictions.

Still, there is more cause for hope than we have had before. Oremus.

Photo from NCR