The Disastrous DNC and Cardinal Cupich

It sounds like a parody in a tragic comedy, like an even more-inverted Monty Python come full circle: Attendees at the recent Demo(n)cratic National Convention were offered ‘free abortions and vasectomies‘:

Planned Parenthood Great Rivers, which operates in parts of Missouri and Illinois, will park its mobile health clinic near the DNC on Aug. 19 and Aug. 20, according to The New York Times. Medication abortions are reportedly available on both days, with vasectomies being exclusively offered Monday.

Even prescinding from the vicious moral disorder involved in each of these ‘procedures’, admittedly of different gravity – one the direct murder of an unborn child, the other the removal of one’s reproductive powers – one would think that their irrevocable nature would require some level of aforethought and consideration, and not require the immediate services of a ‘mobile health clinic’, like a roving hot dog truck at a baseball game.

The mind reels, recalling Hannah Arendt’s description of the ‘banality of evil’ in the bureaucratic Nazi regime, mass murder reduced to numbers and statistics. Ho hum. Another baby dismembered, and another man sterilized, all in one, easy convenient RV.

A recent article sums up what a the current ‘Democratic’ governance of America would entail:

A Harris-Walz presidency would be noteworthy not simply for the extremity of their abortion and gender policies, but also for the fanatical zealousness with which they pursue them. With no close contender, theirs would be the most anti-life, anti-woman, and anti-family presidency in the history of the country. Unborn and unwanted newborn children would be exterminated. Women would be reduced to objects for the sexual satisfaction of men. Women-only spaces would be eradicated. And parents would lose authority over the medical care of their own children.

Read the rest. Never mind Catholics – no one of sane and sober mind can vote for these two ideologues, hiding beneath a veneer of forced laughs and ‘joy’, masking deep and abiding evil.

So, what about the presence and prayer of Cardinal Blase Cupich? His conscience is his own, before he will stand before God. But we might say that it’s one thing to pray for the Democrats – in the sense of interceding, like Moses for the apostate Israelites, arms outstretched, beseeching the mercy of God before His justice is manifest. It’s quite another to pray for them, in the sense of supporting their cause, or even seeming to support their cause. His opening prayer for this debacle did not include any reference to Christ, and odd that his pectoral cross was surreptitiously in absentia, hidden in a pocket. His first few words urged the participants to ‘protect God’s handiwork’, but I guess that doesn’t include the unborn, who, as the Psalm sings, are knit together in their mother’s womb. The cardinal also prayed that they become ‘instruments of God’s peace’, but as Mother Teresa said, as long as we have abortion, we will never have peace. And what of his exhortation to promote ‘human dignity’? Of what are we worthy, especially the most vulnerable, if not life itself? The prayer was anodyne, sure not to offend anyone, except those who recognize what was missing, and that to which the Cardinal was giving his episcopal blessing.

Today’s reading from Ezekiel (34:1-11) should give some food for thought for our shepherds, who – from the perspective of the lowly man in the pew – are not only too comfortable with those who promote the culture of death, but also, for all appearances, leave the swathe of its amoral proponents, heads bowed in that secular stadium acting as a quasi-cathedral, too comfortable in their own seared consciences – as are we all, to some degree, I fear.

A reckoning is on its way, and none of us should feel complacent, far less compliant, in this blood-dimmed tide washing over the world. The centre may not seem to be holding – but hold it will, for the true centre is Christ, whose Cross and Truth will stand, dum volvitur orbis.

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→

Remembering Father Alphonse de Valk

(Today marks the sixth anniversary of the death of Father Alphonse de Valk, C.S.B., a faithful, courageous and indefatigable Basilian priest, pro-life-and-family apostle, and the founder of Catholic Insight magazine. Here is what we wrote those on his entering into eternity five years ago, as we continue to remember him in our prayers and thoughts)[…]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→

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→

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→

Weronika Krawczyk and Injustice in Poland

Catholic Action in Poland has issued a formal statement appealing to the President of the Republic of Poland to pardon Weronika Krawczyk—convicted for warning other women against an abortion-performing gynaecologist. Catholic Action (AK) emphasizes that no apology is owed to a doctor who has performed numerous abortions and proposed others; furthermore, the organization considers the[…]Continue reading→

Three Easter Musical Gems: Bach, Palestrina and Byrd

A very blessed and glorious Easter! Christus surrexit vere, alleluia! As we begin this Easter Octave with the great Solemnity of Easter, music to lift the soul would be one of Bach’s Easter cantatas, composed during his time at Leipzig in the early 1700’s, for the six Sundays of this festive season, leading up to[…]Continue reading→

Saint Isidore of Seville, the Internet and Industriousness

Today, April 4th, muted this year by Holy Saturday, is the commemoration of Saint Isidore of Seville (560-636) a bishop and doctor of the Church during a tumultuous age, when civilization was crumbling, coming apart at its very seams, which may sound sort of au courant. Then again, the form of this world has always[…]Continue reading→

An Ancient Homily for Holy Saturday

The time between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is one of waiting, in silence, as the world wonders – anticipates – what will happen, after the death of Christ. We re-live this time each year in the anamnesis of our liturgy, and in turn look forward to the glorious re-creation of all things at the[…]Continue reading→