New on These Stone Walls: Loose Ends and Dangling Participles

by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on September 1, 2010 · 6 comments

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. . . Another reader wrote that she liked “Saints and Sacrifices,” but pointed out that it was my third post in 12 weeks about Adolf Hitler, and I’m “beginning to sound a bit like the History Channel.” OUCH! There’s a strange irony in that. There’s no character in history that I loathe more than Hitler. The irony is that as my trial ended in 1994, the prosecutor compared me to Adolf Hitler in his closing remarks to the jury.

It was the sort of inflammatory statement that usually isn’t allowed in court, but it was allowed in that court. The jury looked visibly alarmed, and I can only imagine how I looked to them. As with the rest of that trial, the Hitler comparison like Hitler himself – had nothing to do with the truth or with justice. . . .

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Looking for Lunch in All the Wrong Places

by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on August 25, 2010 · 7 comments

Rev. Gordon MacRae, Fr. Gordon J. MacRae, prison cuisine,  Fr. Gordon J. MacRae, culinary creation, Mona Lisa, Beethoven, prison survival, Clint Eastwood, culinary masterpieces, These Stone Walls, Jack Bauer, Caprica, TV cooking shows, Emiril Lagasse, Pornchai Moontri, Andrew Zimmerman, Bizarre Foods, scorpions, New Hampshire, Alcatraz, prison meals

. . . “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!” . . .

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The Year Behind These Stone Walls

by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on August 18, 2010 · 5 comments

Fr. Gordon J. MacRae, Rev. Gordon MacRae, These Stone Walls, Our Sunday Visitor, OSV, Charlene Duline, TSW, Catholic web, Sir Paul McCartney, Gershwin Award, Stevie Wonder, PBS, White House, Priests in Crisis, Catholic blogosphere

. . . 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. . . .

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Fr. Gordon J. MacRae, Maximilian Kolbe, Edith Stein, Auschwitz, Holocaust, Pornchai Moontri, Militia of the Immaculata, Knights of the Foot of the Cross, National Shrine of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Consecration, Solemnity of the Assumption, Simon of Cyrene, Saint Patrick, Labyrinthine Ways,

. . . 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. . . .

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A TSW Announcement: Happy Birthday Charlene!

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 [...]

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Fr. Gordon J. MacRae, Roman Polanski, Father Maciel, eye of the beholder, McCarthy Era, Catholic Church, Catholic priests, Whoopi Goldberg, American justice system, Mr. Polanski, Swiss government, Los Angeles prosecutors, The Washington Post, European press, The

. . . 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. . .

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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 [...]

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Hot Town: Summer in the Slammer

by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on July 21, 2010 · 8 comments

fr.Gordon J. MacRae, Summer in the City, The Lovin' Spoonful, the sixties, musical memory, summer of 1969, war in Vietnam, President Nixon, the draft, claustrophobic, prison, prisoners, New Hampshire, ADHD, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, clouds, Judy Collins, The Mamas and the Papas, Monday

. . . 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. . . .

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A TSW Summer Re-run

by Fr. Gordon J. MacRae on July 14, 2010 · 7 comments

Fr Gordon MacRae, Sophie MacRae

. . . “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. . . .

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. . . 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. . . .

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