For the truly mad are those souls devoured with ambition, while the faithful and loyal are called fools. Anthony Esolen

Quotes for a Wednesday

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Laughing Fool ca. 1500 | possibly by Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen 

Yes, weak men have done their best to destroy the Church since Judas. When Napoleon warned Pope Pius VII's Secretary of State that he had the power to destroy the Church, Cardinal Ercole Consalvi responded with pluck, “Your majesty, we, the Catholic clergy, have done our best to destroy the Church for the last 1,800 years. We have not succeeded, and neither will you.” The Holy Spirit is in charge. There is no other explanation for the Church's continued existence. But we can do our part to pray for healing, grace, clarity, and true leadership from all our shepherds.

2 Things To Do When Shepherds Don't Shepherd
by Theology of Home on November 29, 2020

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It will be very difficult pastorally to reform the “open house” inclusive approach, because many regard the reception of Communion as being like accepting a biscuit and a cup of tea. . . .In an age of religious indifference and ignorance, the indiscriminate reception of Holy Communion is against the tradition and bad for the spiritual health of the Church.

Wouldn’t you think it was time and then some for everyone – popes, bishops, priests – to do something about that?

Biden and Communion
by Russell Shaw (citing George Cardinal Pell)

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The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. The problem isn't even that Johnny can't think. The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.

Thomas Sowell

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Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves. 

T. S. Eliot, The Cocktail Party, (London: Faber and Faber, 1974), p. 111. 

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If you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.

Thomas Sowell

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POPE LEO XIV

The right to freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, religious freedom, and even the right to life are being restricted in the name of other so-called new rights, with the result that the very framework of human rights is losing its vitality and creating space for force and oppression. This occurs when each right becomes self-referential, and especially when it becomes disconnected from reality, nature, and truth.

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