by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on May 16, 2012 · 7 comments
. . . With this in view, I am pleased to present Hope Springs Eternal in the Priestly Breast – Procedural Justice for Priests, Diocesan and Religious. It has truly been a labour of love and is the end result of intensive research, hours of candid conversations with scores of well-informed and honest persons, innumerable sessions of ardent prayer and a resolute determination that priests and religious will be accorded the procedural justice to which they are legitimately due as is every other human being. May truth and justice prevail! . . .
. . . I am just an ordinary priest, I work in the missions (have been in “the missions” for nearly 20 years) and I am contemplating a change of course in my life…toward, perhaps, a monastic vocation. Please make a little prayer for this poor priest from the plains of Canada, who, after working in the mountains of Italy (whilst studying Canon Law), left Rome for a missionary life in the Islands. I am humbled that Fr. Gordon asked me to write a guest post. . . .
. . . Many TSW readers know of Anna Katharina Emmerick, who died in 1824, and was beatified on 3 October, 2004, by Blessed John Paul II, only some months after the screening of The Passion of the Christ. Mel Gibson partially based that film on The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, dictated by Anna Katharina to Clemens Brentano, whose secretarial skills seem to have left something to be desired. Nevertheless, The Holy See praises her accounts. She speaks of the Lord’s imprisonment. Although we don’t read of this in the Gospels, there is a space of time that is entirely conspicuous for its lack of description, the hours between the initial questioning and mocking of Jesus that first Holy Thursday evening and the following morning. It is a period of time in which, all things being equal, anybody in Jesus’ position would have been imprisoned for safe keeping until the next day. . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on April 25, 2012 · 20 comments
. . . Right now, however, I have a far greater challenge to face than the temper tantrums of SNAP members long accustomed to having their distortions rule the day. It’s a greater challenge even than waiting for the legal system to catch up with justice. The most immediate and daunting challenge I face at this moment is one many of you have to take on as well. It’s called spring cleaning. As you know well, my world of the last nearly 18 years consists of an 8 by 12-foot cell which must be shared by two prisoners, one of whom wrote “The Duty of a Knight” two weeks ago. Well, it turns out that it isn’t the duty of a knight to do all the spring cleaning while I just sit here on my bucket (umm . . . I mean this big plastic one) and type. We need to do something prisoners are required to do periodically. We have to empty out this cell completely, and clean everything . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on April 18, 2012 · 32 comments
. . . the woman came into the sacristy before Mass, introduced herself as a Buddhist, then introduced a woman accompanying her as her “lover.” Father Guarnizo wrote that, like all priests, he presumes good faith when any person comes forward for the Eucharist, but this woman and her companion reportedly made a militant point of presenting themselves as living publicly a lifestyle that placed them in opposition to the Church. Note the word, “publicly.” She made a point of divulging to Father Guarnizo before Mass the source and substance of her public separation from the Church. Then the woman went to a newspaper with her story of being denied the Eucharist by Father Guarnizo. Coming in the middle of Lent, it made just the sort of story the secular media loves to use to slam the Church. . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on April 11, 2012 · 37 comments
. . . Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post written by Pornchai Moontri. . . . I was a teenager when I went to prison. Over the years, I was sent back to solitary confinement over and over, for up to three-and-a-half years at a time, because I was so hostile. The longer I was there each time, the more inhuman I felt and became. Living for years on end in solitary confinement joined with the guilt I felt for the life I took during a struggle when I was 18 years old. So I just gave up on myself as a human being. I sank to the very bottom of the prison I was in, and stayed there. Then in the spring of 2005, after almost 14 years in and out of solitary confinement, I was told that I was to be shipped to another prison in another state. I sat for 10 months alone in my cell wondering about whatever hell was coming next, and I told myself I didn’t care what comes next. Then one day, guards in riot gear came and chained me up. . . .
. . . It was the mocking that was the worst. Upon my arrival at prison after trial late in 1994, I was fingerprinted, photographed, stripped naked, showered, and unceremoniously deloused. I didn’t bother worrying about what the food might be like, or whether I could ever sleep in such a place. I was worried only about being mocked, but there was no escaping it. As I was led from place to place in chains and restraints, my few belongings and bedding stuffed into a plastic trash bag dragged along behind me, I was greeted by a foot-stomping chant of prisoners prepped for my arrival: “Kill the priest! Kill the priest! Kill the priest!” It went on into the night. It was maddening. . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on March 28, 2012 · 14 comments
. . . That, for me, is Jamil’s wake-up call. The Catholic Church in America – and I do not refer just to the United States of America – is in the process of being parked a block or so outside the Public Square, and it’s going to be accomplished by a force I have written of before on These Stone Walls. It is the most insidious force of all, but it is vague and subtle and indistinct, and we cannot blame President Obama for it. That force is best characterized as “the noise of a few, and the silence of many.” . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on March 21, 2012 · 12 comments
. . . I’ve always thought TV Newscasts had it backwards. It’s a New England tradition that polite conversations begin with the weather, then gradually descend into the gritty news at hand. But TV news does just the opposite, at least in New England. Folks up here are so interested in the weather that the newscasters hold it until last to keep viewers’ attention on the news. I’ll follow the more polite social tradition, however, and begin with the weather, then sneak in – here and there – the things I really want to convey. . . .
by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on March 14, 2012 · 6 comments
. . . The story of St. Patrick of Ireland is a perfect example of the gravity of grace. We tend to reduce Saint Patrick to the whimsical Shepherd of Ireland who inspires our parades (and maybe a snort or two of Jameson’s) this week, but the life of the real Saint Patrick is one of terrible tragedy responded to with the courage born of sanctifying grace. Stepping for a moment into the life and lore of Saint Patrick of Ireland will help us see more clearly these labyrinthine ways of grace. Whether you’re Irish or not – and whether you’re Catholic or not – the story of Saint Patrick is one of profound struggle against the forces of human evil, tragedy, and salvation against the tides of human history. . . .
