Are again supposed to be worn when one enters the church. Sigh. I had thought that they have been required these last few weeks but apparently that rule has been widely ignored (it certainly was when I've been there).
I spotted my first face shield wearer at the supermarket this morning. She looked inordinately pleased with herself-- I hope for some reason unconnected with the ridiculous prophylactic device.
Catching up with yesterday, I don't suppose anyone likely to read this will have followed the scandal connected with Mons Robert Barron, who is an auxiliary of Mons Gomez of Los Angeles. The Bishops of California issued an anodyne press release commenting on the attacks on religious statues-- a sentence to the effect 'not good of course but...' and then a score of other paragraphs contextualizing and bureaucratizing and hemming and hawing. That in itself did not much surprise me, since the Bishops of the United States are become masters at obfuscation and responsibility-shifting and so on and so forth. Mons Barron-- he was, prior to his episcopal consecration, a famed media personality and he continues that 'ministry' (I'm sure that's what it's called) as part of his pastoral duties (I believe: I never paid him any attention before and haven't since his move to LA)-- had the gall to reply (on Twitter) to a woman's question 'why have you done so little to defend the Church?' by telling her that 'that's your, the laity's, job', justifying himself on the basis of 'the Second Vatican Council'. This prompted an outpouring of twitter responses the gist of which was, for the most part, 'what a craven and cramped view of your episcopal office you hold'.
A number of people professed to take Mons B. at his word and vowed to themselves defend the churches etc etc (e.g. this at LifeSiteNews, about an incident in Ventura)-- but their idea of 'defense' seemed to be not memoranda but guns and truncheons. I fell into a conversation (on Twitter) yesterday with some fellows who gave me good advice, I imagine, about which sort of weapon I ought to arm myself with for such prospective melees. Sword, rifle, pistol, staff, cudgel. Eugene is home to a HEMA establishment-- 'Historical European Martial Arts'-- where I can taken lessons in the use of a staff or sword etc. I had been thinking more along the lines of serving as at least one 250 pound lump 'they' would have to negotiate around in order to get to the 'offensive' target, so at about that point I began introducing my advanced age and bad hip into the conversations, and am fairly sure no one is expecting to meet up at the Northwest Fencing Academy downtown.
Time for Vespers. It is hot but the breezes are blowing fairly steady.
The parodical 'fratricidal battles' between the University of Oregon Ducks and the Oregon State University Beavers will no longer be referred to as 'Civil War' events because the 'the South were defenders of slavery'. I fully expect the Register-Guard to run headlines of the sort, 'Game [Formerly Known As 'Civil War'] Results In Ducks Loss Yet Again'.
About time. Hundreds of millions of donor dollars, and hundreds of “student-athlete” concussions will be saved by ending this annual battle and the football teams it requires.
Just kidding, they’re only going to rename it. The wasteful spending and blood will continue.
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