THE CARDINAL THAT MADE THE WAY FOR TODAY'S POPE FRANCIS AND AMORIS LAETITIA

While I can't find any story on it (someone out there might be able to do so) I know that there was a big controversy in the Catholic Church in the USA after Jackie married Aristotle and also when she received Holy Communion at a Catholic Mass and was photographed doing so. Many Catholics who were not so rich as Jackie, felt that her wealth bought her Holy Communion without an annulment.

This is from Wikipedia:

On October 20, 1968, Jackie Kennedy married her long-time friend Aristotle Onassis, a wealthy Greek shipping magnate who was able to provide the privacy and security she sought for herself and her children.^[146] The wedding took place (without Catholic sanction) on Skorpios, Onassis's private Greek island in the Ionian Sea.^[147] The marriage brought her considerable adverse publicity. The fact that Aristotle was divorced and his ex-wife was still living led to speculation that Jacqueline might be excommunicated by the Roman Catholic church, though that idea was explicitly dismissed by Boston's Archbishop, Cardinal Richard Cushing as "nonsense."^[148] She was condemned as a "public sinner,"

And this time capsule article is from a Time Magazine's All Saints' Day article in 1968, an infamous year in the USA and the Catholic Church and uncannily not unlike today as 1968 returns to the USA and the Catholic Church: 

 Roman Catholics: The Cardinal and Jackie

Friday, Nov. 01, 1968

This idea of saying she's excommunicated, that she's(Jackie Kennedy Onassis)  a public sinner—what a lot of nonsense. Only God knows who is a sinner and who is not. Why can't  she marry whomever she wants?

The speaker defending Jackie Kennedy's marriage to Aristotle Onassis was no gossip columnist or pundit—indeed, few society reporters were so disposed. He was Richard Cardinal Cushing, Archbishop of Boston, Prince of the Holy Roman Church and—as it turned out last week—foremost a friend in need.

My comments: Illicit "marriages" in the Catholic Church and the possibility of receiving Holy Communion without an annulment was in fact the practice in the 1960's and all the way through Pope Benedict's papacy. Pope Francis has placed this "pastoral" theology on steroids.

Some say that this is out of control now. Others say it just confirms the sense of the faithful, to include many in the hierarchy as well as the current pope and must go forward.

What say you?

FROM THE JUST TOO COOL 😎 FILE!

Lucky carrot: Alberta woman finds mother-in-law’s lost ring

In an undated photo provided by Iva Harberg, Mary Grams, 84, holds a carrot that grew through her engagement ring in Alberta, Canada. Grams, who lost her diamond ring 13 years ago while pulling weeds in her garden, is wearing it proudly again after her daughter-in-law pulled it from the ground on a misshapen carrot. Grams, 84, said she can’t believe the vegetable actually grew through and around the diamond engagement ring she had given up for lost. (Iva Harberg/The Canadian Press via AP)

AM I AN ALIEN FROM ANOTHER PLANET? BECAUSE I WAS ON THAT PLANET'S BUS COUNTLESS TIMES BETWEEN 1956 until about 1966 IN ATLANTA AND AUGUSTA!

When we came from Naples, Italy where I was born to Atlanta in 1957 and then to Augusta in 1960, my Tuscana mother did not drive, so my dad made sure we lived very near a city bus stop. Thus I remember riding the bus with my mom to shop in downtown Atlanta and Augusta and what seem to me to be everyday!

And this is exactly what I saw! Please note the sign for where the white section is. That sign was movable and only the bus driver could push it backwards if there were more whites on the bus or forward if fewer whites. Other buses though had a painted line on the floor with whites on one side and blacks on the other!

I also rode the bus to the movies with my friends by ourselves once we turned 12, yes this was another planet! As we got near our homes from returning from the movies, the bus was empty with just my two friends and me and we ran to the back of the bus to sit on the bus-wide back seat, what we called the funny seat since the bounce over road bumps was the most pronounced!

The bus driver laughed and shouted back at us, "who do ya'll think you are, "n..s?" Yes whites called each other "n...s" as well! And when I worked at the Dairy Queen Brazier from about 1968 to 72, and our employer finally integrated the employees, I was quite shocked to here my black friends call each other the "n" word and when I expressed shock, they told me it was quite common, but they could do it, but not whites.

Finally I remember a brave young white woman sneak to move the white sign forward while the bus driver was distracted so an overweight and sweating elderly black woman could sit down! Bless both their hearts! You can imagine how hot our unconditioned buses got in our over 100 degree summer days!

THOSE DOGGONE GENERAL INTERCESSIONS

I had a recent conversation with a very well informed and well formed lay Catholic who was bitterly complaining about the General Intercessions (Universal or Bidding Prayers) in her parish, which  means, not specific prayers, but general and for the entire Church not just one locale.

Often, these prayers are mini ideological statements to the congregation and not prayers to God. Sometimes these prayers, since they are composed by the priest, deacon or God-forbid a committee, are sermons directed to the congregation. Sometimes these prays tell God a thing or two that He doesn't know or wouldn't accomplish save the prayer pointing out to Him His duty. Some prayers hearken to the good old days without discrimination, like slavery, no electricity and no technology.

Here are some bad hyperbolic samples that aren't far from reality:

For the Holy Church of God under Pope Francis, and all the bishops in union with His Holiness as well as the clergy, religious and laity, to include pastors, parochial vicars, pastoral assistants, pastoral council leaders and all the volunteers along with those not in full communion with the Church but only partially, to include their clergy and laity, staffs, paid and volunteer workers and the like, we pray that we will one day be one at the table of the Lord and in fellowship of love based upon the lowest common denominator and inclusiveness. We pray to the Lord.

For world peace, that President Trump would stop his tweeting, insults and slurs and democrat principles and platforms which are congruent with the Catholic Church's social teachings, especially under Pope Francis' papacy, will turn the world from exclusivity and closed boarders and borders to open boarders and borders, as well as love and forgiveness which knows no boundaries. We pray to the Lord.

For the sick and the suffering, those on the periphery, with aids and krone's sufferers and other such miladies but especially for the poor with no health insurance that they might be cared for by the government when we elect the right leaders and for relatives and friends that will not institutionalize the sick, elderly or chronically sick in mind, body or spirit in nursing homes or other horrible places but will have generous open not shut hearts to care for them at home risking even their own health and financial stability. We pray to the Lord.

I must say, that in the past, my own general intercessions have been wordy and preachy too. I won't give any examples as I am too embarrassed. 

But in recent months I have repented of my verbosity and this is what our typical intercessions look and hear like:

For the Holy Church of God, we pray to the Lord.

For world leaders, we pray to the Lord.

For peace and justice for all from the moment of conception. We pray to the Lord.

For the sick and suffering and all in need. We pray to the Lord.

For the conversion of those who promote hate and violence. We pray to the Lord.

For vocations to the priesthood, diaconate and religous life. We pray to the Lord.

For the faithful departed and those who mourn. We pray to the Lord.

For our personal intentions offered in silence (pause) We pray to the Lord.

 DISCUSS among yourselves! 

THE BEST WAY TO COMMEMORATE THE 500TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION

From the Augustine Institute: This year marks the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation Join Dr. Christopher Blum on a journey with six great saints who spearheaded the Church’s rebirth from the turbulence and confusion caused by the Protestant Reformation.

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THURSDAY'S GOSPEL FOR MASS IN THE ORDINARY FORM--DID YOU HEAR A HOMILY ON IT?

Today's Gospel, Thursday, August 17th was Jesus' parable about forgiveness and the master who wanted his servant to pay him back, but the slave begged for time and forgiveness and was granted it. But then that servant, himself a master, treated his servant in a completely unforgiving way and threatened to have him tortured.

And then Jesus says to us that we'll be treated the same way as the one thrown into prison, tortured and the like unless we forgive our brother from our hearts.

Given today's climate, what did your priest or deacon preach about?

THE VICIOUSNESS OF POLITICS WITH OUR 24 HOUR POLITICAL PARTY CABLE NEWS NETWORKS AND THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

Politics has always been a rough sport and more so today than ever. President Trump should be called out by religious figures and others for his name calling during his candidacy which was an embarrassment to say the least but entertaining to many people which caused ratings to go sky high during the debates. Money speaks you know!

President Trump is his own worst enemy when it comes to these kinds of remarks and his off the teleprompter free-wheeling expressions.

On Saturday he condemned hate groups and what was happen in Charlottesville--but he was castigated for not naming the two worst groups there, the KKK and neo-Nazis.

He was very clear on Monday and castigated them by name. But to hear the political pundits it was too late.

Then the President linked both sides, the alt right and the alt left for being complicit in the violence at the rally. It is here that I think the politics of the 24 hour political party cable news networks are really malicious.

I watched a good part of the live reality show on Fox and CNN on Saturday as I ate lunch at my recliner. I saw violent acts on both sides (prior to the car episode) and both sides were not separated and confronted each other--who is the blame here?

Once again the elephant in the room:

I have already stated that personally I think it is wrong to give permits to march and spew to hate groups especially the KKK and Neo-Nazis--but others tell me they have a constitutional rather to assemble and free speech.

But in giving this permit to them, did they have a right to carry guns and other weapons out in the open?

And then those who came out in righteous anger against hate groups--they did not have a permit and yet they had signs and carried weapons and then confronted the group that the city had allowed through a permit to gather and spew--the KKK and neo-Nazis.

Who is wrong here. I would say that there is blame to go all around. Giving a legal platform for hate groups to gather with weapons and threatening devices is one problem. Not separating the righteously angry group who had no permit from the permitted group is another area to blame.

That both groups were allowed to engage each other in hostile acts is another area to blame and I suspect it is the cops.

So what is going on here. Trump called out the un-permitted group for engaging the permitted group in a confrontational and close proximity manner.

The elephant in the room? The permit and the unpermitted?

WHERE'S THE ANATHEMAS? A PASTORAL ECUMENICAL COUNCIL AND NEW EMPHASIS ON ACCOMPANYING SINNERS OUT OF A PASTORAL CONCERN LEADS CATHOLIC BISHOPS TO BE WIMPISH ON MORTAL SIN AND ETERNAL DAMNATION--WHERE ARE THE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EXCOMMUNICATIONS AND ANATHEMAS FOR CATHOLICS WHO BELONG TO HATE GROUPS?

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EXCOMMUNICATION: A PURIFYING, PURGATORY TYPE FIRE!

Once again we see Catholic bishops wringing their hands over white racism and hate groups like the KKK and neo-Nazis. But why in the name of God and all that is holy are there not local bishops and groups of bishops issuing anathemas and public excommunications to those Catholics who actually belong to these kinds of groups and warning everyone that those who belong to these groups, Catholic or not, are going hell?

Vatican II, a pastoral, not dogmatic Council, which issued no anathemas whatsoever although there was plenty of fodder in the 1960's to do so and the subsequent development pastoral theology into a form of a new rigid doctrine or dogma has done great harm to the Church.

Public excommunication is not to be mean-spirited but to send a clear message to the one excommunicated and to the larger world, that certain forms of behavior are not to be tolerated in the Catholic Church when done with compunction and no desire to repent and sin no more. When a public disavowal of the evil one lives is made and then the sinner reconciled, the public excommunication is publicly lifted.

And this applies to Catholic politicians who support abortion on demand and promote ideologies contrary to the Church's clear teachings on sexuality and marriage.

But where are these public excommunications that only local bishops can perform and the Vatican should encourage?

We don't need academic statements coming from our bishops on hate groups and wringing our hands and lamenting their existence. We need sort, terse and direct condemnation and letters from our bishops that are short and to the point to be read at every Mass in particular dioceses. 

Forget political and pastoral correctness!!

AND THEN WE HAVE THIS HATE FROM THE "ALT-LEFT" AS REPORTED BY NEWSWEEK THROUGH YAHOO NEWS!

Gay high-tech mogul gives $300 million to counter homophobia

Newsweek 3 hours ago

A Colorado high-tech multimillionaire backing LGBT activism warns that his foundation will “ punish the wicked ”—those who oppose the political agenda advanced in the name of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans. Tim Gill created the Gill Foundation with a $300 million endowment to promote LGBT legislation. The foundation, based in Denver, has worked against religious freedom measures since 1994. “It’s the religious right that decided to make marriage an issue. They worked tirelessly on it for decades, and they lost,” Gill said in a recent interview in Rolling Stone magazine. After the 2015 Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states, ...

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HATE SOCIETIES AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND OTHER ODDS AND ENDS AS IT CONCERNS POURING GASOLINE ON FIRE

Ever since I have been teaching RCIA for over 37 years, I tell those who want to become Catholic, that conversion is the goal of the RCIA process. Of course this conversion is a grace from God that has to come from the human heart, a change of mind and a new course of action rooted in the Faith and Morals of the Catholic Church.

Thus, I tell would-be Catholics that they cannot belong to any hate groups. Normally in the south, the only hate group that I knew of was the KKK. To be honest with you, I can't say that any Catholic I have known as a priest over the last 37 years actually belonged to the KKK. But I made clear that if someone belonged to the KKK, they could not become Catholic.

I do not know of anyone in my neck of Georgia over the last 61 years that I have lived here who was or is a neo-Nazi. I may have known war brides from Germany who may have been Nazi sympathizers or supported Hitler. But that's another story.

I wonder how many RCIA programs actually warn those in the RCIA that they cannot be a Catholic and belong to a hate group, such as the KKK or neo-Nazis or actual Nazis?

I also tell them, and this is a greater problem, that they cannot belong to the Masons. They have to renounce their membership.

My question to those canonists who know better than I, is a Catholic excommunicated for belonging to the KKK or neo-Nazi groups and for that matter crime syndicates and  violent gangs?

For a list of Catholics excommunicated from the Catholic Church over the past 21 centuries, read Wikipedia's list here.

I also mention that one's political affiliation must be judged for the reasons why they belong to that party or support it. For example, all of us have the internet with its instant access to the good, the bad and the ugly--some of it illegal. The same is true of Cable TV that provides all kinds of pornography for your viewing pleasure as well as extremely violent content. Do we have to cease using the internet and get rid of cable? No, but it is wrong to access the material provided that leads to our sin both mortal and venial and even to criminal prosecution.


The same is true of our political affiliation. If one voted for President Trump because they felt he supported the ideologies of the various hate groups in the news now, this would be a mortal sin, if one knew doing so, voting for a candidate for this reason, is wrong, and with full consent of the will, which usually entails foresight and planning, one votes for a politician because of their perceived endorsement (right or wrong) of hate groups.

 But if one voted for President Trump for economic reasons, his desire to make American great and the whole host of others positive things that were a part of his campaign and agenda, that's a different story. 

The same is true of the Democrat party. If a Catholic is a democrat because of the pro-choice, pro-abortion platform to include abortion on demand as well as partial birth abortion, then being a democrat is an immoral choice and could possibly lead to a private excommunication for supporting abortion or being complicit in abortions.  

But if one is a democrat because many things on their platform are congruent with Catholic teaching as is also the case with the Republican party, then that's a different story.

Finally the odds and ends and pouring gasoline on a flickering flame or raging fire:

I watch both CNN and FOX and often go back and forth to see how each communicates the news. Fox presents its perspective in a lighthearted and often humorous way unlike CNN which is dour and dark. There are no pickled pepper faces on FOX unlike those on CNN, especially Jake Tappper !

It doesn't take a media annalist to figure out that Fox News leans to the right, sometimes the far right and CNN leads to the left and often the far left with its snarky and elitist view of the world.    

With the current controversy and  drama that surrounds our president daily and his presidency, I personally feel that I get more accurate information from Fox even with its right leaning perspective than I do from CNN which seems to want to pour gasoline on flickering flames and fires.

This morning (Wednesday, August 16) as well as yesterday, CNN seems to have become unhinged in its hatred for this president. 

We all know that there are mentally unbalanced people on the far right and far left with serious and pathological anger issues and some quite capable of murder as we saw on Saturday.  

Is it wise for a network news program to seek to promote or wish for the removal of a president with whom their ideology and politics differ in so many significant and insignificant ways? Should they simply state the news and leave it to those in the Legislative and Judicial branches of government to determine when a president should be removed from office?

Is CNN unhinged and going too far and provoking violence from like-minded but pathologically  unhinged leftists against a sitting president which could lead to an assassination, a coup and even lead to civil war? 

HINDSIGHT IS ALWAYS 20/20 AND WE SEE MORAL ISSUES WITH CLEAR VISION, BUT WHAT ABOUT TODAY'S BLINDSPOTS? DO WE HAVE TO WAIT 200 YEARS BEFORE WE BITTERLY COMPLAIN ABOUT TODAY'S INJUSTICES?

Legalized abortion, the killing of babies, where even some advocate partial and full birth "abortions" is promoted by the ideologies of the left and main stream politicians like Hilary Clinton and President Barack Obama and many others, some who are "Catholic."

Like slavery and segregation before legalized abortion, there were voices that supported these things. Today we are very enlightened about past events long overturned but quite blind to what is happening under our noses in the present.

Of course long before Donald Trump who himself worked for NBC, we see how horrible the rhetoric and words used by rank and file people today and in public is. We can blame Hollywood for mainstreaming the crassness of our current culture. Eyebrows were raised when Clark Gable used the words "I don't give a damn" in 1939. Little did they know what would be used in future movies.

And now in television, all kinds of expletives are used on broadcast TV. Even the "F" word is used in commercial by CNN but bleeped partially out. And the "B" word for males or females is often employed. Isn't that as bad as the "n" word that would never be used today.

This is a good article from the Federalist:

If We’re Tearing Down White Supremacy, Start With Planned Parenthood

The Federalist 6 hours ago

It is a rich if tragic irony that the same progressives denouncing Richard Spencer and demanding that municipal statues be torn down for their alleged white supremacist qualities are themselves closely aligned with a white supremacist-tied group. I am speaking, of course, of Planned Parenthood, which is to the abortion-loving Left what Adolf Hitler’s bunker would have become to fascists had Germany not demolished it in the late 1980s: a sort of holy shrine upon which adulation and adoration can be fixated. The racist, eugenicist roots of Planned Parenthood are well-documented, as is the paranoid racial and eugenic visions of its founder, Margaret Sanger, who spoke of her desire to create “a new ...

Read more

PROPERS IN THE ORDINARY FORM FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE ASSUMPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY: DID ANYONE HEAR THESE TODAY AT LEAST IN PART?

You can view the Ordinary Form's Propers for the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary by pressing this sentence. Did you hear them?

 

JUST AS ROBERT E. LEE'S MONUMENTS ARE BEING REMOVED IN THE SOUTH, SHOULD ANYONE BE CELEBRATING THE FOUNDER OF THE PROTESTANT SCHISM WHO WAS ALSO AN ANTI SEMITE?

 

Martin Luther Is About Nationalism, Not About Religion

The Lutheran schism was the first manifestation of German nationalism according to the historian Maria Elvira Roca Barela writing in the leftwing Spanish daily El País (July 23). Roca states that interpreting Luther as a religious phenomenon does not help to understand him. For her "Luther was the great defender of the oligarchies, the religious guarantor of a late feudalism that kept Germany in backwardness and poverty."

Roca notices Luther's hatred for the non-German world, among them Jews, and recalls that the Kristallnacht on 9-10 November 1938 during which Jewish property was destroyed in Germany, was explicitly connected to the 450 birthday of Martin Luther.

Nevertheless the big assumption of the Luther jubilee is that Protestant Germany is morally superior to the non-Protestant world according to Roca.

Picture: Martin Luther, #newsNwicigkmsq

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SAINT ANNE'S IN RICHMOND HILL TO KEEP ITS MARTHA AND MARY CHAPEL OPENED (UNLOCKED) DURING OFFICE HOURS MONDAY THROUGH FRIDAY

I have been a priest for 37 years. For 36 of those years I have been assigned to parishes where the doors of the church were unlocked for most of the day, usually during office hours. Keep in mind that 32 of those years were in parishes in the center of  downtown.

Then last year I was moved to a suburban parish 20 miles south of downtown Savannah in Richmond Hill. We have a large new church and a smaller original church (built by Henry Ford as a Congregationalist church and named for his mother and mother-in-law, Martha and Mary) and both of these are locked unless Mass is being offered.

But no more! Today (Monday, the Vigil of the Assumption) our Martha and Mary Chapel will remain unlocked for personal prayer and meditation Monday through Friday during our office hours.

I indicated to our parishioners that the opened chapel is not just for us, but for the community to use for private prayer and that they should invite them to consider using the chapel when they would like as a place to pray.

In all my other parishes, especially the downtown ones, all kinds of people, not just Catholics, came to pray in our church. In fact I remember vividly in my downtown parish in Augusta on 9/11 all kinds of people coming to Most Holy Trinity to pray because those downtown, Catholic or not, knew the Catholic Church was open for prayer. And we had all kinds of downtown Protestants coming to our 12:15 PM daily Mass on 9/11, so much so, that the church that seats almost 800 was full!

This all leads me to the "new evangelization" of recent popes as well as Pope Francis' take on it. His Holiness is calling the Church (all of us, not just the clergy and religious) away from "maintenance " to new methods of reaching out especially to those on the "periphery" or to Catholics who feel excluded.

Usually, though, this is a call to historically predominantly Catholic countries/communities who took it for granted that the majority of people in their locale were Catholic and 95% of them engaged in the Church on some sort of level, even if superficial. There wasn't as need to reach out unless they sent missionaries to places where there was a need to "plant" the Catholic Church.

This is no longer the case in those areas as today as only 12% might be engaged on some sort of level.

But here in the south, like the Diocese of Savannah, Catholics have always been a minority and we all have been challenged and marginalized by the predominantly non-Catholic culture

We are also more aware to use some of the methods of our Protestant brothers and sisters to be more welcoming of those who don't "belong" to us. We don't want to proselytize as the Fundamentalists do, but we can borrow much from the Protestants that are congruent with our theology and style!

But back to the unlocked church. Isn't having an open church where anyone without being approached by someone in the church to join, can come in for peace, quiet, prayer, contemplation and adoration,  a good way to reach out not only to practicing Catholics but those Catholics on the fringe and to non Catholics? Isn't an unlocked church a ministry of evangelization in and of itself?

WHEN THE CHOICE OF A VESTMENT MAKES THE CONGREGATION HAVE VERTIGO WHEN LOOKING AT IT, THAT VESTMENT ISN'T A GOOD CHOICE! NO?

This makes my stomach queezy:

JUST ANOTHER HO HUM DAY IN THE AREA NOT FAR FROM RICHMOND HILL

You just take it for granted and move on, nothing to see here!

RON GROHOSKI Submitted

Sun City Hilton Head resident Ron Grohoski came across this enormous alligator while on his morning bike ride.

AND WHILE THE LEFT CONDEMNS CULTURES OF THE PAST FOR WHAT WAS LEGAL THEN BUT DEADLY WRONG THEN AND NOW, WHERE ARE THEY WHEN IT COMES TO THE LEGAL RIGHT TO KILL CHILDREN IN THE WOMB OF THEIR MOTHER?

REALLY? I WONDER IF THIS LEGAL RIGHT AND WARPED MENTALITY WILL BE CHALLENGED A HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW?

Many people during slavery thought it was fine to have it especially in the south where its economy was built upon slavery and benefited so many on a personal level--forget those who suffered under slavery, the owners benefited and they had a legal right to own! And given slavery's legality, it was their personal decision to have slaves and should not then be a legal debate as it concerns their personal choice to take advantage of the law that allowed slavery.

I could never figure out how good people in the segregated south, good people that I knew, wanted the segregated south to remain, separate but equal. Of course separate but equal wasn't! But it was the law and they abided, because someone was personally benefiting from this legalized institution in the south.

Since Roe V. Wade, abortion, like segregation and slavery before it, is legal and remains legal today--abortion the killing, the murder of innocent human life, homicide, is legal in the USA. Who bats an eye apart from fanatical pro-life Christians? Even the main stream media applauds a mother's right to kill her child, to commit infanticide, homicide, murder, all in the name of her personal needs discussed with her nurse or doctor. It is a personal decision not a legal debate after all!

And when pro-life Christians protest in front of an abortion clinic that its personnel murders innocent human life, which side does the press take and most of liberal America? The child's side, the one being murdered, or the murdering abortionists and the mother's right to choose to make this decision?

How is it that our progressive American culture today accepts abortion as evil as it is and wants to remove Robert E. Lee's statues from parks throughout the south because he supported the legality of slavery based upon states' rights and the fact that it was legal in the south? Logically, where is the difference and why do we uphold abortion clinics whose economy profits off of the murder of babies?

And as I recall both Hilary Clinton and President Barack Obama, our first mixed raced president, were in favor of partial birth abortion. Should they have statues and monument erected in their honor? And if there are statues and monuments already built in their honor, should not these  be removed now and not wait for a future recognition of the great evil of abortion and the murders of millions and millions of babies since 1973?

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM: WHO GRANTED THE PERMIT TO GATHER TO WHITE RACISTS AND NEO NAZIS?

Yesterday afternoon, I watched some of the disgraceful acts by white racists and neo Nazis live on CNN and Fox. Of course the 24 hour news networks turn these things into a "reality show" as we sit back on our recliners and watch what is transforming right before our very eyes as we snack or eat lunch.

No one criticizes these networks' coverage by turning such events into a show for those in living rooms and armchairs and all  for ratings and not just information!

And then CNN launches in the middle of the mayhem its caustic political opposition to President Trump as the focus of conversation turns to him and what he said or didn't say with commentators galore, those damn no-nothing talking heads, espousing their own political enmity, all this while two groups are in the midst of what predictably turned deadly! Why? Because someone in the community or judicial system gave these hate groups a permit to gather!

Before things got to the point of death, I kept hearing that the neo Nazis and white racists had a permit to gather, a legal permit! Who granted this and why isn't there outrage over giving to hate groups a legal right to gather.

And I saw many people on both sides carrying guns and riffles out in the open. In the name of God and all that is holy, how in the name of God and all that is holy did judicial and community authorities give a permit to gather to hate groups who can carry weapons out in the open? What is going on here?

From a human point of view, did not those who came to protest these hate mongers have a sense of dread that death and destruction could occur when two groups diametrically opposed to each other and both groups carry weapons out in the open, that something horrible might and would occur?

I kept thinking to myself as I watched young people in the crowd using their cell phones to capture the chaos as though they were on a Hollywood or Georgia movie set that they were clueless as to the actual danger for harm or death that lurked before them! It was like a Zombie Apocalypse on the back lot of the Walking Dead's studio!

Where is the common sense to get away from something like this as though a Tornado is about to hit you?

But my question remains with all the adequate and inadequate statements coming out condemning these hate groups, why isn't anyone condemning those in the community or the judicial branch of government for granting a permit to gather to hate groups like the KKK and Neo Nazis?

Where is the outrage over this as these legal permits are at the foundation of what happened yesterday in terms of the violence that occurred. These legal permits gave legitimacy to these hate groups and provoked the counter activities which then led to murder and mayhem. 

LEFTIST PROGRESSIVES SMEARING FIGURES OF CHURCH AND AMERICAN HISTORY

I grew up in the south and attended both Catholic and public schools in the 1960's. In public school, the Confederacy and its leaders were portrayed sympathetically and often viewed as heroes because they were conflicted, did not want to necessarily break with the Union but believed in states rights over federal control.

When they seceded from the Union they did so knowing it would mean war similar to our founding fathers who knew seceding from England would mean the same. They did so.  The Confederate States lost; the Americans won the Revolutionary war.

Were all who had slaves racists? Maybe, but they were conditioned by the times and what was permitted.

Jesus Christ never condemned slavery and often used the image of slavery in parables and never in a condemning way.  The Church tolerated slavery for centuries although the golden rule would have applied to slaves as to anyone else in our moral teachings.

As it concerns southern history, I am uncomfortable with wiping out the great figures of the Confederacy, people like Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and a few others and I don't believe monuments to the Confederate dead should be removed or the statues of southern war heroes.

However, the leftist progressives will stop at nothing to shame those who have sympathy for what these historical characters stood for given the context of their times and were willing to die for their southern heritage.  but leftist progressives want to erase these confederate icons from the annals of history and without nuance.

They would like to do so for any American president who owned slaves too, quite a few in fact, with Thomas Jefferson fathering children with one or two of his slaves

But if they will do it to Confederate war heroes, they will also do it to famous presidents of the union and they will ultimately do it to Jesus Christ.

This is how liberal, progressive leftists work.

ALLELUIA! THE OLD TRICKS OF RELGIOUS AND SECULAR PROGRESSIVES, THAT OF SHAMING IN PARTICULAR, NO LONGER WORK! AUSTEN IVEREIGH AT CRUX ISSUES A HEARTFELT APOLOGY TO TRADITIONALIST CONVERTS!

THANK GOD THIS DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE IN THE POST VATICAN II CHURCH!

From the immediate post-Vatican II period until well into Pope St. John Paul's papacy, the way that heterodox progressives in the Church tried to get their way was by persecuting those who were orthodox as being neurotic, crazy, rigid, misogynistic because they did not favor women's ordination and wanted altar servers to be boys/men as a recruitment tool for future men to enter the seminary. (Of course there were those in the liberal 1970's of a progressive pathology and some traditionalists with pathology who needed to be rooted out, because of an actual mental issues. I am not referring to this--keep in mind bishops expected the seminary to be therapeutic and cure the pathological!)

When it came to the liturgy, traditional pious practices and spirituality, if one was called "Pre-Vatican II" it was like being called the "N" word--something that wasn't very pleasant to be labeled and was used to marginalize a traditionalist Catholic and to root any of these types out of the seminary, monastery or convent. I saw that first hand at St. Mary' Seminary in Baltimore in my time there from 1976 to '80. And as vocation director, I saw it in other diocesan vocation directors especially when they had liberal sisters on their staff.

Of course, it happened on the parish level. Those lay Catholics in the 1960's who did not like the changes in the Mass, the throwing out of popular piety, the marginalization of conservative organizations in the parish, were labeled as being pre-Vatican II and so not with it! At that time, not being with it was very concerning for many people! 

In the secular realm, especially as "pelvic issues and immorality" has escalated, traditional Catholics and orthodox Protestants are marginalized in the political life of this country by being labeled homophobes, racists, deplorable (think of Hilary's comment about a significant group of Americans in the last election) and the like. No one wants these labels to be attached to them in our current political ugliness especially when your reputation can be ruined by others on Facebook and other silly gossip new media  platforms. Slash and burn is the progressive's playbook in the Church and the world!

Thus it is nice to see that that this old style shaming from the 1970's  isn't working as well as it did in the 1970's (with Pope Francis returning us to that deplorable era of the Church in much of His Holiness' rhetoric).  This morning, August 12, 2017 (yes it is 2017 not 1977) we see a progressive Catholic journalist apologizing for his gross and inaccurate, heterodox evaluation of recent converts who happen to be traditionalists too, having converted to Catholicism to get away from Liberal Protestantism which is on the brink of complete collapse, whereas Evangelical Protestantism is thriving. And yes, didn't a Vatican publication just decry traditional Catholics for their authentic ecumenism in working with Evangelical Protestants who are on the same page with us on so many moral issues concerning sexuality and life? Outrageous, no?

The same is true of Catholic religious orders, liberal ones are almost gone, traditional ones are prospering.And the progressives continue to hammer away at their so-called style of renewal with the same negative results over and over again--a description of what a true pathology really is!

An apology for needless offense — and how to disagree better

• Austen Ivereigh
  August 12, 2017
  CONTRIBUTING EDITOR TO CRUX
  

  Recently I used the term “convert neurosis” as a metaphor, and then — because we journalists feel compelled to substantiate our assertions with good evidence — listed a number of people as examples. That offended some, and many others on their behalf. For that I want to apologize. I shouldn’t have given names, and I shouldn’t have used the term “neurosis”. Sorry.

  Read the rest here!

MAYBE POPE FRANCIS IS BEGINNING TO SEE THAT DOCTRINAL CONFUSION IS NOT A GOOD THING WHATSOEVER

This is good news indeed. Could it be a turning point in this time of doctrinal and moral confusion in the Church similar to what was experienced in the 1970's prior to Pope St. John Paul II?  God is good! When you pull one thread of the tapestry of Catholic morality, it all falls apart!

Pope orders Belgian Brothers of Charity to stop offering euthanasia

Pope Francis has ordered the Belgian Brothers of Charity Group to stop offering euthanasia - AFP

11/08/2017 06:30

 

 

(Vatican Radio)  Pope Francis has ordered the Belgian arm of the Brothers of Charity religious order to stop offering euthanasia in its psychiatric hospitals.

The Holy See Press Office confirmed that the Pope gave his personal approval to a Vatican letter sent at the beginning of August, which gives the Catholic charity until the end of August to stop the practice at all of its 15 centers in Belgium.

Euthanasia is legal in the country, and in May the Brothers of Charity Group which administers the Belgian hospitals announced it would allow doctors to perform euthanasia on psychiatric patients.
The charity said in a statement it would be performed only if there were “no reasonable treatment alternatives”.

Joint letter affirming magisterium

Pope Francis also ordered Brothers of Charity who serve on the group’s board to sign a joint letter to their Superior General declaring that they “fully support the vision of the magisterium of the Catholic Church, which has always confirmed that human life must be respected and protected in absolute terms, from the moment of conception till its natural end.”

Brothers who refuse to sign the joint letter renouncing the practice of euthanasia will face sanctions under canon law, while the Catholic charity group can expect to face legal action and even expulsion from the Church if it fails to change its policy.

Brothers of Charity statement

Bro. René Stockman, General Superior of the Brothers of Charity, released a statement in response to the position of his Belgian brothers.

“The central point and the foundation within Christian ethics is that life is absolute, which cannot be touched. Life is a gift from God and entails an assignment. And because life is absolute, it is a state worthy of protection,” he wrote.

Mattias De Vriendt, a spokesman for the Belgium charity, said it had received the Vatican's request but had not yet responded.

He confirmed the charity's hospitals had received requests from patients seeking euthanasia recently but could not say whether any procedures had been performed.

THE ONES THAT POPE FRANCIS CASTIGATES AS THINKING THEY ARE PERFECT CATHOLICS, DO THEY REALLY?

Pope Francis, while claiming "who am I to judge" is one of the most judgmental popes we have had in my memory. Sometimes his language in Italian is tongue in cheek, but to know this, you have to listen and watch him as he speaks. When you read his remarks, it is a different thing.

But he castigated, I think, traditional Catholics because they think they are perfect. But is that really the case with them? Is His Holiness misinformed or mean spirited? I didn't hear him say this in Italian or therefore watch his facial expressions and arm gestures, although in reading what His Holiness said, His Holiness may have used an unbecoming finger gesture toward these "perfect" Catholics. But who knows?

Kathy Pluth from the Chant Cafe has an interesting observation which in my own experience is quite true:

Perfect Catholics

by Kathleen Pluth

Early this century I worked as the Saturday evening cantor at a little parish, with some fun extra duties besides, like giving days of recollection to liturgy volunteers.

An elderly priest, retired then and long since passed away, used routinely to take the Saturday evening Confessions. He would stop in my office where I was usually working on some flyer or another, and as he put unrolled his purple stole he would complain about how perfect all the parishioners are, since they never go to Confession. Always at Communion--never in the confessional.

This is not what one sees in parishes with the Extraordinary form, or even with a more solemn and careful celebration of the Ordinary form. In those parishes, people know they are sinners. You can tell they know because the lines for Confession are long every week, and in very devout parishes, every day.

In contrast, those attending more casual celebrations of the Mass might go for years on end without even hearing anything whatsoever about the sacrament of Confession, apart from the announcement twice a year that Advent and Lenten penance services will be held next Tuesday at 7:30.

I once worked at a parish that had 21 scheduled times every week for Confession, and people came. The priests would leave as soon as the line ended, so it was important for people to show up on time. There were 4 times each Friday. One popular time was before one of the Sunday Masses. And the lines were very long on Saturday evenings, and every priest was scheduled.

Once upon a time, when cars had bumpers, there was a bumper sticker that said, "Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven." Wouldn't it be wonderful to see a revitalized use of the sacrament of mercy throughout the Church!

AN ACTION PHOTOGRAPH OF ME AT WORK!

I was working on Tuesday night at our parish Council of Catholic Women. This is proof that I do work!

 

SHE REALLY BELIEVED SHE WAS A CATHOLIC PRIESTESS AND WHEN SHE ATTENDED MY FORMER PARISH IN MACON, SHE WOULD CONCELEBRATE THE MASS FROM HER PEW WITH HER OWN BREAD AND WINE, WEARING ALB AND CHASUABLE, USUALLY THE WRONG COLOR, WHICH DROVE ME CRAZY,--GOD BLESS HER AND ETERNAL REST GRANT UNTO HER! MAY SHE REST IN PEACE

She was quite convincing and many in the Macon area thought she was a Catholic priestess (the Protestants that is). She had a TV show on a local cable network, was featured in the newspaper and tried to organize mega ecumenical events--which came to nothing. She was convincing to many Protestants because sometimes fundamentalists can't tell the difference between delusions and spirituality/piety.

She was also arrested several years ago in California for trying to board Air Force 1 while President Obama was on it!

This is her obituary in this morning's Macon Telegraph which includes the large heading:

Priestess Brenda Slater Lee (1950 - 2017)

Priestess Brenda Slater Lee
July 1, 1950 - July 30, 2017
Macon , GA - Priestess Reverend Brenda Willis Slater-Lee was born July 1, 1950, to the late Willie M. Willis and Mrs. Agnes Willis of Savannah, Georgia. After her mother married James B. Slater, she moved with her siblings to Macon, Georgia. She attended Unionville Elementary School where Mrs. Rosetta Smith, her music teacher, discovered she could sing. Brenda sang "You'll Never Walk Alone" at the school's graduation. Upon their arrival to Macon, her parents' neighbor, Mrs. Malinda Styles, invited them to Beulah Missionary Baptist Church where the late Reverend Benjamin Johnson was the pastor upon their arrival to Macon; however, the foundation for Brenda's spiritual walk with GOD began at the age of six at Beulah Missionary Baptist Church. She attended and graduated from Ballard-Hudson in 1968 and entered Macon Junior College.

After graduation, Brenda moved to Los Altos, California where she continued her education at Foothill College Associate Degree-Art and Bachelor of Arts-Music. Brenda became the first Georgian to enter a work-study program at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in Stanford, California. She moved to Rome, Italy and studied at The Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music and performed as a soloist at The Church of Santa Susanna for six years. The highlight of her singing career was performing for Pope John Paul II at The Church of Santa Susanna and being the first American woman to sing inside the Vatican. Mr. and Mrs. Lee established residence in Fullerton, California upon their return to the United States. On June 22, 1988, they became the proud parents of Hillicia Lee.

Because Brenda was unorthodox in many areas of her life, controversy often found her. In Brenda's lifetime, she made three visitations to Heaven. On August 14, 2000, she passed a polygraph given by Keystone Intelligence Network of Philadelphia supporting this claim.

Brenda gave to children and senior citizens unselfishly in every community she lived in.

She led and participated in ecumenical services in Macon, Rome, Italy, Dundee, Scotland.

She was the first woman to be a member of the Fullerton Ministerial Association; the first Roman Catholic Priestess; the first woman to process into a Roman Catholic Church fully-robed; and the first woman to process into the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California.

The transition to her new journey occurred Sunday, July 30, 2017, at the home of her twin sister. Brenda was preceded in death by her fathers, Willie M. Willis and James B. Slater; sister, Lilliejo M. Portwood. She leaves to cherish her legacy and memories a husband of 43 years, Hills Lee; daughter, Hillicia Peachey (Jesse) of Denver, Colorado; mother, Agnes Slater of Macon, Georgia; six siblings, Betty Willis Slater of Macon, Georgia, Annette King of Long Beach, California, Victor Slater (Kim) of Inglewood, California.

CAN ONE BECOME A "PRIVATE REVELATION" FUNDAMENTALIST AND PLACE TOO MUCH EMPHASIS AS A CATHOLIC ON THINGS APOCALYPTIC AS FUNDAMENTALIST PROTESTANTS PLACE ON SCRIPTURE?

Let me clarify. I appreciate private revelations  not only the ones that are approved by the Church for the entire Church's consideration, edification and piety, but also those that are intended just for the individual who has it as long as the revelation is consistent with what the Church actually teaches in the Deposit of Faith.

I am fascinated by private revelations and I believe over the course of my almost 64 years I have experienced a few for my own personal spiritual needs and for the good of the Church I serve in any particular locality.

However, the Church does not require us to believe in these private revelations as a direct dictation to the one having it. In fact we can be as skeptical as we would like but non judgmental about those who accept these.

I like them, but I don't go too far with them and certainly I don't want to split hairs about what someone who has had a private revelation demands in specific terms of what the pope or any bishop should do.

So in this context I worry that Cardinal Burke goes too far and is splitting hairs about Fatima and what is required of the pope in consecrating Russia by name to the Immaculate Heart.

What do you think of Cardinal Burke's concern about Russia being consecrated explicitly to the Immaculate Heart of Mary?

This is from the Wanderer:

Cardinal Burke Repeats:
Russia Must Be Consecrated Explicitly to the Immaculate Heart

by Christopher A. Ferrara
August 8, 2017

In an exclusive interview with The Wanderer, Cardinal Raymond Burke has once again called for the explicit consecration of Russia, by name, to the Immaculate Heart of Mary as Our Lady of Fatima requested the better part of a century ago (1929) after promising Sister Lucia at Fatima exactly a century ago (1917) that She would return to make that request when “the moment has come.”

In the course of the interview, in which the Cardinal also discussed the “final battle” over marriage and family now underway within the Church, as well as in civil society, the Cardinal was asked the following question concerning the allegation that Sister Lucia confirmed that the ceremony performed by John Paul II on March 25, 1984, from which any mention of Russia was deliberately omitted, somehow sufficed to fulfill the request for consecration of the very place not mentioned:

“Q. According to Documents on Fátima… Sr. Lucia wrote on August 29, 1989 that Pope St. John Paul II’s consecration of the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary on March 25, 1984 fulfilled Our Lady’s request. At the Rome Life Forum about three months ago, you urged the Catholic faithful to ‘work for the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.’ What does the consecration you are calling for entail; is it more than the Pope simply naming Russia explicitly?”

First of all, as for the claim that Lucia “wrote” in 1989 that a 1984 ceremony deliberately failing to name Russia was a consecration of Russia, The Fatima Center’s article “Chronology of a Cover-Up” explains:

“In September of 1985, in an interview in Sol de Fatima magazine (published by the Blue Army in Spain), Sr. Lucia confirmed that the consecration still had not been done, because the 1984 ceremony did not mention Russia, and the world’s Catholic bishops did not participate. Later in the year, Cardinal Edouard Gagnon acknowledged in another interview that the consecration had still not been done as requested. He later objected to having his remarks published, though he did not deny making them….
“For many years, Sr. Lucia’s cousin, Maria do Fetal, publicly quoted Sr. Lucia as saying the consecration had not been done. Maria do Fetal continued to maintain this position until mid-1989, when she suddenly reversed herself, in accordance with the Vatican “instruction” revealed by Fr. Coelho.”

Moreover, no one disputes that Sister Lucia insisted that the failed 1982 ceremony also conducted by John Paul II, which likewise failed to mention Russia or enlist the world’s bishops, did not fulfill Our Lady’s request. Indeed, no less than L’Osservatore Romano published the following testimony by Lucia’s priestly friend and confidant Father Umberto Maria Pasquale, S.D.B. on May 12, 1982, some two months after the 1982 ceremony:

“I wanted to clarify the question of the Consecration of Russia, in having recourse to the source. On August 5, 1978, in the Carmel of Coimbra, I had a lengthy interview with the seer of Fatima, Sister Lucy. At a certain moment I said to her: ‘Sister, I should like to ask you a question. If you cannot answer me, let it be! But if you can answer it, I would be most grateful to you, for you to clear up a point for me which does not appear clear to many people ... Has Our Lady ever spoken to you about the consecration of the world to Her Immaculate Heart?’ - ‘No, Father Umberto! Never! At the Cova da Iria in 1917, Our Lady had promised: I shall come to ask for the consecration of Russia ... to prevent the spreading of her errors throughout the world, wars among several nations, persecutions against the Church ... In 1929, at Tuy, as She had promised, Our Lady came back to tell me that the moment had come to ask the Holy Father for the consecration of that country (Russia)’...”

So, what changed between the time of the first failed ceremony in 1982 and the second in 1984? Nothing, except the abrupt reversal dubiously attributed to Sister Lucia, who never once was allowed to address the public directly on the matter.

At any rate, in answer to The Wanderer’s question about whether the Consecration entails “more than the Pope simply naming Russia explicitly,” Cardinal Burke gave this telling explanation:

“It is exactly that; it is as simple as that, namely, to fulfill Our Lady’s request exactly as she asked for it. There is no question that Pope St. John Paul II was keenly aware of the seriousness of the situation, of the need to consecrate Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He intended precisely to do that on March 25, 1984. For my part, I believe he would have done it explicitly except at that time it was argued that in order to promote a friendlier relationship with the Eastern Bloc countries, the name of Russia should not be mentioned in particular.

“I believe it was the Holy Father’s intention — that he did, in fact, consecrate Russia. However, it is also my belief that, given the situation in which we find ourselves today, the consecration of Russia must be done explicitly, exactly as Our Lady requested (while in no way denying John Paul’s intention to include Russia when he consecrated the world to her Immaculate Heart). My intent is not to level accusations against anyone, but rather in response to the present time which is so grave to urge the need to carry out what Our Lady asked exactly as she asked it.

“To repeat, the consecration I called for is in no way to call into question what Sr. Lucia said about St. John Paul II fulfilling what Our Lady asked for. It is simply to respond to that request one more time and consecrate Russia in an explicit way. At the same time, it is the right and duty of the faithful to ask Pope Francis to do this consecration….”

With all due respect to the Cardinal, while confirming what is obvious — that a consecration of Russia needs to mention Russia rather than deliberately failing to mention it — he appears to be trying to have it both ways: that John Paul’s intention to consecrate Russia sufficed, according to the alleged remark by Sister Lucia (contradicted by her own published testimony), but that Russia should nonetheless be consecrated by name. That is akin to declaring that the removal of a gall bladder sufficed for an emergency appendectomy, because the nurse said so, but that the appendix should be removed just in case.

Think of the Consecration of Russia as the ecclesial equivalent of an emergency appendectomy, urgently needed to prevent a fatal poisoning of the entire body of the Church, which no reasonable observer of the ecclesial scene can deny is being threatened at this very moment. That the Consecration will finally take place is certain, for the Church is indefectible and the divine will cannot be thwarted but only (by God’s permissive will) impeded for a time by human perversity. What is not certain is how much agony the Church will have to suffer before the divine remedy is, at long last, applied.

HABEMUS NEW OFFICES AT ST. ANNE CHURCH ON THE HILL!

After a year of planning and volunteer work, we have returned our parish offices to the building next to our old church which at one time was both the rectory for the priest/parish office, parish hall and classroom for CCD!

Now it is a large meeting room, two classrooms and houses all our offices with the entrance where the old rectory once welcomed people.

It is a vast improvement over the offices that were in our much larger Holy Family Hall that were cramped, uninviting, quite depressing and cluttered. I had to get through garbage, boxes and other obstacles to get to my office and so did my visitors!

This is my new office and it is oh so better and more private and easy to enter! It isn't depressing either nor are any of our offices. And we have an appropriate waiting room too! God is good!

GLEN CAMPBELL AND THE JOY OF MY YOUTH--WAXING NOSTALGIA ABOUT 8 TRACK TAPES!

As I went to the emergency room at a mid town Savannah hospital to anoint one of my parishioners (hospital about 20 miles north), Gus Lloyd of XM Catholic Radio's "Seize the Day" had as his topic of conversation Alzheimer's Disease since it was disclosed yesterday that the great singer Glenn Campbell had died of the disease at 81 years old.

The call-ins from listeners sharing their story of caring for parents and others with this horrible disease was quite moving and emotional to hear.

Then Gus played a portion of Glenn Campbell's "Wichita Lineman" and I had a wave of nostalgia to come over me longing for the good old days of my prime youth as a young teenager.

I absolutely loved his songs and style of singing. However he  was the brunt of jokes from comedians from the late 1960's and early 70's because of his perfect looks, perfect clothes but especially his perfect hair, so perfect, it looked like a helmet! He made sure everything was perfect and in place and it was easy to make a caricature of him.

But back to my nostalgia. My father gave me his 1965 Chevy Chevelle when I turned 16 which had only the Chevelle name as it was a stripped down model of the Chevelle Malibu. The Malibu name was the perked up version of the stripped down Chevelle alone name with special options like more chrome, better vinyl seats, power steering, power brakes, automatic powerglide transmission, push button radio, heater, air conditioner and did I say more chrome and white wall tires and large hubcaps instead of small ones?

You haven't lived until you have driven a heavy car with no power steering, no power brakes and no automatic transmission in the south's 100 degree weather with no air conditioning. Oh the Glory!

 I decided to soup up my Chevelle by adding an eight track player with beefed up speakers located behind the back seat in front of the back window where as a young child I like to lay down as my father drove us somewhere. Forget baby seats, seatbelts or doors locked or closed all the way!

And most of my 8 track tapes, which I kept in a hot locked car at all times, were Glenn Campbell's songs.

Oh the nostalgia and the memories.