by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on August 25, 2010 · 7 comments
. . . “Hey, try this!” Every so often, some heavily tattooed, muscle bound ex marauding-biker-gang member shows up at my cell door, spoon in hand, to insist that I try his latest culinary creation. If it’s really awful, and I say so, I get an exasperated “ARE you SERIOUS?!” as though I’d just disparaged the Mona Lisa or declared Beethoven’s Fifth to be tedious. I can’t win. If I say it needs something, Bubba will be back in five with another spoon. If I say it’s terrific, I risk the most dreaded words of all: “Gimme your bowl!” . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on August 18, 2010 · 5 comments
. . . Then I walked through three locked gates outside, passed a guarded check-point, then across the long, walled prison yard, up three flights of metal grate stairs, through three more locked doors, then another guarded check-point, then finally down the long infirmary corridor to the staff member’s office. In the dream, I felt my heart beating faster, unsure whether it was anticipation of finally seeing TSW or the long trek getting there. When I walked into the office, the computer was on. “Sit down right here,” the woman said. I sat down and watched her carefully type http://www.thesestonewalls.com. I was smiling as the screen blinked into action. Then I saw in large print across the screen: “Page Cannot Be Displayed.” I woke up just then feeling terribly disappointed. . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on August 11, 2010 · 4 comments
. . . Catholics in France, Belgium, Holland and throughout Europe organized to rescue tens of thousands of Jewish children from deportation to the Death Camps. Philip Friedman, in Roads to Extinction: Essays on the Holocaust (The Jewish Publication Society, 1980) commended the Catholic bishops of the Netherlands for their public protest about the Nazi deportation of Jews from Holland. In retaliation for those bishops’ actions, however, even Jews who had converted to Catholicism were rounded up for deportation to Auschwitz. . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on August 10, 2010 · 3 comments
Charlene Duline celebrates her birthday this Friday. Charlene scans my posts each week and e-mails them to Suzanne in Australia for publication on TSW. She also reads me your comments and puts up with all my mistakes, and with me. I could not add much to what I wrote of her a year ago in [...]
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on August 4, 2010 · 9 comments
. . . Since his 1977 conviction for child sexual assault, Roman Polanski has won three Academy Award nominations and a 2002 Oscar for Best Director. Meanwhile in our own backyard, Catholics are now pitted against Catholics. Bishops are bullied into shunning their priests. Cardinals are sniping at each other in public, and the mere taint of association may cost one of the highest ranking Catholic Church officials his reputation and career. There is something wrong with this picture. And there is one ominous figure who is taking it all in from his place in the shadows, having the laugh of his long, dark life. . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on July 28, 2010 · 9 comments
St. Maximilian Kolbe solved the paradox of suffering by offering his own life as a share in the suffering of Christ. This post is an invitation to that great adventure.
A few weeks ago, after posting “The Exile of Father F. Dominic Menna,” I received a message from an Oregon man who described himself as “just [...]
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on July 21, 2010 · 8 comments
. . . The summer of 1969 had other worries and trials as well. Because of a tragedy in my family – which I will write about one of these days – I had to find a full time job at sixteen. I had one that I thought was secure. It was in a machine shop, but I was laid off just as that summer began. I took the only job that I could find, and it turned out to be the worst job of my life. . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on July 14, 2010 · 7 comments
. . . “A Corner of the Veil” is about the death of my mother, Sophie Kavanagh MacRae, during my imprisonment. Tomorrow, July 15, is her birthday so this post in her honor is my choice for a summer re-run. I would much appreciate a prayer for her as well. . . .
. . . The sole accusation that just destroyed this 8O-year-old priest’s good name is that he abused someone fifty-one years ago when he was 29 years old. Kelly Lynch, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Boston, announced that Father Menna was placed on administrative leave, barred from offering the Sacraments, and ordered to pack up and leave the rectory where he had been spending his senior years in the company of other priests. . . .
