Rush Limbaugh - Requiescat In Pace

Rush Limbaugh, long-time leading conservative talk-show host, passed away this morning after a year-long battle with stage-four lung cancer.  I first started listening to him on WMAL about 25 years ago.  He was a lone conservative voice in the midst of a liberal-dominated media mode.

His radio show, plus some of the smaller Catholic newspapers (such as Wanderer and Catholic Family News) existed some time before the internet became available.  They paved the way for those of us providing alternatives to the mainstream media and its leftwing slant.  Rush spoke truth to their falsehoods, often using cutting humor to make his points.  He grew in popularity with those of us who often thought ourselves alone in the liberal jungle.  For that, he was hated and vilified by the left-wing moguls who saw their holds on the populace being thus challenged and weakened.

When Bill Clinton took the White House in 1992 Limbaugh opened his show with the statement, "America held hostage for x amount off days" during Clinton's term.  In 1994, conservatives seized both the House and Senate, along with many state governor seats.  No doubt they were rallied in no small part by Limbaugh and some others who were coming on the scenes.

I don't believe Limbaugh was a saint; he had his flaws, as we all do.  While he voiced belief in God, I'm not sure he adhered to any particular denomination (please correct me if I'm mistaken).  That said, he was an example of someone with honesty and clear thinking being able to comprehend and appreciate natural law - hence his conservative and patriotic principles.  I don't think I'm alone among Catholics who will say that Limbaugh was more helpful to my thinking than many quisling prelates were.  Both Old and New Testaments are replete with accounts of God's people being assisted by non-believers of good will.

Let us pray that Limbaugh had the grace of final repentance and conversion before he died, as well as peace for his family.  Let us also pray for some progressives who are literally cackling in glee over his death, forgetting that death will one day come for them as it will for us all.

Today is Ash Wednesday.  We can now take this opportunity to ponder our own preparation for our end.  "Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverim reverteris."

Cardinal Cupich Is Right

For a change!

This year Ash Wednesday falls on Feb 14.  That day also happens to be St Valentine's Day, an occasion given over to romance and - let's be honest - lust.  In response to petitions placed to him for dispensation from the obligation to fast and abstain from meat on that day, Cardinal Cupich replied that the obligations to fast and abstain still stand. 

Needless to say I'm pleasantly surprised.  I truly expected bishops to acquiesce to these silly requests, as they are wont to do when St Patrick's Day falls on a lenten Friday.  I commend the cardinal for standing for the holy season of Lent and hope this is the start of a welcome change of direction for him.  I must say that I think it disgraceful that Catholics would even think of asking for a dispensation of the fast.  It shows how little they value their Faith and how frivolous are their attitudes towards their own spiritual needs.

Time To Fire Some Parish School Teachers In Sioux Falls, SD

We've all seen videos lately of singers doing  "flash mob" performances in train stations, shopping malls, etc.  I've no problem with those venues, as there is nothing inherently sacred about those surroundings.

However, there are some teachers at St Mary Catholic Church in Sioux Falls who, not appreciating the gravity of Lent and Ash Wednesday, goaded their pupils into doing a "flash mob" stunt during Ash Wednesday Mass.  Read this article and watch the video contained therein.  As you read how these teachers wax lyrical about this stunt, you may think such blathering to be almost as insipid as the thinking that instigated their liturgical abuse.

What was also abused, in the name of "art", were these children.  They were ill-served by those teachers as they learned that they can do goofy stuff and glom all sorts of attention - attention that should be directed soley to Our Lord.

Is That A Carbon Footprint On Your Forehead??

There appears to be a renewed attempt to substitute adherence to environmentalism for authentic Lenten practices.  As noted last week, Blessed Sacrament in Chevy Chase has pulled the "lenten carbon fast" out of the mothballs and is foisting it on their unsuspecting parishioners (causing the death of many trees with all that paper used, I might add).

We now see from Catholic News Services that the so-called "Catholic Coalition On Climate Change" wants us to do things like "give up disposable paper products such as napkins and paper towels"  We should be grateful that they didn't include toilet paper in that litany.  Of course the incandescent light bulb has to go; that seems to be a common one.  Why?  Well, as their Dan Misleh says, "Lent is the perfect time to examine our lifestyles," he added. Even giving up a food item like chocolate or ice cream "reminds us that we do need to live more within our means, more in touch with people who don't have any of these things."  That's not why we sacrifice things.  We do so to remind ourselves that these things are fleeting and that we must prepare ourselves for eternal life.  Oh, by the way - they plan to send "Catholic Climate Ambassadors" to brainwash "educate" us on their enlightened thinking.


CARBON FOOTPRINT ALERT!

 Now I have a question.  With all this talk of "reducing carbon footprints", what do these earth-worshippers think of the Ash Wednesday liturgical practice of burning palm leaves and applying them to the foreheads of penitants?  I can imagine that some are in a tizzy that those palm leaves weren't put in a compost pile, but instead were burned (polluting the air and corroding the ozone layer, to boot) and that this is done world-wide.  Will we soon hear from them clarion calls to reject even more tradition, one that again recalls to us our mortality, to worship Gaia and Mother Earth?

Forget all this environmentalism.  Let this Lent for you be a true time of repentance and renewal.  One of the most useful things to come out of the Archdiocese of Washington in recent years has been Cardinal Wuerl's "The Light Is On For You" program.  It is an effort to get Catholics to resort to the Sacrament of Confession; and it appears to be working.  Prior to that, when I went to Confession, I could just walk straight from the church doors into a confessional.  Now I have to wait in lines of 8-10 people.  I'm not complaining!  This is a good, healthy sign that people are taking their spiritual welfare seriously.  So go to Confession - regularly.  Get to daily Mass.

I'd also suggest prayer at the abortion centers, to ask God's mercy on our nation and to perhaps reach out to troubled women.  Today was the start of the 40 Days for Life, a campaign of prayer and outreach that is now international in scope.  To learn more of this program and to find a location near you, visit that website and click on the locations tab.  Right off the bat I can tell you that there are campaigns in Silver Spring, Germantown, College Park, Northwest DC, Fairfax, Severna Park.