Back in January, a “woman” [sic]–or sick, your choice], going by the name of Jaia Cruz, murdered a postal worker, Ray Hodges III in a New York deli by stabbing him 15 times. The motive? They were arguing over a place in line. The killer just received a plea-bargained 15 years. Hodge’s friends and family are furious over the relatively light sentence, but given justice in New York these days, that’s probably the best they could hope for.
One factor in this crime is one you will have great difficulty finding in most news media. Can you guess what the press is leaving out (the question alone should make it easy)?
The answer is, the killer is a transsexual, and as we all know, we are not permitted to mention a criminal’s sexuality if he/she/it did something heinous. Apparently, the media feels compelled to prohibit any mention of it, regardless of transsexuals’ seeming to have a remarkable propensity for violence. Apparently, they are considered “victims” and have a right to privacy, we suppose, far greater than the victims of their crimes.
Callous stupidity unbound, in the name correctness. Which brings to mind this classic cartoon.
The Caribbean nation of Haiti is now at the mercy of gangs bent on kidnap, rape and murder. Louise Callaghan meets their victims — and confronts a warlord
This is essential reading for all, the story of a country that has descended into utter chaos. Haiti has a tortured history going back to its discovery by Columbus in 1492, but the last half-century has been especially brutal to the wretched souls living there, owing to the disappearance of law enforcement, with armed, warring gangs filling the void. Certain politicians who wish to see the removal of all police from our already deteriorating cities can learn from this terrifying piece (if they choose to), and the likely results should they get their way.
A few short excerpts, but this story must be read in its entirety.
Today, Haiti is the poorest country in the Caribbean and Latin America. It has a similar GDP per capita to Bangladesh. Half the population do not have enough to eat. Hundreds of thousands of children are malnourished.
In the capital there is no accountability, no one in charge, no one who can fix things when they go wrong. In most of Port-au-Prince and its suburbs, where about a quarter of Haiti’s 12 million population live, the gangs are the only law. Police are scattered through the 10 per cent of the capital still controlled by the government, where they park their armoured cars at intersections and fire at people they think are gang members.
Especially pertinent for those naïve, but cynical politicos in this country, who still insist government aid programs help the poor, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary:
There’s also a growing belief among Haitians, however, that pumping in money from abroad doesn’t change a thing. Haiti has received more than $13 billion in international aid since 2010. None of the 3,000 NGOs in the country got in the way of a gang takeover.
“There’s billions and billions of dollars spent here, and you can’t really see it,” said Louino Robillard, who runs Gwoup Konbit, a mutual aid organisation that aims to help Haitians help themselves. “Of course money can be used as a tool to help with the solution. But the solution first of all, it should be within Haitians — to work together for our common goal.”
What a sad, hopeless mess is Haiti, with no discernible sign that there will be any improvement in her lot for a long, long time.
On the 26 August, Bishop Emeritus Raúl Vera López of Saltillo presided at Mass in the basilica with Rev Emilie Teresa Smith, a Canadian Anglican minister, standing beside him as a concelebrant. During the liturgy, Ms Smith, wearing a stole (a liturgical vestment), joined in parts of the Eucharistic Prayer, whispered words of consecration, raised her hand in blessing and elevated the chalice containing the Precious Blood of Christ.
To add to his over-the-top violations, the bishop then posted his mass celebration on Facebook for all to view.
The Mass was recorded and published on the bishop’s own Facebook page, where it quickly gained attention. In a post accompanying the video, the bishop invited viewers to “reflect together” on the Gospel of the day, quoting the words of Christ in St Matthew’s Gospel condemning hypocrisy and spiritual blindness.
Thence come the platitudes and patronizing we expect from the left.
“We are no longer in witch hunts and bonfire times,” the bishop also said in his Facebook post. “The word of our sister Emilie gives us light, life and guidance as Laudato Si’ asks for all the people of this planet.”
Will the bishop’s way of fending off criticism from traditional Catholics get him off the hook? Possibly, but there is considerable upset over Bishop López, and he may find he went too far indulging himself with his clown mass. Much depends on how Pope Leo reacts. He surely is aware of the story and how he deals with it will tell us a great deal of his future toleration of gross violations of church teachings, like those recently committed by Bishop Lopez.
NEW – JAKE TAPPER: We need to make sure we use the correct pronouns for the Minneapolis Catholic church sh-oter.
"There's been some confusion as to what the name was…it was ROBERT, but she identifies as a female, wants her name to reflect that ID."pic.twitter.com/y5y1gottqj
Your Tatler can’t help wondering if woke wackos like Jake Tapper perpetrate items like the above simply to provoke the vastly higher number of non-Democrats in this country, but in the end the conclusion is always no. Tapper seems to sincerely believe his absurd and extreme ideas are factual. However, that should not dissuade rational folks from believing Jake Tapper is mad as a hatter and ought be institutionalized.
Pope Leo has taken a firm stance on natural law, making it plain that there is no alternative. He thus makes it clear to misguided thinkers, in and out of the church, that natural law is the backbone of civilization.
Natural law can be a difficult concept, but it is a vital part of the Church and her teachings. Britannica.com has a good piece on the subject, which is excerpted here.
Natural law is a philosophical concept that refers to a system of right or justice believed to be universal and inherent to human nature, rather than established by societal rules or positive law. It suggests that there are objective moral principles derived from nature that govern human conduct. This idea has been influential in various philosophical and legal traditions, with thinkers like Cicero and St. Thomas Aquinas contributing significantly to its development. Aquinas, for example, argued that valid positive laws must be derived from these objective moral principles to be considered just and binding.
Substacker (is there such a word?) Dianne Montagna, quoting the pope, writes,
In certain Western societies where Christ and His Church are marginalized, often ignored, and sometimes ridiculed,” he said, “only union with Jesus—Jesus crucified!—will give you the courage to suffer for His name.”
It is fortunate the Holy Father stressed the importance of natural law, for without it, not only would the Church collapse, but chaos would ensue. We’re already headed in that direction, as a glance at the front page of any newspaper will tell you.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey preached about trans rights during a presser on the mass shooting that left two children dead at Annunciation Catholic School, hours after it was revealed gunman Robin Westman identified as a transgender woman.
After a pair of out-of-state school shootings in 2022 and 2023 shocked the nation, Minnesota’s bishops implored state lawmakers to provide security funding for local non-public schools.
Now, two years after their appeals went unheeded, tragedy has struck one of their own.
On the morning of Aug. 27, a gunman opened fire during at an all-school Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, killing two students, aged 10 and 8; 14 other students and three adults were injured.
There is nothing that can be added to the remarks of these callous clods. It is sufficient to let their words speak for themselves.
UK arrests 14 year old girl for protecting her 12 y/o sister from Paki rape gangs.
This image of little Mayah Sommers will be one of the most galvanising in the history of the UK. Any government that punishes a young girl, forced to have to run around like this to protect herself from the barbarians that they protect, is illegitimate.
The girl’s crime?
Police have arrested and charged a 14-year-old girl after she was forced to brandish a knife to defend herself and her friend against a Muslim migrant who attempted to assault her near St Ann’s Lane in Dundee, Scotland.
They free rapists & murderers while they lock up people for a post on social media. It’s time for the UK to take their nation back
An admirable sentiment, that last sentence, but the time for the UK to take the nation back has long past. The British government, from the Prime Minister on down, including law enforcement, has already surrendered to the Muslims. The present government is remarkably similar to Prime Minister Vidkun Quisling’s government in Norway after the Nazis had taken control of the country. Its main function was appeasing the Nazis by keeping order, while giving the appearance of a free nation. Quisling fooled no one, the citizens of Norway, nor other nations.
That is the state of Britain today, and while most Britains are no doubt outraged by the incident above, they, like the Norwegians under Quisling, have no one to turn to in search of justice for people like the little Scottish girl, arrested for trying to protect her sister from horny Muslims.
While no one in charge in Britain will admit it, the British people have already lost to the occupying Muslims. The Government, owing to fear and political correctness, no longer stands up for its own people, rather the occupying Muslim “migrants.” It is sad to see, but it was inevitable.
The forces of wokeness have wormed their way into nearly every aspect of our society, notwithstanding its zero appeal to the public. Regardless, they keep at it, pushing their bizarre notions on TV, the movies, literature, and other entertainment, presumably with the notion that if we’re beaten over the head enough, their crackpot ideas will eventually gain acceptance, or at least tolerance. Lately they have turned their attention to corporations, with predictably disastrous results (why should the results differ any from the entertainment industry’s?).
Predating the latest woke clown show at Cracker Barrell, we witnessed the near-demise of the established and successful brands, Target Stores, and the subdivision of Anheuser Busch, Bud Light, makers of that god-awful beer-product, which was originally aimed at working-class men, but no more. Both brands, as most retail products do from time to time, suffered a dip in sales. Somehow, woke marketing experts (sic) persuaded the execs in charge that only a woke remake, or, as the perpetrators call it, a “brand refreshment,” would save their companies. What this entailed was devoting all their efforts, and spending vast sums, to appealing to the surprisingly small woke market, i.e., mostly snotty upper-income white women, collosal bores who espouse every wacko PC notion contrary to conventional mores. Amazingly, the execs bought into it and watched helplessly as sales and shares tanked for Bud Light and Target stores. Now, for the third time, execs for an old, established firm, Cracker Barrell, have done similarly and have seen exactly the same results.
Your Tatler’s father was securities analyst, among other things, for a respected Wall Street firm, White, Weld & Co. (long gone). I remember evenings he would come home from work, pour himself a scotch, sit in his favorite armchair, and read his Wall Street Journal. More often than not, he would mutter to no one in particular: “This country is running out of brains.” Sadly, decades after his death, Dad’s complaint is as valid as ever, especially concerning the private sector.
That splendidly dreadful expression is the creation of a Catholic staffer st the Twitchy, Amy Curtis, a traditional Catholic and a convert, devised the term when writing a piece about a Catholic church in Denver that has drifted far from Catholic teachings.
In addition to her own thoughts, Curtis presents us with a good number of quotes on X that illustrate the deplorable state of so many Catholic churches that have completely lost sight of what Catholic worship should be.
She writes
The push by some to make the Catholic Church ‘modern’ and ‘relevant’ to the current culture has turned some parishes into bastions of what this writer calls ‘morally therapeutic deism’ as opposed to, you know, Catholic Churches.
The abuses are considerable. The church in question is Most Precious Blood Catholic Church in Denver, but it is hardly unique, with Catholic churches far and wide engaging in nonsensical and even blasphemous practices.
Commenter David writes, for example,
Priest in Denver preaches Gospel, warns of hell, reminds them missing Mass is a sin, removes feminist art and the laity spaz out and are concerned about their “psychological safety.” Can’t make this up
Unfortunately, David, one can make this up and salient commentary shows us that parishioners are as much to blame as are misguided priests.
From the Denver Post read how modernist parishioners resent it when a priest tries to clean things up.
A rift within the Most Precious Blood Catholic Church parish fueled a petition with more than 750 signatures calling for Denver Archbishop Samuel Aquila to address [Fr Daniel] Ciucci’s leadership, accusing the pastor of eroding a vibrant, welcoming faith community with “fire and brimstone,” dogmatic messaging and a refusal to listen to parishioners.
Former Most Precious Blood parishioners said the fracture within the church since Ciucci was installed four years ago — in part because of more progressive Catholics clashing with a traditionalist priest — represents a microcosm of what’s happening within and without the archdiocese.
Another deplorable example of what traditionalist priests have to deal with, again comes from commenter David
One of the issues the Priest had to address was “ensuring people were not taking the Eucharist home.” I had to read that one twice to believe it. If that’s an issue this place is in need of serious change.
Serious change indeed. Taking the host home is a new and appalling abuse to this blogger and obviously a consequence of allowing receiving the host on the hand. What this convert, even after many years, still has trouble accepting is how so many putative Catholics ignore the Catechism entirely or make personal “amendments” to it to fashion Catholic worship more to their liking, even when they are just plain wrong. That seems to be the case with Most Precious Blood Church, and until Fr. Ciucci came along, priests and higher-ups appeared to have zero qualms about do-it-yourself worship. For shame.
Holiness, your work is cut out for you.
Is there a correlation to hideous ecclesial architecture and abhorrent behavior by the parishioners?
The phrase “morally theraputic deism” has been around since the early 2000s. The writer Rod Dreher has used it frequently to describe the kind of degraded Christianity found in many places, notably Main Line Protestant denominations.
While nursing some unpleasantness, I happened upon a recording, via streaming, of an outstanding young Slovenian pianist I had not heard before, Alexander Gadjiev, who is a romantic of the likes not heard on the concert stage for many years.
By “romantic,” Mr Gadjiev is of the old school of pianists, which to this blogger means always being faithful to the composer, but unafraid of making the music his as the composer’s. Which is as it should be, especially with music of mid-19th century and later.
Too many modern-day pianists, to these ears, seem almost reluctant to let themselves go when playing the romantics. Not Mr Gadjiev, who seems to relish the opportunity to present his ideas to the audience. Listen to him play Scriabin’s Étude in D-sharp minor, Op. 8, No. 12, which epitomizes romanticism, even in its key. It was a favorite of Vladimir Horowitz, who pretty much owned the work, and which Gadjiev could well take title to . Whether coïncidence or not, it is saved for last in his newly released album, Legends, which, in its romantic fury, seems the perfect ending to this splendid collection.
THE TAOS TATLER. 