Hennessy's View

Ten years of syndicating my blog Hennessy’s View on stlouisteaparty.com comes to an end with this post. If you’d like to continue receiving emails when I write, please subscribe to Hennessy’s View daily updates. Readers of the Tea Party site have noticed that I rarely write about politics any longer. They’re right. I don’t. They’ve asked me to stop posting my Catholic faith blogs to the Tea Party site. And I will.

Join THOUSANDS of faithful Catholics just like you October 13, 2019, at 3:00 p.m. Pray for America and the Church. PLAN 2:30 PM: Opening prayers and sermons. 3:00 PM: The Glorious Mysteries 3:30 PM: Benediction and dismissal Now, read why we’re doing this, via Rosary Coast-to-Coast: Awesome Video Awesome Narrative In 2018 over 1,200 Rosary Rallies across the U.S. and over 50 participating countries!

I was gladdened to see Bishop Robert Barron’s tweets of anger about the Pew survey. Watch the attached video. (You will also be happy to hear the Pew survey didn’t shock the bishop.) I wish, though, his excellency had addressed the real cause of Catholics losing their faith: the ugly and sacrilegious farce that is the Novus Ordo (or Ordinary Form) Mass. Here’s Bishop Barron’s initial tweet. I urge you to watch the video attached.

St. Lawrence of Rome is the patron saint of comedians. I had no idea there was one. But there is, and it’s St. Lawrence. He earned that designation for his obstinate and comedic refusal to deny Christ, even to his death. From The Catholic Company: He was appointed by Pope St. Sixtus II as archdeacon over the seven deacons of Rome, and held the sacred duty of tending to the Church’s wealth and distributing alms to the poor.

This was one of my favorite episodes of Mad Men. The post-Vatican II Church epitomizes Don Draper’s very accurate definition of advertising. “Whatever you’re doing … it’s okay. You’re okay.” I’m Not Okay; You’re Not Okay It’s likely yesterday’s screed offended some people. Let me tell you where it came from. A Pew survey found that most Catholics don’t believe things they are required to believe. Yes, being Catholic is hard.

“Well,” said the priest, “at least they go.” By “go,” he was referring to Mass. By “they,” he meant the people who dress like tramps, talk and laugh through Mass, and know nothing about the Church’s teachings. People who are pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage, and pro-women priests. “At least they go.” Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi The law of prayer is the law of belief. “At least they go” would be a legit argument IF what they “went to” left no doubt about what they were participating in.

Simple minds seek simple answers. A man kills innocents with a gun, and the simple mind blames the gun. When a dog sees an approaching shadow, he attacks his tail. Mass Killings Are Modernism In Action Modernism leads us to simple, but wrong, answers. Modernists have one solution for all problems: consolidate all freedom, all power, all decisions, all goods, all authority, and all thinking into the hands of a few omnipotent men.

(Disclosure: I am a traditional Catholic.) Did you know that for every person who enters the Catholic Church in America six leave? It looks like this: Incoming Catholics Outgoing Catholics 1 6 Why? Simple answers are often problematic, but one answer seems obvious: Catholic leadership sucks. The Church in America offers nothing larger or more significant than the paltry pleasures of television and Amazon.

A prophet is someone who has the gift of recognizing how current behaviors, beliefs, and trends will bring calamity in the future. Prophets tell us what not to do, and predict the dire consequences that will befall us if we don’t listen. And we don’t listen. Yesterday, we looked at three reasons people don’t listen: The Semmelweis Reflex, which says people reject information that contradicts longstanding beliefs. The Power of the Status Quo, which says people believe the future will always be a linear progression of the recent past.

Friends, Let me begin by saying “I am sorry” to Robert Mueller and his family. I have been critical of Mr. Mueller and his sham “investigation.” I have been uncharitable to him. And I am sorry. It became clear today that Mr. Mueller wasn’t a hostile actor. Obviously, Mueller is seriously impaired. What we saw in his selection of lawyers, in his handling of the investigation, in his management of partisan and criminal conduct by senior Justice Department officials under his command resulted not from malice toward the president but from incompetence.