Humpty Dumpty, Revolutions and Two Saints

In one of the many ironies of this Humpty Dumpty age where words no longer mean what they are meant to mean, but only what people want them to mean, the Boy Scouts will now admit girls, which might seem odd, but not if you’re ‘woke’, and a girl may be a boy, a boy a girl, or neither, or both. What of the Girl Guides? I know not – their cookies were all I ever really knew of them – but, another irony, girls want to join boy’s clubs, but boys, not so much girls. Which is why altar boys – again – who admit girls to their ranks soon become a raft of altar servers only of the fairer sex.

I’m more or less with Spanish Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, who claims that gender ideology is the greatest threat to our age. One might have thought thermonuclear bombs, or some random asteroid hurtling uknown towards us, but all they can do is kill the body, while ideology, well, that kills the soul.

And after my reflections on blackface, I was surprised to read of Gucci puling off the market an $850 sweater, with a turtleneck extension that looks a lot like someone engaging in that verboten minstrelsy. What were they thinking? Who’s going to pay nearly a grand for a sweater, blackfaced or not?

Ironic also, for today is the feast of Saint Josephine Bakhita (+1947), one of my favorites (see today’s reflections), not just because my niece shares her name, but for her endurance of suffering, and her endurance in the Church despite being on the receiving end of much scandalous abuse, physical, spiritual, sexual. Bakhita saw the truth behind the tattered veil, and that far more were good in Christ’s Body than bad, and that much good and come from much evil – even if in our hyperconnected age, the same evil, along with the puerile, the ephemeral, often get the most publicity by going ‘viral’, a term that applies a disease vector. Hmm. Another irony.

And today we also celebrate Saint Jerome Emiliani (+1537), who ran away from his home in Venice at the age of 15 after his father’s death, becoming a soldier in the wars then raging, taken prisoner, and underwent a deep conversion from his youthful indifference to religion after what he deemed a miraculous escape at Our Lady’s intercession, devoting his time to the study of theology and works of charity. He was ordained in 1518, focusing his apostolic ministry on the care of the sick and orphans – of whom he is the patron. Others joined him, and an Order was established in 1540 under Pope Paul III, the same pontiff to whom Copernicus dedicated his 1543 De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium on his own deathbed, the summing up of his astronomical theory that the Sun, not the Earth, was at the centre of the cosmos, causing quite a revolution, pun intended, or not.

A good note on which to end, summing up the lives of today’s saints by paraphrasing the great Oratorian Cardinal, Venerable Cesare Baronius, what matters most is not how the heavens go, but how to go to heaven.

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 Closed, Unsustainable, Descending Loop

As a follow-up to my thoughts on Payette’s payout, here be a stark image of where are here in Canada. As the graph shows in, well, graphic terms, since 2025, the public sector has contributed to 95.5% of economic growth. The private sector – which funds the public sector, or is supposed to – has[…]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→

Presidential Pardon of Weronika Krawczyk

As a good news, follow-up to our story from Poland, of the persecution of Weronika Krawczyk for her pro-life views, we heard that she has been granted a presidential pardon. One might still wonder why one needs a presidential pardon for simply holding the long-held belief that the child within the womb is a child,[…]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→

Pope Leo and a Rosary for Peace

Pope Leo XIV has asked Catholics across the world to join him in a Rosary for peace today, at 18:00 Rome time (6 pm), which would be noon from where I write (EST). If you are able, whether at that time or another, and in whatever way you pray, to join in intercession with the[…]Continue reading→

Payette’s Payout

I was glancing through some headlines, and noticed a mention of Julie Payette – engineer and astronaut and sometime the Queen’s representative in Canada – which brought back vague memories. She was appointed Governor-General by Justin Trudeau in 2017. Ms. Payette resigned in 2021, amidst claims that she created a ‘toxic work environment’, with allegations[…]Continue reading→