What Happened in Vegas?

A gunman in Las Vegas has murdered over fifty people, and seriously injured many more, in an hour long shooting rampage, apparently using a high-powered, high-calibre machine gun, perched 32 storys above the ground (well above 500 feet), picking off concert-goers like they were targets in a video game. But this was no game, nor no teenager, but rather a 64 year-old retired accountant, with some kind of obscure grudge. Perhaps it was just his utter emptiness, with the Devil prowling around looking for somewhere to perch his bony claws. As the Gospel says, if a demon finds an empty abode, he goes and finds seven devils worse than himself to come and make their home. As is usual in these things, the gunman turned the gun on himself before the cops could find him, honing in on the smoke alarm set off by the cordite in the maze of rooms in the massive Mandalay.

God rest the souls of the victims, speedy recovery to the wounded, and grant mercy to the gunman, should he have sought such in that final moment.

And here in Canada we have another apparent ‘lone wolf’, a Somalian refugee running down a number of people, including a police officer, before stabbing him, then leading other officers on a high speed chase before being captured, alive. So far, no one has died, praise God.

The 2002 film-noir Minority Report, based on an earlier novellete by Philip K. Dick, takes place in the year 2054, when they have the capacity to predict crimes before they happen, and arrest the would-be perpetrators before they carry out their mayhem. In the story, the police rely on Pre-Cogs, mutants whom they keep in captivity who can ‘see’ the future.

In real life, there is no real way to predict and prevent such evils. As I pointed out a while back, there are far more guns in America than there are people, so that cat is out of the proverbial bag.

And who is to say which of the millions of Muslims will decide one day to take the Koran a tad-too literally, even having a swerve-inducing ‘illumination’ of sorts while driving, say, his multi-ton U-Haul down a street in Edmonton? All it takes is one or two jihadi prophets to create a whole lot of misery.

On second thought, there is one way to strive to prevent such evil, and that is to have a more integrated, cohesive Catholic Christian culture, filled with goodness, love, laughter, songs, children, books, music, fine food, families, all within a solid liturgical, sacramental framework, founded upon a clear theology, living life as though one is destined for eternity, and must live in such a way that he will be found worthy of God.  Then there will be few, if any, empty souls.

But that, dear reader, would not be ‘diverse’ enough, I suppose.

So we will have to live with more unpredictable mayhem, as our culture quite literally dis-integrates, with each one doing what he thinks right in his own eyes. It was at just such a juncture that the Lord in the post-Exodus Old Testament sent the Judges to judge Israel, just as He may soon render judgement upon us, a process that seems already to have begun.

Then again, we do have the Guardian Angels, those mighty and gentle spirits whom we honour today.  So call upon them, for their task is to lead us to eternity.  And fear not, for his Angel will go before you, so that you will not even strike your foot against a stone, at least in the spiritual sense.

Carney’s Amoral Majority

After five defections – euphemistically described as ‘crossing the floor’ – and three by-elections, Mark Carney and his Liberals how have their coveted majority. One wonders what bowls of pottage were offered in back-room deals. In the archaic monarchical system that is the Dominion of Canada, this majority allows the newly-minted Prime Minister to rule[…]Continue reading→

Saint Kateri , Canada’s Protectress

This was the title given to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, by Pope Benedict XVI, when he canonized her on October 28th, 2012, along with six others, in Saint Peter’ Square (she had been beatified by Pope John Paul II back in 1980). With Saint Joseph as our protector, along with the Canadian martyrs, we seem to[…]Continue reading→

A Tale of Two Benedicts

A grace-filled Holy Week to all our readers! As we await and prepare for the Resurrection about to dawn upon us, we might keep in mind two Benedicts: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, requiescat in pace, elected on this day in 2005; and today’s commemoration of the mystic pilgrim, Benedict Joseph Labre, who died on this[…]Continue reading→

My Name is Bernadette

April 16th is a propitious day, for besides the anniversary of Father de Valk’s death, who founded Catholic Insight in its print form decades ago, and the commemoration of the ‘two Benedicts’, mentioned in accompanying posts, today we also recall Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the young visionary to whom the Virgin Mary appeared numerous times at[…]Continue reading→

Saint Lydwina of Schiedam and Suffering Joyfully

Saint Lydwina of Schiedam (1380 – 1433) was one of the countless and glorious ‘victim souls’ in the history of the Church, those whose lives are filled with suffering, often of an unimaginable intensity, but who suffer joyfully. She was a fifteen-year old Dutch girl, out skating one day, when she fell and broke one[…]Continue reading→

The Glorious Martyrdoms of Martin and Maximus

As we enter into Eastertide, we recall on this 13th of April Pope Saint Martin I (+655), one of the noblest, if most tragic, of the successors of Saint Peter. Born in Umbria, Italy, he was of noble lineage, with great intelligence combined with charity and love of the poor and the Church. While still[…]Continue reading→

Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów

We celebrate Saint Stanislaus today (+ April 11, 1079), in light of this Easter Octave, a bishop and martyr who accepted the episcopacy only at the direct order of Pope Alexander II. He proved a wise and courageous leader of his flock, put to death by his own king, Boleslaus, for rebuking the monarch’s ‘immoral[…]Continue reading→

Saint Gemma Galgani

On this April 11th, in 1903 – the same year that the Italian Guiseppe Sarto was elected Pope later that summer as Pius X – a lovely, young Italian woman died, by the name of Gemma Galgani. She lived a brief life of 24 years, as did a number of other young saints, including Pier[…]Continue reading→

An Ideological and Improper Translation

I noticed something odd with the psalm reading at Mass the other day. Our bishops’ conference here in Canada has decreed that the Mass in English – Novus Ordo – use the ‘NRSV’, the ‘New Revised Standard Version’, an ‘updated’ translation of the original RSV, first published in 1952. This ‘new translation’ has the tendency[…]Continue reading→

Saint Jean-Baptiste de la Salle: A Teacher for Teachers

Jean-Baptiste de la Salle (1651 – 1719), a French nobleman, ordained a priest, founded the first order in the Church’s history entirely without priests, and this came about almost by accident. I say ‘almost’, for, of course, there are no accidents with God. Destined for ordination from an early age, Jean-Baptiste never looked back, even[…]Continue reading→