The Trouble With Jesuits, part 37

 Fr. James Martin, S.J. is a pretty popular guy, but a typical Jesuit. On his Facebook page he helpfully provides us with this:

NB: No ad hominem. No uncharitable remarks whatsoever about any person or group. No homophobic remarks. Mo more than one or two posts per person. And Catholics who disagree with the Supreme Court decision must treat gays with "respect, compassion and sensitivity," as the Catechism asks.
For a very different perspective than the USCCB (see post below) here is the statement of New Ways Ministry, which ministers to LGBT Catholics.

The screed includes this:
 
The U.S. bishops now need to reconcile themselves to the new social reality of marriage equality, as it is poised to spread to all 50 states. They can do so by entering into a dialogue with lesbian and gay Catholics to learn more about the reality of their lives and how their faith inspires their relationships. The bishops should declare a moratorium on firing lesbian and gay church employees who have married legally. These firings have been a scandalous trend with effects that are harmful not only to the people involved, but to the life of the Church.

Of course, the USCCB is all in with the New Ways Ministry:



New Ways Ministry has recently criticized efforts by the Church to defend the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman and has urged Catholics to support electoral initiatives to establish same-sex "marriage." No one should be misled by the claim that New Ways Ministry provides an authentic interpretation of Catholic teaching and an authentic Catholic pastoral practice. Their claim to be Catholic only confuses the faithful regarding the authentic teaching and ministry of the Church with respect to persons with a homosexual inclination. Accordingly, I wish to make it clear that, like other groups that claim to be Catholic but deny central aspects of Church teaching, New Ways Ministry has no approval or recognition from the Catholic Church and that they cannot speak on behalf of the Catholic faithful in the United States.

The Evolution of Hate

Some thoughts. First, tweets from Father Morris. You may have seen him on FOX News:

  
Fr. Jonathan Morris ‏@fatherjonathan

Walking down Broadway and 22nd St just now, I ran into gay marriage parade. Two men walked by and spat on me. Oh well... I deserve worse.

 The two men who spat on me are probably very good man caught up in excitement and past resentment. Most in that parade would not do that.

 The Episcopal Church sponsored float in gay parade with dancing man or woman (not sure) with short skirt and g-string. Something is wrong.

I agree with David French, who writes for the National Review:

 Christians often strive to be seen as the “nicest” or “most loving” people in their communities. Especially among Evangelicals, there is a naïve belief that if only we were winsome enough, kind enough, and compassionate enough, the culture would welcome us with open arms. But now our love — expressed in the fullness of a Gospel that identifies homosexual conduct as sin but then provides eternal hope through justification and sanctification — is hate. Christians who’ve not suffered for their faith often romanticize persecution. They imagine themselves willing to lose their jobs, their liberty, or even their lives for standing up for the Gospel. Yet when the moment comes, at least here in the United States, they often find that they simply can’t abide being called “hateful.” It creates a desperate, panicked response. “No, you don’t understand. I’m not like those people — the religious right.” Thus, at the end of the day, a church that descends from apostles who withstood beatings finds itself unable to withstand tweetings. Social scorn is worse than the lash. This is the era of sexual liberty — the marriage of hedonism to meaning — and the establishment of a new civic religion. The black-robed priesthood has spoken. Will the church bow before their new masters?

Cardianl George may have been a prophet:

 “I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square.”

The Vince Musetto Feast of St. John the Baptist

And because I like this video so much, I am going to post it again

The Anti-Snow Miser

In his encyclical Laudato Si’, published today, the pope lambasts wasteful consumerism and unchecked human economic activity as a root of climate change, singling out one product in particular for censure: the air conditioner. “A simple example [of harmful habits of consumption] is the increasing use and power of air-conditioning,” Francis writes. “The markets, which immediately benefit from sales, stimulate ever greater demand. An outsider looking at our world would be amazed at such behavior, which at times appears self-destructive.”

The Anti-Pope

As Michelle Malkin points out:

. While the pontiff sanctimoniously attacks “those who are obsessed with maximizing profits,” Carrier Corporation — a $13 billion for-profit company with 43,000 employees worldwide (now a unit of U.S.-based United Technologies Corp.) — ensures that the air in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel stays clean and cool. Last fall, Carrier unveiled a groundbreaking HVAC system for the Vatican to help preserve Michelangelo’s masterpieces against pollution caused by the estimated six million visitors who descend on the Sistine Chapel every year to see its famous frescoes.

As the company described it, their new solution “uses two Carrier AquaForce(r) 30XWV water-cooled chillers with Greenspeed(r) intelligence, each with 580 kilowatts of capacity. It leverages specially designed software and components, as well as patented, energy-saving technologies to maintain optimal climate conditions for the protection of the paintings within the chapel.” State-of-the-art intelligent controls “anticipate visitor levels and adjust its performance intuitively.” It also “delivers twice the efficiency and three times the capacity of the former system, which was built and installed by Carrier in the early 1990s.”

 Meanwhile, do you think air conditioning is evil, angry Islamic guy?

"Infidel Cold Air!"

 KARACHI, Pakistan — Karachi’s poor learned long ago to cope with the many adversities that afflict Pakistan’s most crowded and chaotic city, including flooding, street violence and political crises. But since a suffocating heat wave descended on Karachi three days ago, killing at least 650 people, they have found no respite and no escape.

Islamic Outreach, Part LXVII

From an earlier post on this blog:

Pope Francis spoke to the diplomatic corps and amongst other things, said, "Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."

When will we draw the line on these guys???

Pot, Meet Kettle

TURIN, Italy (Reuters) - People who manufacture weapons or invest in weapons industries are hypocrites if they call themselves Christian, Pope Francis said on Sunday.

Francis issued his toughest condemnation to date of the weapons industry at a rally of thousands of young people at the end of the first day of his trip to the Italian city of Turin.

"If you trust only men you have lost," he told the young people in a long, rambling talk about war, trust and politics after putting aside his prepared address.

"It makes me think of ... people, managers, businessmen who call themselves Christian and they manufacture weapons. That leads to a bit a distrust, doesn't it?" he said to applause.
He also criticized those who invest in weapons industries, saying "duplicity is the currency of today ... they say one thing and do another."

Hey! It's the Swiss guard! What do they do?

Currently, the name Swiss Guard generally refers to the Pontifical Swiss Guard of the Holy See stationed at the Vatican in Rome. The Papal Swiss Guard has a bodyguard -like role.

 A small force maintained by the Holy See, it is responsible for the safety of the Pope, including the security of the Apostolic Palace. The Swiss Guard serves as the de facto military of Vatican City.

They don't carry weapons, I hope....well, according to Wikipedia they carry or MAY carry:

 Traditional arms: 

Swords
Common batons
Partisans
Halberds
Flamberges
Cuirass with spaulders.


Modern Arms:
SIG P220
Glock 19
Steyr TMP
Heckler & Koch MP5A3

Heckler & Koch MP7AA1
SIG SG 550
SIG SG 552

Pope Francis, Environmental Scientist

The liberal press is celebrating the new encyclical, and who can blame them! They particularly like this part:

 (120) Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties? “If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away.”

And this:

 (136) [I]t is troubling that, when some ecological movements defend the integrity of the environment, rightly demanding that certain limits be imposed on scientific research, they sometimes fail to apply those same principles to human life. There is a tendency to justify transgressing all boundaries when experimentation is carried out on living human embryos. We forget that the inalienable worth of a human being transcends his or her degree of development. In the same way, when technology disregards the great ethical principles, it ends up considering any practice whatsoever as licit.

Harassment

A co-worker gave me this today. Who do I report her to for harassment charges?

Driving Out the Demons

Vatican City, Jun 16, 2015 / 03:09 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Can a country with deep Christian roots like Mexico find itself at the mercy of demons? Some in the Church fear so.
And as a result, they called for a nation-wide exorcism of Mexico, carried out quietly last month in the cathedral of San Luis Potosí.

Catedral Metropolitana de San Luis Rey

High levels of violence, as well as drug cartels and abortion in the country, were the motivation behind the special rite of exorcism, known as “Exorcismo Magno.”
Cardinal Juan Sandoval Íñiguez, the archbishop emeritus of Guadalajara, presided at the closed doors ceremony, the first ever in the history of Mexico.
Also participating were Archbishop Jesús Carlos Cabrero of San Luis Potosí, Spanish demonologist and exorcist Father José Antonio Fortea, and a smaller group of priests and lay people.
 The event was not made known to the general public beforehand. According to Archbishop Cabrero, the reserved character of the May 20 ceremony was intended to avoid any misguided interpretations of the ritual.
But how can an entire country become infested by demons to the point that it’s necessary to resort to an Exorcismo Magno?

Read the whole thing to find out.

CAUTION - DEMONS BEING DRIVEN OUT!

Hope Springs Eternal

 From The Eye of the Tiber:

Claiming that she was almost certain she had comprehend a word the new visiting Nigerian priest used during the homily, longtime parishioner Abby Longworth excitedly turned to friends and fellow parishioners today to inform them of the good news.
“I wouldn’t put my life on it, but I think he said ‘magisterium,’” Longworth whispered to parishioners, adding that she thinks he may have also used the word “obedient,” which, if her assumption was correct, meant the priest was delivering a homily about being faithful Catholics who adhere to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.

“If my theory is correct, and I pray it is, that would mean that this really is a kick-butt homily. He is Nigerian after all, and Nigerian priests are typically pretty solid, which only strengthens my theory that much more.”
While Longworth is excited to believe that she might’ve just heard a wonderful homily, she is now reportedly bracing herself for next week, when another visiting priest, Fr. Batongbacal Estrella, visits from the Philippines.

Capezio Ballet Shoes Feast Day of St. Vitus, June 15

The saint's feast day is also the subject of a popular weather rhyme: "If St. Vitus' Day be rainy weather, it shall rain for thirty days together". This rhyme often appears in such publications as almanacs; its origin is uncertain.

Sounds about1/3 right (so far)...

 St. Vitus has a lot of patronages. For: actors, dancers, dogs, over-sleepers, comedians. Against: snake bites, storms, epilepsy, and of course, St. Vitus Dance (Sydenham's chorea).

A Flying Saucer Sighting in Brookfield, Illinois!

A flying saucer was spotted landing somewhere in Brookfield, Illinois!

Oops. False alarm. Turns out it was only St. Barbara Catholic Church.

An Addition and a Discovery

I've added a link to St. Anthony Church in Lively Grove under the heading "Churches of Southern Illinois" (right side of page, scroll down). They are in partnership with St. Barbara in Okawville, but I couldn't find anything on the interwebs for them. I also did a search for St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Kinmundy, but didn't find a link. HOWEVER, I did find this little gem....the website for the Kinmundy Historical Society.

The original St. Philomena Church, circa 1870.

The new version, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church

A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation

Bishop Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island

His Excellency Most Reverend  Thomas J. Tobin, Bishop of Providence has something to say about your behavior and attire in Church:

You know what I’m talking about; you’ve seen it too. Hirsute flabmeisters spreading out in the pew, wearing wrinkled, very-short shorts and garish, unbuttoned shirts; mature women with skimpy clothes that reveal way too much, slogging up the aisle accompanied by the flap-flap-flap of their flip-flops; hyperactive gum-chewing kids with messy hair and dirty hands, checking their iPhones and annoying everyone within earshot or eyesight.
These displays reveal a gross misunderstanding of the sacred space we’ve entered in the church and the truly sacred drama taking place in our midst. C’mon – even in the summer, a church is a church, not a beach or a pool deck.

Islamic Outreach, Part LXVI

This goes back to a search on the internet for St. Ann Church in Raddle, Illinois. I came up with St. Ann in Barrington, Illinois instead. It is...well, quite a place.

They had a nice old church, but turned it into this monstrosity and relegated the old church building to a chapel. On the upside, they can clear out the pews and roll in the basketball backboards after Mass.

You may remember it from "Hoosiers".

Anyway, they have a "Faithjustice Committee". Seriously, that's how it;s spelled. "The mission of Faithjustice is to promote awareness, advocacy and action within the parish around justice issues that are impacting people locally, nationally and internationally. Moreover, we are called to be public witnesses within the larger community to the Church’s commitment to human life and dignity with a special preference to those who are voiceless and poor."


Inter-religious Dialogue
Efforts are directed at beginning an on-going discussion with members of Muslim and Jewish communities living in the NW suburbs area.  Participate in local activities which promote understanding of the religious issues and concerns in a pluralistic society.

Meanwhile...

Civic leaders in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have joined the country’s Catholic bishops in saying that a massacre in the Beni territory was carried out by Islamic extremists.
The slaughter of 430 people was orchestrated by jihadists associated with Boko Haram, the Congo leaders said. Islamic militants have established terrorist training camps in the Beni territory, they said. The jihadists are recruiting members from several neighboring African countries, they added. 

Want to shoot some hoops, Angry Islamic Guy?

NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Call to Action

 I would be mad if I could stop laughing long enough. I'm not sure what I like best about this video. The dancing thurible guy? The giant puppet heads standing behind the priest in the orans position during the consecration?  the host the size of an old hub cap? The glass chalice?



Call to Action! Here's their website. I dare you....

By the way, Call to Action is celebrating!

A Rose By Any Other Name

From Taylor Marshall:

On January 2 AD 533, a priest of Rome named Mercurius was elected as the Pope. He felt, however, that it would be unbecoming of the Holy See to have a Pope named after a Roman god “Mercury.” It would sound strange to Roman ears. Think of saying something like “Pope Jupiter” or “Pope Neptune.” So this priest opted not to be called “Pope Mercury” and instead changed his name when he became Pope.
Not all Popes after Mercury chose new names. However, those with extremely non-Roman names (think Germanic Popes) often chose Roman names assimilate into their Roman context. Pope Adalbert just sounds wrong.
Mercury chose the name “John” to honor his papal predecessor Pope John I who died in AD 526. Incidentally, Pope Saint John I was the first Pope to visit Constantinople while serving as Pope.
Pope John II (Mercury) is notable in Church History because obtained from the Emperor Justinian his orthodox profession of the Catholic Faith and his repudiation of the Monophysite heresy.

• Fun Fact #1: The last pope to use his personal baptismal name was Pope Marcellus II in 1555.
  Fun Fact #2: There hadn’t been a new Papal name since AD 913 until Pope Francis! Before Pope Francis, Popes always chose names from the recycled list of previous Papal names. I supposed that “John Paul” is technically a new name, but it’s also a compound name of two previously uses Papal names.

Feast Day of St. Ephram (PBUH), June 9 AND Islamic Outreach Part LXV

Ephrem the Syrian (ca. 306 – 373) was a Syriac deacon and a prolific Syriac-language hymnographer and theologian of the 4th century from the region of Syria. His works are hailed by Christians throughout the world, and many denominations venerate him as a saint. He has been declared a Doctor of the Church in Roman Catholicism. He is especially beloved in the Syriac Orthodox Church. He's the patron of spiritual directors and spiritual leaders.

To honor this great man, our Islamic brothers and sisters have decided to defile a Church named after him:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — One of the largest churches in Mosul, Iraq, will be transformed into a mosque.
According to Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Islamic State militants posted notices throughout the city announcing that the Syrian Orthodox Church of St. Ephrem, which they emptied last fall, will reopen soon as the “mosque of the mujahideen” or jihad fighters.
The news came just before the one-year anniversary of the capture of Mosul by Islamic State fighters June 10.
Fides said the militants’ intention to convert the church into a mosque became clear when they removed the cross from the church’s dome, chose the adjacent buildings to house the headquarters of their “state council” last July, and emptied the church of its furnishings and put them on sale in November….

The Glenlivet Feast Day of St. Columba, June 9

St. Columba (521 A.D. - 596 A.D.)was an Irish abbot who, apparently satisfied with the way things were going in Ireland, headed off to Scotland to convert the Druids and Picts. He founded the Abbey in Iona.

St. Columba is the patron of bookbinders, poets, flood victims, Derry, Ireland as well as all Ireland AND Scotland. He is one of the 12 Apostles of Ireland along with:

1. Saint Ciarán of Saighir (Seir-Kieran). In the Martyrology of Oengus, saint Ciarán of Saighir is not listed as one of the twelve apostles of Ireland.^[3]
2. Saint Ciaran of Clonmacnoise, on the Shannon, in the barony of Garrycastle, County Offaly, died in the year 549.
3. Saint Brendan of Birr, now Birr, County Offaly. He died on 29 November 571.
4. Saint Brendan of Clonfert (Brendan the Navigator). He was the son of Finnloga, the patron saint of the see of Clonfert, in County Galway, was born in 484, and died in 577 aged 94.
5. Saint Columba of Terryglass, abbot of Tir-da-glas, now Terryglass, in the barony of Lower Ormond, in the county of Tipperary, and died in 552, the same year as St. Finen of Clonard.
6. Saint Columba of Iona was born in the year 521, and died in the year 597, aged 75. Columba was an outstanding figure among the Gaelic missionary monks who some of his advocates claim introduced Christianity to the Kingdom of the Picts during the early medieval period.
7. Saint Mobhí of Glasnevin, patron of Glasnaidhen, now Glasnevin, near Dublin. He died on 12 October 545
8. Saint Ruadhain of Lorrha, the patron of Lothra, now Lorrha, in County Tipperary. He died on 15 April 584.
9. Saint Senan of Iniscathay (Scattery Island)
10. Saint Ninnidh the Saintly of Lough Erne, the Pious, the patron of the parish of Inis Muighe Samh, now Inismacsaint, in the north-west of County Fermanagh. He was alive in 530 but the year of his death is uncertain.
11. Saint Laisrén mac Nad Froích, the son of Nadfraech, he was the brother of Aengus, the first Christian king of Munster and died in 570.
12. Saint Canice the patron of Aghaboe in County Laois, who died in 599 at the age of 84.

Altar Relics

I am beginning a quest to find out whose relics are in the altar at St. Joseph Church. If you know, please tell me! ARE there relics in the altar? Father Z answers:

QUAERITUR:

It recently came up in conversation that a consecrated altar should have a relic on it, or perhaps built into it. A friend insisted that the Mass would be illicit (but not invalid) without such a relic present. My question is: What are the requirements for altars in regards to relics? Are they needed for the Mass to be licit and how ought they to be incorporated into the altar?

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal in 302, that the tradition of depositing relics of the saints under a dedicated altar is to be retained. The clear preference is for the depositions of significant and decent sized relics which can be identified and certified.
It is no longer a requirement for the liceity of the Holy Mass that it be offered on a dedicated altar with a relic deposited in it. For a good reason, a priest is permitted to offer Mass elsewhere. However, it is reasonable for a church to have a dedicated (and relic-enclosing) altar, unless the church is temporary or there is some delay in the construction of the permanent, fixed altar.

I hope the relic is interesting, like Kateri Tekakwitha's rib.

A Mysterious (To Me) Article

From Catholic World News:


A canonical visitation of the Monastic Sisters of Bethlehem has begun at the behest of “Rome,” according to La Croix.
The community, which has a Carthusian spirituality, has flourished since its founding in 1950, with over 700 contemplative sisters in nearly three dozen monasteries.
The visitation, entrusted to Father Jean Quris and Benedictine Sister Geneviève Barrière, comes amid allegations of an environment of coercion in which sisters are asked to divulge their thoughts to the prioress but are effectively forbidden to speak with priests, facing rebukes if they spend more than one minute in the confessional. 

"San Hugo en el Refectorio" by Francisco de Zurbarán - Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla.

 Painting from the Carthusian cloister of Nuestra Señora de las Cuevas in Seville by Francisco de Zurbarán. The scene depicts Hugh of Grenoble in a Carthusian monastery.

 Canonical visitation:
The act of an ecclesiastical superior who in the discharge of his office visits persons or places with a view of maintaining faith and discipline, and of correcting abuses by the application of proper remedies. 

Monastic Sisters of Bethlehem:
 The Monastic Family of Bethlehem, of the Assumption of the Virgin and of Saint Bruno (or simply Monks and Sisters of Bethlehem) is a Roman Catholic religious order with Carthusian spirituality founded on November 1, 1950, at Saint Peter's Square, Rome, following the promulgation of the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven, by the inspiration of a small group of French pilgrims. The Monastic Sisters were founded in France, soon after, and the Monastic Brothers in 1976.

Carthusians:

An order founded by St. Bruno. The name is derived from the French chartreuse through the Latin cartusia, of which the English "charterhouse" is a corruption.

Benedictine:
 Nuns.—Nothing very definite can be said as to the first nuns living under the Rule of St. Benedict. St. Gregory the Great certainly tells us that St. Benedict's sister, Scholastica, presided over such a community of religious women who were established in a monastery situated about five miles from his Abbey of Monte Cassino; but whether that was merely an isolated instance, or whether it may be legitimately regarded as the foundation of the female department of the order, is at least an open question.

The Monks of Norcia

The monks have a new album out (or whatever an album is called nowadays), and here's a really good interview with Father Cassian Folsom from National Review.

G.K. Chesterton Says...

Round Up The Usual Suspects

 From Catholic World News:

A Catholic parish in Le Havre and a Russian Orthodox church in Cormeilles-en-Parisis were desecrated in recent days.
In addition, an attempt was made to break into the tabernacle of a parish in Montivilliers, which like Le Havre and Cormeilles-en-Parisis is located in northern France. According to a local media report, “cabalistic signs” were found on the altar cloth. 

What?  "Cabalistic?

That's where the fun began! HURRY! The internet awaits!


 Meriam -Webster:

Definition of CABALISTIC

1: sometimes capitalized :  belonging, according, or relating to the Jewish cabala cabalistic

explanation of an Old Testament text> <cabalistic asceticism>

2:  having an occult, mystical, or esoteric meaning :  magic, mysterious cabalistic

words from our guide — Herman Melville> cabalistic signs over the lintel> cabalistic patterns on the air and uttering at the same time the proper Sanskrit formulas it was believed that goblins and demons … could be exorcised — J. B. Noss>

 In general, I knew Cabala was Jewish mysticism as practices by the likes of Madonna. But then I came across this awesome and I am cetain 100% factual site that explained it to me further:

 

Kabbalism is a system of Jewish mysticism and magic and is the foundational element in modern witchcraft. Virtually all of the great witches and sorcerers of this century were Kabbalists.
— William J. Schnoebelen, in The Dark Side of Freemasonry

 The recent explosion in mainstream interest in cabalism is boosted by the many big-name celebrities who have recently been hawking cabalism as the miraculous answer to all of man's problems. An undercover BBC reporter who infiltrated a London cabala group witnessed singer Madonna and Guy Ritchie chanting mystic spells to "cleanse" Chernobyl, the site in Ukraine of a nuclear plant disaster in 1986.1

 

Other news accounts link entertainers Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, Roseanne Barr, Demi Moore, Shirley MacLaine, Ashton Kutcher, Sandra Bernhard, Barbra Streisand, Dianne Keaton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Goldie Hawn, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger, Uri Gellar, Diane Ladd, Laura Dern and a legion of other "stars" with practice of cabala.2

Look closely when you see any of these people on TV or pictured in magazines and you'll often see the characteristic red string wristband they wear. Lately, former President Bill Clinton's been spotted wearing it—he's a cabalist—and so has Florida's politician Katherine Harris, who became a famous household icon as Florida's Republican Secretary of State during the bizarre 2000 election snafu. Republican bigwig and former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich is reported to be a cabala advocate, and some say conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh and his rabbi are also into the cabala. 

Captain Renault, call your office! "Realizing the importance of the case, my men are rounding up twice the usual number of suspects."

The Trouble With Jesuits, Part 36

Oh brother. Didn't SLU used to be a Jesuit University?

 The College Fix reported:

Saint Louis University has removed a statue on its campus depicting a famous Jesuit missionary priest praying over American Indians after a cohort of students and faculty continued to complain the sculpture symbolized white supremacy, racism and colonialism.
Formerly placed outside the university’s Fusz Hall in the center of the private Catholic university, the statue will go to the university’s art museum, a building just north of the bustling urban campus.

The statue features famous Jesuit Missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet S.J. praying over two American Indians dressed in traditional clothing. Last Monday, just two days after graduation, it was removed from the location it has called home on campus for decades.
A university spokesperson told St. Louis Magazine the statue will be placed within the “historical context of a collection that’s on permanent display in our SLU Museum of Art.” The statue is set for the museum’s “Collection of the Western Jesuit Missions.”
“In more recent years, there have been some faculty and staff who have raised questions about whether the sculpture is culturally sensitive,” SLU spokesman Clayton Berry said.

Most Recent Column From Father Rutler

Father Rutler found out that it wasn't snakes being voted out in Ireland. He's the Pastor of the Church of St Michael in NYC:

May 31, 2015

The Constitution of Ireland begins: “In the name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred, / We, the people of Éire, / Humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ . . .”
The landslide vote in Eire for legalizing the fictitious form of marriage between persons of the same sex, in contradiction of all laws natural and divine, unearths the pulsating Druidism that Saint Patrick and his fellow saints defied. The estimated $17 million from pressure groups in the United States is no excuse, for people will only be pressured if they are willing to be pressured. Another dismal fact is that over 90% of the young people influenced to subscribe to this vote were formed in Catholic schools. The vote was less in favor of inversion and more in hostility to a Church whose Jansenism and clericalism had incubated corruption and lassitude. While most of Europe suffers from the deadly sin of indifference, or sloth, Ireland is in adolescent rebellion, virulent and irrational. This was exploited by political interests hostile to Christian civilization, and their propaganda combined legitimate accusations against ecclesial failings with a left-wing, secularist agenda.
Ireland helped to bring the Faith to America, and when the flourishing of that Faith degenerated here, that donation was returned in the form of a bacillus. Ireland today has among the highest rates of suicide and mental illness in all Europe, and one-third of children there are born out of wedlock. Things are worse in the United States. Look at the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in New York City to see what happens when the honor of a saint is dishonored, and when ambassadors for Christ become nothing more than goodwill ambassadors.
What happened in Ireland was not sudden. Like a dead elephant that remains standing for a short while before collapsing, so the Flame that Patrick kindled on Tara had died long before Catholicism was mixed up with political causes, and ethnic drollery replaced dogma. In mordant irony, just a few weeks ago  the Stormont in Northern Ireland rejected a motion favoring same–sex unions, a motion more indicting for having been introduced by the Sinn Féin, which had long persuaded naïve Americans that it was a Catholic cause.
The Archbishop of Dublin, hardly a firebrand, said: “Marriage is not simply about a wedding ceremony or about two people being in love with each other. Marriage, in the Constitution, is linked with the family and with a concept of family and the mutuality of man and woman as the foundation for the family.”
In light of the fine invocation of the Irish Constitution, the Irish vote is worse than perverse: it is blasphemous. All the great saints of once-verdant Ireland would have used stronger language.