Turns out that Terry McAuliffe was just banging a couple of coconuts together when he claimed he was going to become a Knight of Malta on Hugh Hewitt's show. So I was right about that teapot tempest. Lifesite news was also properly skeptical at the time, and now they also confirmed Hugh's story here.
A friend of this blog noticed a bash in a recent post. It seems at first glance to be merely praising a Catholic Bishop for making a tough decision. On further inspection, though, the phrase "catches hell" gives it away.
The article cited mentions one angry parishioner from the removed priest's parish and the letter she wrote.
Our Lady of Guadalupe church member Julia Broyles said she wrote an angry letter to Vann when Father Gil was dismissed, telling him that she didn't approve of what he did and asking for his reasoning.
[snip]
None of that mattered to Broyles, she said. "That was way back when he was a oung man," she said. "We see where Jesus forgave the adulterous woman. Why can't we forgive? The man's trying to be good."
She would not be inclined to hold her leader to a higher standard than anyone else, she said. "Jesus talked to the woman caught in adultery and told her to go and sin no more, your sins are forgiven. I think we should not even think about what was in his past. It's none of our business."
...for the Catholic League. Yeah, some mock outrage is expressed at the means, but it's a bash nonetheless.
Kathleen gets full credit for coming up with this great idea. It will accomplish a number of goals, but primarily it will enable people -- especially Catholics (1) -- who are a little bit tired of the rampant Catholic bashing over here to turn each bash into a little bit of prayer and action. Every time there's a bash we'll track it here and it will be added to The "Catholic Bash Watchlist" for which I've added a feed on the sidebar. Then you have to say a Hail Mary, or another suitable prayer, in reparation for sins against the Holy Church for each bash. And at the end of the month you multiply the number of bashes by your pledge amount and write a check out to the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights (2).
I'm pledging $1.00 per bash. To start out, at least.
This is not a joke. It is basically in response to a Catholic guy who said "Contras could be doing a lot more for good than simply ganging up on one man and venting their spleen at him and searching for whatever they might bash him with." He went on to say in the same comment "[Grace] will eventually lead these kids to find something else to do with their time, possibly something constructive." (emphasis mine) Well, here is the fulfillment to that prophecy. This "kid", erstwhile Contra Crunchy blog contributor, is finally going to do something instead of just mocking the hysterical rantings of an anti-Catholic like Dreher. I guess Divine Grace must have smacked me upside the head and whispered forcefully, "Time to get to work, say your prayers and shell out the big bucks, Buddy Roe!"
And not a moment too soon. Because, kids, looks like I already owe $2.00 to the Catholic League! We had the Catholic School bash on Monday and the Morally Incoherent Maltese Catholic Leadership bash today. (Kudos to Bill H. and John McG for questioning in the combox whether the Knights of Malta constituted "Catholic Church Leadership".) But don't bog the man down with details, Malta, Rome, Knights, Cardinals.... whatever....
But I'm going to need some help here from the regulars here, so listen up Diane, Andy, et al. If you can't afford to make the donations you can still say the reparation prayers and help me by monitoring the blog. I placed a feed on the side bar to help. And at least consider pledging a dime per bash and throwing a buck in the poor box on Sunday. This can be fun, too, and instructive as it will hopefully "raise awareness" that Jack Chick doesn't have a monopoly on cartoonish Catholic Bashing.
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Notes:
(1) Bubba, Barb and other non-Catholics, you can help, too; feel free to select prayers and charities of you're choosing as well as point out bashes of your own religions.
(2) Or any other suitable charity of your choice.
UPDATE: Hilariously enough, sounds like Dreher got his facts confused and the so-called "Church Leadership" (i.e., the Knights of Malta) have not accepted McAuliffe's application as of yet. Reported by Joshua in the combox and he provided this link also. But you see, this still counts as a bash; we'll wait and see how sincere the apology is though. Certainly there will be one, right? I'll let someone else start a drive where folks donate to the press club everytime Rod fails to check a source.
Here's a new feature included with your annual membership. Our first online poll is over on the right. If you've never been to the Crunchy Con blog, well, now's your chance to check it out. It's truly an amazing place -- kind of like Disneyland except there's more arguing, none of the roller coasters work and there's no Mickey Mouse.
Granted it's not the best online poll ever, and I really apologize to the ladies that the powder blue color clashes with the dog-poo brown theme of this blog. I'll remedy that in the next one... I promise. In the comments here, please give me some suggestions of future poll questions, I'm dying to hear them.
These are really easy to set up -- this one is from Micropoll. Not easy to multiple vote on either, so don't try to cheat!
Coming off a totally lazy weekend where all I did was finish painting the living room and survived the big Bishop Bash at our church for St. Angela's feast day. I have some reflections on embarrassment which I'll post later.
In other news, Cubeland Mystic is leaving the blogosphere to pursue fiction writing. So we wish him good luck, even though we'll miss him.
The most important thing going on tonight next to dinner & a six-pack and kissing your kids will be 24, of course. Here's a piece I did on the supporting actors sounding off on the Season 5 bonus DVD. So my weekend wasn't completely wasted. BTW, I upgraded the Shuttlecock blog to the new blogger and it really was practically seamless -- I was impressed.
