Guardian Angel Alarm Clock

My guardian angel is named Grace, at least that's the name I've given the lovely spiritual being that God has given me for a personal protector and a guide. A number of years ago, someone told me that a guardian angel will awaken a person at the time requested. When I must get up at a specific time, I ask my guardian angel to awaken me. [Being a person of relatively weak faith, I've also set the alarm clock as a backup.]

Invariably, I awaken shortly before the alarm clock goes off. It never fails, and it also means my spouse is not awakened by the ringing alarm because I shut it off first. A couple of times, our alarm clock was mis- or never set, yet I awakened at the proper time--even though it may have been earlier or later than the time I had decided on during the prior evening. I've concluded that Grace knows the time I need to arise better than I do. The last time, I didn't set the alarm clock and sure enough, I was awakened at the right time. [Grace is also a very good co-driver--sometimes warning others I am going to do something stupid so they can get out of the way!]

An internet search of "guardian angel" and alarm clock produced interesting tidbits of information on St. Padre Pio's guardian angel, including:

Father Alessio Parente was assigned to assist the fragile monk from the chapel to his monastic cell every day. But Father Parente had a habit of oversleeping. Often he wouldn't hear his alarm clock or, half awake, he would switch it off. "Every time I overslept," he says, "I heard a voice in my sleep saying, 'Alessio, Alessio, come down!' and a knocking at my door....

St. Padre Pio told Fr. Allesio that he sent his guardian angel to awaken Fr. Allesio.

Here is an important twice-daily prayer I say to my guardian angel:

Angel of God, my guardian dear,
To whom God's love commits me here.
Ever this day [night], be at my side,
To light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen.

Some of God's Gifts

I often think about how good God has been to me. Here are some of His places and things I see and love near where I live.....

Kansas Wheat Fields

Here are photos of Kansas wheat fields in Springtime==some of my husband's favorite places to visit.

Where I Think We Are...

WolfTracker left an interesting comment on the previous post re Bishops' Scorecard:

...even after all of the evidence you show to the contrary, you state that things [in the Church] are not "significantly improving." Surely, things are improving drastically, even if not all is all right. Perhaps, I misread your summation. Please help me out.

WT, I think we are now on the upside curve of the 'decline and resurgence' graph of strength within the Catholic Church in the U.S. The graphed line is intended to represent the precipitous fall when so much was lost in the past 40 years. My estimate of where we are now is marked at slightly beyond the low point and climbing.

We are a long way from climbing as fast as we fell, and we are likely to never reach the opposite of that severe decline rate in church strength. For example, weekend (Sunday) Mass attendance fell from approximately 70 percent attendance to 30 percent in 40 years--averaging about 1 percent decline per year for approximately 40 million Catholics (400,000 less Mass attendees per year). It is hard for me to imagine that we can gain 400,000 more regular Mass attendees per year over the next 40 years (but I do believe in God's miracles, especially when inspired by saintly lives and preaching!)

I cannot yet say that things are "significantly improving," although we seem to be advancing to that point. I will use the word "significantly" only when there is at least a sizable increase from the lowest value on the chart. I don't think we have yet reached that point--for example, in number of regular Mass-going Catholics, or in sacramental confessions and marriages.

Good Bishops are now coming on the scene, and one of the most optimistic reports I've seen is the news reported by Sandro Magister that Pope Benedict XVI is very carefully reviewing candidates for Bishops.

Much more than curia appointments, Benedict XVI has at heart the appointment of bishops.

He dedicates much greater attention to these than John Paul II did. Before giving his permission, the pope keeps the dossiers of the designates on his desk for up to two or three weeks. And sometimes he rejects them, without giving an explanation to the competent curia dicastery presided over by cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.

Pope Ratzinger is very demanding; he wants bishops of quality, and doesn’t always find them. The pace of episcopal appointments has fallen by a quarter with him, in comparison with the previous pontificate.

However, even a good Pope and good Bishops will have an extremely difficult job to restore and rebuild the Church to the point where most Catholics regularly attend Mass, get married before living together, and understand the importance of frequent confession. Moreover, the technologically adept secularists and pagans oppose the teachings of Christ and have a great deal more power in society than 40 years ago.

Scorecard for Kansas City Bishops

Since 1968, a scorecard that rated performance for most Kansas City Catholic Bishops would have been marked with many deficiencies, justifying grades of "D" and "F". However, almsgiving was not lost during the past 40 years as the Church continued its beautiful work for the poor. [Unfortunately, 'love' also was used by some Bishops to justify the extinction of common sense, as could be seen when examining lists of grantees and expenses receiving diocesan 'charitable' funds.]

Fortunately, the current two Bishops (Bishop Robert W. Finn and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann) of Greater Kansas City deserve much, much better grades than most recent KC Bishops. I wish I had started to summarize their accomplishments when each Bishop took charge, but I really thought they did not have what was needed to dig the Church out of the pit of Modernism. However, the list of our current Bishops' good and faithful works gets longer and longer.

1. The Leaven and The Catholic Key diocesan newspapers are much improved. [Lots could be said in support of this conclusion--perhaps in a future post. The Key is now better than The Leaven, in my opinion.]

2. The diocesan leaderships are no longer hotbeds of dissent, even if some local parishes and 'Catholic' colleges remain bulwarks of Modernism.

3. The Bishops acknowledge and support the contributions and aspirations of traditional Catholics, even giving churches for the offering of the old Latin Mass and allowing FSSP and ICKSP priests to serve as chaplains.

4. Bishop Finn shows character, strength, and wisdom when dealing with dissenters. ['Nuff said!]

5. Archbishop Naumann seems to have taken a quieter approach in handling dissenters, but the results also seem fairly good, as diocesan Masses seem less 'experimental' than before. [Interestingly, I've observed two Kansas parishes where people were invited to kneel at the beginning of Mass where they ask God for forgiveness of their sins. I assume Archbishop Naumann is responsible for this welcome 'innovation.']

6. Archbishop Naumann and Bishop Finn are both strong pro-life supporters. Almost every week, their diocesan newspapers have an article or two on the life issues, and Archbishop Naumann usually leads a monthly rosary march to the abortion clinic in Kansas City, KS. In addition, both Bishops lead efforts to ban harvesting of stem cells from aborted infants, and Archbishop Naumann sponsored the production of a stem cell video to encourage opposition to the practice.

7. Bishop Finn has recruited the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of the Apostles, a traditional group of Catholic nuns, and is extending considerable support and encouragement to them.

8. Both Bishops recognize the evil of pornography and have organized programs to combat it.

9. Archbishop Naumann, a member of the Bishops' Committee on Marriage and Family Life, appears to recognize the great danger to the Church of the loss of over 50 percent of Catholic marriages. See my related post.

10. Archbishop Naumann has written many good columns in The Leaven that teach Catholic doctrine and that address thorny issues, such as contraception, 'free' love, and confession.

11. The two Bishops jointly sponsored the Annual Corpus Christi procession from St. Thomas More Church to Avila College, emphasizing Catholic belief in transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ.

12. Bishop Finn has appointed faithful stewards of Catholic teaching to key roles in his diocese.

13. Both Bishops are working very hard and successfully to get religious vocations. Bishop Finn just announced that the Missouri diocese now has 25 seminarians. He promoted a diocesan observance of 30 Days of Prayer to St. Joseph for vocations that ended when he led a pilgrimage to St. Joseph's Oratory of Mount Royal in Montreal, Quebec. [It's heartening to see Bishop Finn is not afraid to get on his knees! Photo from The Key.]

14. Archbishop Naumann recognizes the importance of serving the homeschooling community. The Savior Pastoral Center was the site of a recent homeschooling conference and Laura Berquist will promote homeschooling at a July 15 conference starting at 1:00 pm at Benedictine College in Atchison, KS.

16. Archbishop Naumann is not afraid to publicly confront Governor Kathleen Sebelius on her pro-abortion activities. [Catholic pro-lifers are still waiting for the Archbishop to publicly acknowledge that the Kansas governor has removed herself from the Catholic Church and should no longer receive Communion. See my related post.]

17. Bishop Finn and Archbishop Naumann are co-sponsoring a Global Living Rosary during May 2008 at Kauffman Stadium. Also see here.

Not everything is all right or even significantly improving, but events over the past two years indicate that the days of unopposed Modernism in Kansas City have come to an end. Moreover, there is a resurgence of faith and Catholic action that I haven't seen for a long, long time.

Vatican Finances and Vatican Radio

Yesterday (July 6, 2007), the Vatican released a summary of their financial statement for last year, and today Cardinal Sergio Sebastiani, president of the Vatican's Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, released additional financial notes.

It seems apropos to review the spending and income of the Holy See because Peter's Pence is collected at this time of the year by U.S. Catholic Churches. A surplus of 2.4 million euro was reported, and it seems the institutional activity of the Holy See cut expenses (Secretariat of State, congregations, councils, tribunals, the Synod of Bishops and various other offices). More importantly, the donations that came from Episcopal Conferences, dioceses, religious Institutes, faithful and various Entities increased from 73.9 million euro in 2005 to 86 million euro in 2006. Contributions for Peter's Pence grew to 74.6 million euro in 2006 as against the 2005 total of 46.7 million.

A major drain on Vatican resources appears to be Vatican Radio (deficit of about 23.8 million euro) and L'Osservatore Romano (deficit of 4.4 million euro), even though the Vatican Printing Office and the Vatican Television Center reported surpluses. All newspapers are struggling with the revolutions of the information world, so L'Osservatore Romano's problems are not unexpected.

The large 2006 deficit is not the first Vatican Radio deficit. In 2004, several Cardinals also questioned a large annual deficit of Vatican Radio. In addition, the 2000 financial statement also reported a large deficit for Vatican Radio, noting that the number of hours transmitted in the year were almost 24,000, and that many [2000] Jubilee events were transmitted in as many as 60 languages.

The most useful information on the large annual deficits of Vatican Radio were reported in 2006 by CNS:

Vatican Radio, which accepts no advertising, and the Vatican newspaper, which accepts very little, are traditional drains on Vatican revenues.

One day after he was appointed director of the Vatican press office, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, who also serves as general director of Vatican Radio, told reporters the radio is working on reducing its deficit, which amounted to $29.9 million in 2005.

He said the radio was committed to reducing its staff from 395 employees to 335 by 2013, primarily by not replacing retiring workers whose jobs can be handled easily by others with the help of new technology.

As for advertising, he said the question was not only "ideological," but practical as well. Advertisers want to know how many people they will reach in a targeted geographic area, information Vatican Radio does not have for its programs broadcast in more than 40 languages around the world.

If you would like to listen to Vatican Radio, the signal is broadcast to North America on iTuner. I listened this morning to interviews with student astronomers given a chance to study at the Vatican observatory, and especially to an interview with Anita Garibaldi Hibbert, the great granddaughter of the Italian revolutionary, Giuseppe Garibaldi. Anita Garibaldi is the curator of Garibaldi 2007, a celebration of his revolutionary life.

The Risorgimento was the Italian revolution against the Papacy during the 19th century that was lead by Mazzini, Garibaldi, and Cavour -- all ardent Freemasons associated with the Carbonari. Wikipedia notes that the Carbonari (coal-burners) was "at the root of many of the outbreaks in Italy from 1820 on." The Carbonari was formed in southern Italy and was inspired by the principles of the French revolution. The controversial document, the Alta Vendita, was attributed to the Sicilian Carbonari. Wikipedia comments that the Alta Vendita details an alleged Masonic plan to infiltrate the Roman Catholic church and spread liberal ideas within it.

It was surprising (or perhaps not!) that the Vatican Radio is promoting Garibaldi's Bicentennial. In her introduction, Tracy McClure (the Vatican Radio interviewer) even called Garibaldi "one of Italy's greatest heroes." This in spite of the fact that Garibaldi was noted by his great granddaughter as getting to know many young woman and quickly forgetting them.

Frankly, I was not impressed with Vatican Radio and hope it goes "down the tube" if the stuff I listened to is typical of their programming. What I listened to showed Vatican Radio is more an enemy than a friend of the Church.

Motu Proprio in English

The Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum, was issued in Latin but both Whispers in the Loggia and Rorate Coeli have English versions.

I know of one Wichita diocesan priest who claims he will be one of the first priests in the U.S. to take advantage of the Motu Proprio and offer the old Latin Mass now permitted by Pope Benedict XVI. He has been training himself in the rubrics using a DVD produced by the SSPX, although there appears to be a number of other sources, especially the priests' training program developed jointly by Una Voce and the FSSP.

Deo Gratias.

Religious Education in Catholic Schools

I'd like to know if the problems of yesterday's religious education still exist in Catholic parochial schools and CCD programs. Comments from parents of or students in Catholic schools are solicited. From my own experiences of many years ago, here are examples of Catholic religious education during several time periods.

1950's--Grade school religion was taught using the Baltimore Catechisms and a small volume that summarized the Old and New Testaments. Our pastor would come into the classroom and ask us questions that we had to answer using what had been taught by the nuns (who he once noted were NOT very good theologians).

One question that I particularly remember was, "Can God make a circle that isn't round, or that has an endpoint?" We kids stumbled around, some saying yes and some saying no. We knew God could do all things--every power was His--yet we couldn't imagine His creating a circle of such a difficult to conceive nature. Our pastor finally told us that God could not create a lie, and the contradiction of an unround circle with an endpoint was a lie. If God lied, then He would violate His truthfulness and goodness and that was impossible. It was a very good discussion of the power of God.

During high school religion classes, we used a more advanced version of the St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism, but mostly studied Catholic history using a book written by a Fr. John Laux. Better histories have been written, but this was a good book for Catholic students in the 1950's. More importantly, the assistant pastor who taught religion talked to us personally. I remember when he asked if I was going to attend a public university, and when I said 'yes,' he was very disappointed. He then told me that "Excellent Catholics who attend a public university will become good Catholics, good Catholics will become fair, fair Catholics will become poor, and poor Catholics will become no Catholics at all."

When our assistant pastor said this, I resolved not to let it happen to me. I tried to attend daily Mass at 6:30 am while in college. A very good decision, because my husband says that is a big reason why he married me! Both of us also attended religion classes sponsored by the Catholic church and the Newman Club.

1960's--After Vatican II, I taught CCD to public school students in the middle grades. By the second half of the 60's, the religious education programs were becoming quite deficient and even very misleading. One Saturday, I was told to bring my fourth grade students to see a video presentation, "This Sunday Party," written and produced by a priest, Robert Hovda, of the Fargo diocese who was then working in Washington, DC with the National Liturgical Conference, a radical and very active Catholic organization during the 1960's.

It is informative to know more about this renegade priest who spearheaded much of the work of the NLC--so let's digress a little bit. Please note that in 1964, the National Liturgical Conference meeting in St. Louis celebrated the first official high Mass said in English in the U.S. Catholic Church.

The National Liturgical Conference continued to hold large annual conventions around the U.S during the 1960's. One convention was held in Kansas City, MO on August 21-24, 1967. Several small Catholic newspapers and magazines (introduced to me by my adoptive Godmother) had begun to pick up on the craziness of the time, and I became quite interested in what the NLC organizers were going to do at the Kansas City convention which was held in the Municipal Auditorium.

Because I had morning sickness (that was particularly bad in the evening!), I asked my husband to attend the advertised "Mass of the Future" after he left work. He came home and described four screens mounted at the four ends of the large arena. My husband said the offertory of the "Mass of the Future" featured a ping pong ball bouncing from one screen to the next--all around the arena. Many other bad things occurred from what my friends told me, and Bishop Hallinan's address made things worse by saying the Bishops "can prod those who are indifferent to the changes [of Vatican II], a more important task than curbing those whose enthusiasms outdistance their experience and skill." A good review of Hallinan's speech is also given by Adoremus.

The following year (1968), the annual convention was held in Washington, DC and it was W_ I_L_D! Check out the button ticket needed to enter the convention. One year later, Wikipedia reports that the first “rock mass” was produced, "featuring Minnie Ripperton and the Rotary Connection, at the Liturgical Conference National Convention, Milwaukee Arena, Milwaukee, WI, 1969, with thousands attending." The Wanderer newspaper sent a reporter to cover the convention, but nothing was printed in this orthodox Catholic newspaper. The editor explained that the convention "Mass" was sacrilegious and they could not describe it without sinning. [Much more information about the liturgical power of the NLC, its connection with ICEL, and its genesis of the English Mass is found in this article written by Michael Davies, the modern historian to whom I owe so much for a good understanding of what happened before, during, and after Vatican II.]

Now back to Hovda's slide show and my CCD class. The slide show taught the children that in the Mass, "we eat the bread and drink the wine"--which is exactly what one of my students answered when the assistant pastor asked the class what they had just learned. The young priest quickly responded, "No, no! In the Mass, we eat Christ's Body and drink His blood under the forms of bread and wine." I will never forget the puzzled and disappointed face of the young girl who had answered truthfully what she had heard and seen in the Hovda slide show. Later I asked the assistant pastor to withdraw the slide show from future use, but he made some excuse that it must still be shown to the students.

Early 1970's--Our own children were in Catholic grade school and learned very little about their faith from the new and very deficient catechisms. Even the religious songs were bad. I confronted one nun who was teaching my children a song with words that were heretical. I asked her to explain why she used religious songs. She suddenly realized her answer, that songs were repetitive means used to more effectively teach students the faith, was self-condemning.

One of the last straws was the introduction of the "Becoming a Person" program in the Catholic grade school. This objectionable sex education program was likely related to the 1961 book by Carl Rogers, On Becoming a Person. Many parents objected, and so the program was allowed to be 'voluntary', with children allowed to be excused if the parents insisted. My husband and I did insist, yet within a couple of weeks, the principal called to apologize because our children had been "accidentally left in the classroom" when the "Becoming a Person" sex education program was taught.

About this time I toured the classrooms during teacher-parent conferences and found some of the displays quite unsuitable, unworthy of a Catholic bulletin board, and even objectionable. One that I particularly remember was of the stations of the cross. It had been changed. Now the image of the fall of Jesus as he carried his cross up Calvary was pictured as the beating of a black person by a white police officer.

In short, we found our situation in the typical Catholic school of the early 1970's more than a challenge--it was a spiritual disaster. We moved (another story), and this decision was the best we could have ever made to save our souls and the souls of our children.

At the Bedside...

Three old ladies, of whom I was one, visited Mrs. E this afternoon in her home. Each of us had been called and told Mrs. E now was sleeping most of the time--and that her body "was beginning to shut down." The hospice nurse said that this very elderly woman (approaching 100 years) will live only a very few more days. She drank a little water last night, but none today. I offered Mrs. E some newly picked black raspberries a couple of times, which I know she loves, but she did not respond.

Mrs. E received the Sacrament of the Sick and Dying about three weeks ago in her last hospital stay, and appeared quite happy when the priest confirmed all her sins were forgiven her. Her granddaughter has been saying the rosary with her. This afternoon we three old ladies prayed three rosaries at the bedside of Mrs. E. During the first rosary, Mrs. E attempted to make the responses, but then seemed to be asleep.

The very small bedroom of Mrs. E is very Catholic. Above the head of the bed is a picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. On one side wall, someone has framed about six or seven very old Holy Cards belonging to Mrs. E's mother, who died about 25 years ago. A crucifix hangs on the opposite wall. At the foot of the bed is a dresser on which is placed a statue of the baby Jesus in His Mother Mary's arms.

After the last rosary, one of us recommended we all pray the Act of Contrition to ask God for forgiveness for our sins. It is a good prayer to say at the bedside of a dying person because his/her hearing is usually the last sense to be lost. Please keep Mrs. E and her family in your prayers over the next few days, then remember to pray for her as a possible poor soul in purgatory.

Resourcefulness in Children .... and Wallace

Fr. John Fullerton, District Superior of the Society of Saint Pius X, writes that assigned chores and hobbies are necessary to develop resourcefulness in children. He adds that creative and educational hobbies are endangered by TV, video games, and surfing the web.

The story of a very resourceful young student was told to me recently by a 91-year old woman. She described her days in the southwestern desert where she and her family tried to eke out a living on a farm when it was expected the crop would fail two out of every three years. Loans from the bank allowed farmers to survive in the off-years.

Thirteen-year old Wallace, a sixth grader, was a fellow student in the consolidated school of the early 1920's. Wallace's father was a farmer who had bid successfully with the school district to provide a canvas covered truck to transport the children the long distances to and from the school. Interestingly, the farmer always made his young son, Wallace, drive the "school bus".

One day, the bus left school and went about a mile and a half before it ran out of gas. Wallace had to walk back to get gas and carry it in a can to the bus. The other kids shivered on the wood benches under the tarp-covered truck until Wallace returned, filled the gas tank, and drove the students the rest of the way home.

Wallace had to be especially resourceful the day when the bus broke down. While he and a couple of other boys repaired the truck, the late autumn weather was delightful and the girls decided to walk home with the full moon rising on the eastern horizon. In about an hour, Wallace and the boys were good enough mechanics to get the bus running again to pick up the girls and drive them the rest of the way home.

Can you imagine this example of youthful responsibility and ingenuity happening today? Resourcefulness in children seems to be limited to family environments where a lot of children (or grossly defective parents) require the children to take care of themselves and their siblings. Maybe, just maybe, some of these children will be as responsible and resourceful as Wallace Lockmiller.

Missale Romanum

Did you know that a 16.5 MB pdf file of the Missale Romanum is available here? You won't be able to print it, but you can see and search it. Compliments to the German site kath.net and its community forums for this information.

The latest news on the coming Motu Proprio again is found at Rorate Coeli.

A Long Remembered Lesson About Envy

When I was ten years old I was very sick with pneumonia. The doctor arrived at our house and brought penicillin, a new drug at the time. When I saw the needle, I freaked out and it took three grown people to hold me down while I was given an injection. Naturally, I became immediately better, but the doctor also prescribed continuing doses of oral penicillin that tasted terrible. Being a rather difficult child, I clenched my teeth and refused to take it.

After all cajoling and threats did not work, my Aunt E decided to bribe me. If I swallowed the foul-tasting medicine and finished the bottle, she and my Uncle B would buy me a pair of cowboy boots. At that time, my life revolved around playing cowboys and Indians in the barn and in the woods--well, what could you expect from a kid who loved to watch Roy Rogers' movies. So I gulped the sickening medicine down as fast as I could and a short time later got my beloved cowboy boots. They cost about $10 and probably represented about $70 in today's money.

Naturally my siblings were very impressed and looked longingly at my beautiful brown and cream cowboy boots with the stitched red design. When next Christmas came, my generous uncle and aunt decided to give my brother and sister each a pair of cowboy boots. As the packages were opened, I looked at their NEW boots and compared them with my now worn ones. I became very angry, "They didn't have to swallow that terrible medicine. They shouldn't get any cowboy boots!" Then I ran and pouted and cried.

My Uncle B caught up with me a few minutes later and I'll always remember what he told me in that excellent 'teaching moment'. He asked if I remembered the Gospel told at Mass a few weeks earlier. Then he repeated the story of the laborers in the vineyard, especially:

These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, that have borne the burden of the day and the heats. But he answering said to one of them: Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine, and go thy way: I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? is thy eye evil, because I am good? (Matt 20: 1-16)

I felt very ashamed when I was told that the cowboy boots were given to my siblings because my aunt and uncle tried to be very generous people. It was a lesson I will always remember. May God grant His eternal love to my Uncle B. who died unexpectedly almost 50 years ago.

Severe Decline in Catholic Marriages

U.S. Catholic dioceses reported 426,000 Catholic marriages in 1970 but only about 212,000 in 2006, a decline of 214,000 (or 50%) in the past 36 years, according to Our Sunday Visitor. This statistic means that there are 50% fewer new Catholic families being started than in 1970--even though the population of Catholics has supposedly increased. Moreover, the number of children may be fewer because of contraception.

I wouldn't be surprised if a significant part of the recent 212,000 marriages in 2006 were Catholic because of the parents' faith or wishes, rather than that of the bride and groom. Considering this likely scenario and other statistics, the number of Catholic marriages may indicate that the Catholic church in the U.S. could have decreased in believing members by over 70 percent.

If I were a good Bishop today, it would be hard not to look at the mess left by former Bishops in my diocese and ruefully say, "Thanks a lot, guys--you've made my work a lot harder than it should have been!"

The Motu Proprio - Update

Brian Mershon combines a lot of information on the coming Motu Proprio re the old Latin Mass here.

Corpus Christi - KC Procession

The two Kansas City dioceses are sponsoring a Corpus Christi procession on Sunday afternoon, June 10, beginning at 2:00 p.m. Bishop Robert W. Finn, of the Diocese of Kansas City ~ St. Joseph, and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann, of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, will lead a procession from St. Thomas More Parish, 11822 Holmes Road to Avila University, 11901 Wornall Road, Kansas City, Missouri. Hundreds of people expected to make the 0.75-mile procession that will bring the presence of God to bless and protect the community. See Mapquest street map, although the route may not be as pictured.

At 1 pm the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed for adoration in the church, and opportunities for sacramental confession and reconciliation will be offered. At 2 pm the procession will form and proceed to the college, where Benediction will be sung.

Archbishop Naumann has asked specifically for many young people to participate and is offering t-shirts for the first 500 people that attend from the Kansas Archdiocese!

I highly encourage attendance at this procession, especially because honoring Our Lord's Body and Blood in the Blessed Sacrament is the best way to strengthen our faith for the coming days.

Chinese Leadership & One Child Policy

An official Chinese news site identifies the former occupations of the leaders of the Communist Party of China. Based on the success of the new Chinese technical revolution, I was not too surprised that ALL nine men were trained as engineers.

Hu Jintao--Civil/Hydrological Engineer, hydropower stations
Wu Bangguo--Electronics Engineer, radio electron tubes
Wen Jiabao--Geological Engineer, surveying and prospecting
Jia Qinglin--Electrical/Mechanical Engineer, electric motor and appliance design and manufacture
Zeng Qinghong--Electrical/Mechanical Engineer, automatic controls
Huang Ju--Electrical/Mechanical Engineer, electrical machinery manufacturing
Wu Guanzheng--Mechanical Engineer, thermal measurement and automatic controls
Li Changchun--Electrical/Mechanical Engineer, electric machinery
Luo Gan--Mining and Metallurgical Engineer, machine casting

Engineers are mostly pragmatists--they generally act according to what they observe to work successfully. Therefore, I believe the Chinese leadership will determine that the one-child family is bad for society and the terrible policy will not endure as long as planned. In fact, this may already be happening according to the Wikipedia article on the Chinese one-child policy:

However, some 30 delegates called on the government in the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in March 2007 to abolish the one-child rule because they believe "it creates social problems and personality disorders in young people." and "It is not healthy for children to play only with their parents and be spoiled by them: it is not right to limit the number to two, either." The proposal was prepared by Ye Tingfang, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who suggested that the government at least restore the previous rule that allowed couples to have up to two children. According to this scholar, "the one-child limit is too extreme. It violates nature’s law and, in the long run, will lead to mother nature’s revenge."^[39][40]

May God grant further insights for the Chinese leaders/engineers to see the bad results from abandoning God and His laws of nature. Unfortunately, abortion is still considered the answer to social problems, as in Xi'an Reaches out to Pregnant Girls with Center.

Hoeing the Garden

One comment to a previous post on gardening asked how beautifully straight rows of vegetables with no weeds was obtained. My answer is that you need to hoe--not a lot, but definitely at the right time. This is what we did when my Grandmother lived across the road on her ten acres and Mother took care of our five acres while my Dad was in the Army during WWII.

First, the hired man used Grandma's horse to till the soil before seeds and young plants were placed in the ground. To make straight rows, two sharpened sticks with string made a line to follow for planting.

A narrow, horse-pulled tiller could be used once between the rows of new vegetables. [Now the motorized garden tiller replaces the horse to till the soil between the narrow rows, yet not disturb the plants.] Now I use an old manual rototiller bought at an auction. But it was and still is necessary to use a hoe after the plants begin to spread their foliage.

The first rule of hoeing was to use a sharp hoe. The cutting edge of a new hoe was thinned by hammering the hoe blade held against an anvil. Only when the forward and side edges were thinned sufficiently was a file used to sharpen the blade. After hoeing, the hoe was cleaned (with a stick and oily rag or crumpled aluminum foil) and stored for future use.

My Grandmother used two different hoes, depending on the soil and weed conditions. A newer hoe with a larger blade was used to dig more deeply into compacted soil. The second hoe was much older, yet highly prized, with the blade mostly worn away. The old hoe was much lighter and you could work faster to cut small weeds only slightly below the ground level. In other words, you only skimmed the surface with this hoe.

When hoeing, I was told to advance forward with relatively short arcs of hoeing and not take too much soil at a time. It's easier that way. I never stepped unnecessarily on the ground that had been hoed. If I did, the footprints compressed the soil and weeds could regrow more easily. I've learned to step on the side of a hoed path and re-hoe my footprints to loosen the trampled soil.

If your hoe hit a rock, it was always necessary to pick up the rock so that next year or the following years the same rock would not again dull the hoe blade. When you see rock walls around old farm fields, I believe this was one of the reasons they were built.

The most important rule of hoeing is that it must be done whenever little weeds begin to grow. My Mother must have told me twenty times that hoeing is easy when weeds are small, and the work is so much harder when the weeds are large and well established. I've learned this lesson the hard way more than a few times! [A good lesson with regard to bad habits!]

Hoeing is usually done in hot weather. Get used to it. Definitely wear a wide-brimmed straw hat and a long-sleeved old thin shirt to protect against the sun. Bring drinking water to the garden, even if you plan to go back into the house to take breaks.

When you teach your children to hoe (perhaps 8+ years old), let them hoe for no more than 15 min. Then let them play for a similar time period before they start again. Teach them the right way to hoe. Yes, they'll complain, but it will be good for them to learn to work well. Even better, give your children their own space or row within the garden in which they plant, hoe, and harvest their own berries and vegetables.

My family will always remember that my brother was the King of the County Garden Fair. He was about ten or eleven when he raised onions, tomatoes, and other vegetables. Mother told him to take the garden area where she dumped old vegetation and which had a high organic matter content. Before planting, the garden was fertilized with old composted chicken manure, and perhaps lime was added to reduce soil acidity. [The smell of ammonia/nitrogen was much more pungent with chicken manure than with cow manure.] The spot chosen to grow the contest vegetables also was closest to the faucet which could supply water to the garden when needed.

I especially remember the giant onions and beautiful tomatoes that won the contest. The secret to the onions was to plant them not very deep and to keep the upper soil around them always very loose so they could expand. [A sandy soil also helps.] The tomatoes required watering, but not too much or the skin would crack. Hoeing--YES. That was always necessary in making sure the top soil was loose and free of weeds that would steal the moisture and nutrients.

I don't remember mulching the garden plants, except to place manure close to the plants, yet not too close to burn the roots. If I were younger, I think I'd buy one of the rotating barrels for sale on the internet so that grass clippings could become compost within about a 3-week period. One of my friends uses one and he highly recommends it. I think I'd make my own tumbling composter as is described at WikiHow.

Juli Loesch Wiley

Juli Loesch Wiley has commented wisely about the unwise New Drive Afoot to Pass Equal Rights Amendment. Juli has always been an excellent writer and her current article in Voices continues to enlarge her reputation. More than that, the piece shows how much she has matured from the radical feminist of about 25-30 years ago when I first met her at a National Right to Life Convention.

Juli's background is of a young Catholic woman who worked as a boycott organizer for the United Farm Workers (Cesar Chavez) and then with a community of radical sisters. When I met her, probably in the early 80s, she was a committed pro-life worker who otherwise adhered closely to the liberal social causes of the Democratic party. We talked for almost an hour, and it was a conversation that I remembered for Juli's forthrightness, willingness to listen, and especially because she was never lukewarm about anything in her determined beliefs. Because of her reputation as an outspoken feminist, she reached groups that most pro-lifers would not have touched with a ten-foot pole!

Juli now lives with her husband and homeschooled teenage sons in Johnson City, TN. Her article about the ERA notes clearly that this proposed amendment to the U.S. constitution has precedents at the state level in requiring same-sex marriage, gay adoption, insurance funding for contraception, and public funding for abortion. I read Juli's afterword with even more interest:

Most of the political and legal analysis in this article was derived from two sources: the Arkansas Republican Assembly and Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum. To them I give full acknowledgement and gratitude for their indispensable work.

Juli's new (and presumably somewhat autobiographical) novel, Emma's Journal, describes "an activist's journey from living as a lay woman in a community of radical sisters to founding a movement combining peace and pro-life conviction -- who, following tribulation, pain and grace, eventually finds her heart's home." I suspect that if Juli and I talked again, we would agree much more than we did in the early 60s.

Old Time Garden

I passed by a new garden this morning on the way home from Mass and it reminded me of the way my Mother used to garden. That is, with straight rows and NO WEEDS! Enjoy the photos of beets, onions, and beans.

Gov. Sebelius at Planned Parenthood Fundraiser

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius spoke this evening to the Planned Parenthood fundraiser at the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, MO. This "Catholic" politician avoided meeting many prolifers who waited at several entrances to the Museum by using a separate entrance through the Blue Room jazz club. Some prolifers said they also saw Dr. George Tiller of Wichita, KS (who specializes in late-term abortions) enter the PP fundraiser. Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the U.S.

Catholic Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City, KS has criticized Sebelius openly in his archdiocesan newspaper because of her veto of a bill that would have curbed violations of Kansas law on abortions. The Archbishop urged Catholics to pray for Sebelius to "reconsider her long-held position supporting legalized abortion." At least one pro-life sign this evening asked if Sebelius now would be excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

Priests and nuns who prayed the rosary outside the PP fundraiser included Fr. Norm Weslin, who is distinguished for his many years of heroic work saving babies from abortion. He is an ex-military officer who has been arrested over 70 times for his mighty pro-life efforts. I recommend Fr. Frank Pavone's (Priests for Life) interview of Fr. Weslin here. Fr. Weslin may be most distinguished by the enemies he has made, as shown by any search of the web. I admire someone who does not fear to be hated by God's enemies.

Wolftracker also came to the protest of Planned Parenthood. Be sure and read his post here.