Poor in spirit

 I wrote this reflection about All Saints Day for our parish bulletin.  The readings for this weekend are here.  There are many other ways that one can live a life which is poor in spirit besides what I mention below (I had a word-count constraint, so I dwelt only on one way).  I hope folks will share their own ideas in the comments for how they've chosen to live a life which is poor in spirit

The Ghosts of Halloweens Past

 Happy Halloween, if you need something to think about besides election angst.

Of course this Halloween the trick or treating and parties will be diminished because of Covid.  So I am revisiting some memories of the past.  It has always seemed like it has been a children's holiday, and the memories revolve around my childhood ones, or things we used to do with our kids.

Pandemic, Parish Life and Worship

On Mondays during October, Commonweal had a series called  Reimagining U.S. Catholicism Today. They were available live through Zoom, then posted on YouTube. Each topic had a panel of four people and a moderator.  They are each an hour long. This, the final and best one, was on the pandemic, Community and Sacramental Life.  Below the break I give an outline of the conversation with brief phrases that may help you through the hour, and also help us the discuss the panel.

The Future of Community & Sacramental Life | 

Polls vs. passion in Pennsylvania

As I write this, the RealClearPolitics polling average for Pennsylvania has Joe Biden leading Donald Trump by 3.8% in that state.  That number is accompanied by a downward-pointing arrow, indicating that Biden's lead is narrowing as we approach the election.

A priest who married

Gene Palumbo has asked me to post this on his behalf.  I don't want to share too much commentary here as, in  a sense, this is Gene's post, and I'm hoping he will provide comments with his thoughts.  It's a short film, 17 minutes long, about Terence Netter, a former Jesuit priest who, while in the Society, taught philosophy in Europe, then pursued his passion as an artist and taught art at Fordham.  In the course of living his life and ministry, he met Therese Franzese.  They were acquainted, then became friends, then after a time fell in love.  They loved God, the church and one another, and wanted to marry.  This happened during that time in the 1960s when there was hope, eventually quashed, that priests would be allowed to marry.  In the course of 17 minutes, their story can't be told in great detail, but we hear it in an evocative way.  And it's quite beautiful.  I know that a priest leaving the priesthood often is fraught with problems and emotions, but this couple seems to have maintained their integrity - and/or at least have found peace with one another in their marriage.

The headline of the NY Times story which contains the link to the film is, "A Priest Who Left the Church for Love", but it wasn't clear to me, from viewing the film, that the couple left the church.  I don't think I've ever belonged to a faith community that didn't have at least one former priest as a member, so I know it's possible to maintain one's connection to the church after walking away from ordained ministry.

Here is the URL.  I recommend spending 17 minutes viewing this film.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/20/opinion/the-spiritual-exercises-priest-marriage.html

Reese on New Cardinals UPDATE

 

Pope Francis remakes the college of cardinals

Over seven years, Pope Francis has gradually remade the college of cardinals, making it less European and more African and Asian.

The conclave that elected Francis was 52% European. After the November consistory, it will be only 41% European. This is Europe’s lowest share of the conclave ever.

The Italian proportion of the college has been reduced to 17%, what it was at the end of John Paul papacy, before it was increased to 24% under Benedict. John Paul had reduced the Italian contingent to give red hats in Eastern Europe.

On the other hand, the global south (Asia, Africa and Latin America) now has 45% of the college, the highest ever. The conclave that elected Francis was only 35% from the global south.

Latin America, Francis’ area of the world, is up to 19% from 16%. This brings Latin America closer to where it was during the Papacy of John Paul II.

Francis has also reduced the number of cardinals from the Curia, the Vatican’s bureaucratic ranks. At his conclave, it was 35% of the college; now it is 24%, which is what it was at the end of John Paul’s papacy.

In summary, Francis has returned the college to the days of John Paul with regards to the Roman Curia, Italy and Latin America, but he has made it less European and more from the global south than it has ever been in the history of the church.

My Opinions 

1. What one Pope (JP2) does, the next Pope (B16) can undo.

2.  B16 appointing more Curia, Italian, and less Latin American cardinals got us a Latin American Pope!

3.  Will less European's, few Italians and more global south mean that the next Pope will not be European.  I doubt it; the Curia, Italians and Europeans will be very motivated to have a European Pope. The rest of the world can be divided and reconquered!

4. Glad Wilton Gregory made it!  

 UPDATE Rocco Palmo;s usual behind the scenes view of Wilton Cardinal Gregory

Red Hats... Black History – Because He Can, The Pope Packs His "Senate"

QAnon

 There was an interesting article on the Washington Post site today about someone who got sucked into the QAnon conspiracy theory.  He said; “...it’s kind of embarrassing.” But, he reasons, if telling it prevents anyone else from falling down the same dark and twisted rabbit hole he did, then the potential humiliation is worth it."

Trump & the Virus

My recent post HEADED TOWARD A THIRD PEAK linked to the NY Times graphs which showed the spread of the virus in space and time.  Around the beginning of August, I realized that after the second peak on July 19th at 66690 cases the spread of the virus was beginning to recede at an average rate of 1.5% less per day.  Indeed "it was going away", and if it had continued to go away new cases would have been done to around 15,000 new cases per day by election day. 

By September 11th cases were down to a running seven day mean of 31799 cases per day just as predicted. However on that day its downward trend was reversed and an upward trend at the rate of 2% per day began. If that rate continues we will reach a running seven day average of over 87000 cases per day by election day. A new high was reported for yesterday of 85085 new cases, so that there is a good chance that will happen.

So while the virus is not going to go away, it may have been possible on September 11, if we had already implemented more testing and case following, to actually bring the virus levels down to 15000 cases. If the Trump administration had endorsed rather than opposed these measures, he might now be in the position to claim that victory is in sight. Instead, at least some and perahps many very bad months are ahead. Unless we get a successful vaccine, or are willing to go into extreme lockdowns, our only other hopes are that the virus recedes next summer and/or herd immunity develops at far lower levels than most experts think.  

My Cases Projections Updated

Voting report

 I voted today, via a mail-in ballot. 

Uh-oh UPDATED

Update 10/26/2020 11:47 pm CDT - ... and now the State has shut down indoor dining in suburban Cook County, where I live.  I better get my hair cut this week, while I can!

---

Update 10/23/2020 12:30 pm CDT -  The new restrictions for bars and restaurants for these suburban counties (no indoor dining/service allowed) go into effect today.  Our local suburban newspaper has identified a number of owners who are vowing to defy the new rules, saying the restrictions will mean the death of their businesses.  One owner claims that it is not restaurants that are responsible for the recent spike in area COVID-19 cases, pointing to private gatherings as being the chief culprits. [Update 10/24/2020 9:46 am CDT - our local suburban newspaper ran a follow-up story today in which the governor's office refutes that contention: based on contact tracing, "[b]ars and restaurants led the state in places where infected people had worked or visited between August and September".]  Another objects that restaurants and bars are being singled out for these restrictions while casinos are allowed to stay open.  The point about casinos being exempted does seem to have some merit, and one can't help recalling that casinos generate revenue for our cash-starved state. [Update 10/24/2020: today's newspaper article notes that in fact "casinos are restricted to 25% capacity, had their hours of operation cut, and cannot serve food or beverages for on-site consumption".]  

During the warm summer months, I dined outdoors a few times at local restaurants.  We've also dined indoors two or three times, most recently last weekend because we wished to sneak in one more dining-out date before any restrictions were reimposed.  My personal observation is that, at least at the restaurants we patronized, the safety precautions being taken were ok but not stellar.  Tables should be widely separated; some establishments are better at this than others - and of course all of them have a strong economic motive to shoehorn in as many tables as possible.  We customers are supposed to wear masks when we walk in the door, when we move to and from our table, and when we interact with wait staff (all of whom are masked all the time).  The business of taking off a mask at the table to eat but then putting it back on when the waiter approaches, works only so-so; if one is not seated facing the right direction, one is not aware that the waiter has appeared at one's table until s/he already is there.

The governor, so far, isn't backing down from the new restrictions, and is saying they'll be enforced.  It's not clear yet how widespread the defiance will be - nor, for these places that stay open, whether their customers will even show up to take part in forbidden indoor dining.  It's worth recalling that, contrary to some political rhetoric heard on campaign trails these days, the sharp economic downturn from last spring was not caused by government shutdowns; consumers voluntarily started staying indoors and stopped patronizing retail establishments before any government restrictions were imposed.  Now that COVID-19 is spiking in most states across the US, it remains to be seen whether American consumers are willing to curtail their retail spending again, or whether our discipline and solidarity has irreparably frayed.

---

Headline on the website of our local suburban newspaper: "'We're now entering a new wave of this virus': counties will face restrictions starting Friday".  

New cases of COVID-19 reached 3,714 Tuesday and 41 additional deaths were reported as Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced DuPage, Kane, Kankakee and Will counties will face restrictions effective Friday amid a resurgence of the virus.

The four counties, comprising two separate public health regions, have surpassed an 8% COVID-19 test positivity rate for three days, which typically triggers mitigations. Those will include temporarily suspending indoor service at restaurants and bars or limiting gatherings to 25 people or less in an effort to reduce risk of spreading the virus.

The four counties named in the news story include areas of suburbs, exurbs and rural areas.  My own area is not included (I happen to live in Cook County).  Nor do any of those counties overlap the Chicago Archdiocese, which is in Cook and Lake Counties.*   

Some Better Ideas on Supreme Court Reform

 

I Was Reagan’s Solicitor General. Here’s What Biden Should Do With the Court.

Joe Biden should be open to enlarging the number of justices. But first, he should see if the conservative majority overplays its hand.

By Charles Fried

Charles Fried served as the solicitor general under President Ronald Reagan.

All these frankly reactionary decisions are incurable by legislation because they were said to be based in the Constitution. And every one of them favors, and was favored by, partisan Republican interests and was decided 5 to 4 by Republican-appointed justices.

As for the few moderate decisions of the last few years — the citizenship question on the census, the health care mandate in the Affordable Care Act said to be a tax, the ban on LGBTQ employment discrimination — they can all be undone by legislation.

So there is a lot at stake.

Fried argues that FDR's threat of expanding the court was successful because the court did begin to approve his legislation.

Following his idea, the Democrats should introduce legislation that would effectively annul Citizens United but in such a way that the count could allow the legislation without admitting its error. (I remember reading of a way to do this but I don't  have the reference). Simultaneous introduce legislation that would allow expansion of the court, however on a much slower track, e.g. extensive hearings to examine the whole structure of the federal judiciary system.

The most attractive part of Scalia arguments to me has been the democracy issue, that legislatures not courts should decide issues. However once the Supreme Count on the Right or Left begins to quite frankly to invent Constitution rights, it become a very undemocratic institution, and its wings need to be clipped. Democrats need to promote rights (education, health, etc.) through legislation not by having the Supreme Court proclaim them. If Democrats or Republicans want a constitutionally protected right they need to amend the Constitution. 

 

More Scary Data

 

The 2020 election’s most crucial faith group is one you’ve never heard of

The ‘nothing in particulars,’ a subset of the famous nones, have grown to become 20% of the U.S. over the past decade, even as their political allegiances have shifted dramatically.

The nothing in particulars, however, out-none their fellow nones. They are the statistical equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders. 

When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, nothing in particulars were about 15% of the general population. A little more than a decade later, that share has jumped to 1 in 5 adults, or about 20% To put that in context, nothing in particulars are statistically the same size as evangelical Protestants or Roman Catholics.

The Democratic Party used to be able to rely on receiving a huge share of the nothing in particular vote. Obama won this group by 43 points in 2008. That slipped to 35 points in his reelection bid in 2012, and the slide accelerated when Hillary Clinton was the nominee. Clinton earned 60% of their votes in 2016, while Trump garnered nearly 40%.

In a poll conducted Sept. 1 by Data for Progress, 38.7% of the nothing in particulars indicated that they would vote for Trump in 2020, in line with his 2016 results. Biden’s share among this group was 48.5%, a double-digit decline from even Clinton’s slackened performance. Biden would need to win over every undecided nothing in particular, as well as pick up a few third-party voters, to get back to the results of just four years ago.

My interpretation

Timothy Snyder in Commonweal - Not a Normal Election

 In the Sasse thread, Jim provided a link to a National Review article in which the author shares the angst facing conservatives in the upcoming election. The reasons given imply that this is a normal election, with normal issues and policy choices. But it is not.

As Katherine has noted, it is an existential choice. The future existence of America as we knew it, as a democracy, lies in the balance.  It is not a normal election where the choice of candidates might rest on tax or regulatory policies, or minimum wage, or judges.  It is a matter of choosing what kind of country and people we want to be - defining what our values are (not our policies).  I don't see how any genuine conservative can choose to vote for Trump if they truly care about America's bedrock values, and America's future.

As noted in the article, Trump has been sending very clear signals about his intentions - he will lose, he will declare election fraud, he will declare a state of emergency, he will count on the Supreme Court to back his claims of election fraud.   I have been very aware of everything said in this article since last spring. Everyone should have become fully aware of it by now. But .....one more time.

How High the Moonshine

  Autumn has come to sunny Florida. The stifling heat is gone for the next six or seven months, and all is well with the world.
 Gov. Ron DeSantis wants y’all to come to the NFL's Super Bowl LV — that stands for LoVe, too — next February. Assuming, of course, two teams remain able to play. Or stand, at least. Get your ticket order in early, though,  because Gov. Ron expects a full house. Raymond James Stadium in Tampa holds 65,890 fans, but they’ll squeeze in more seats for the occasion. Gov. Ron wants to see it overflow.
 There is a pirate ship in one end zone.
 In other news, Florida passed 16,000 in its official COVID 19 death count yesterday, and Palm Beach County passed 1,500, reaching 1,5001.
 That means I have 1,494 dead neighbors who would be alive if we lived in Taiwan.

 Things are pretty much humming as usual. Some friends returned from Italy, where they had been since March, an weren’t even asked where they came from. Nor were they tested. Tourism über alles. We LoVe visitors. Same story for a friend who arrived in Orlando just before Trumpchum Jair Bolsonaro noticed his first 10,000 cases.
  At church, all the mouth breathers in the county come for Communion because they know they can get it here. When they are finished, the priest washes his fingertips with water, just like at the Lavabo.
 Me? I don’t get around much anymore.

Ben Sasse's Ambitions

 You may have read reports of Nebraska's Senator Ben Sasse's  town hall call with constituents in which he said that Trump  "...kisses dictators' butts....and mocks evangelicals." Sasse doesn't pull any punches in this phone call. From the Omaha World Herald article:

 “It isn’t just that he fails to lead our allies. It’s that the United States now regularly sells out our allies under his leadership. The way he treats women and spends like a drunken sailor. The ways I criticize President Obama for that kind of spending, I’ve criticized President Trump for as well. He mocks evangelicals behind closed doors. His family has treated the presidency like a business opportunity. He’s flirted with white supremacists.”

I hope you'll excuse me if I fail to call Sasse a profile in courage.

HEADED TOWARD A THIRD PEAK

Very nice graphs today from the NY Times on the progression of the virus across time and space in the USA.

U.S. Virus Cases Climb Toward a Third Peak

The first peak (7 day average) was 31,709 cases on April 10 but mostly confined to NY and a few other areas. I suspect the lockdown across the country probably prevented much of the spread beyond, although it did reach a few places like Louisiana. The containment of the virus was probably aided by spring weather which allowed people to get outside much of the time.

The second peak was 66,690 on July 19  far more widespread but still mostly in the South followed by some spread toward the West. This peak was probably aided by the Republican governors who were eager to get out of lockdown plus the summer heat which drove people in the South back indoors.

The third peak toward which we are climbing is (as of October 13) at  52,156. My own projections suggest we will be close to 80,000 on election day.  This third peak is concentrated in the Midwest, and especially in rural areas. Although the rural areas have few cases because of the lesser population, the density of the infection per 100,000 appears to be just as bad as in the cities, perhaps because people in rural areas have been reluctant to take up good virus avoidance practices such as masks, social distancing, and avoiding large groups. I suspect this third peak will be greatly aided by the arrival of cold weather across the plains states, Midwest, and northern states.

The interactive graph which allows us to see the progress of the virus from day to day is particularly interesting. I suspect we could end up with a peak above 100,000 a day sometime in November or December. This suggests that the we could be in dire straits within a month or two. 

Will enough people recognize quickly enough that Trump has to be replaced?  And if so, what will happen while we wait for Biden?   

What will heaven be like?

I ran across this video a few days ago, when I was looking for something else.  I love it.  And now that we're finding ourselves in the thick of autumn, with the leaves around here turning their last, glorious color before they float to the ground (and some already having floated), I am feeling the onset of the end of our liturgical year as well, when our attention turns to end times - the human race's and our own individual destiny.

The video doesn't conform perfectly to my idea of heaven (everyone is virtual, which seems distinctly unheavenly), but there is a lot in it that resonates with me.   First of all, because everyone is making music.  I take the notion of heavenly choirs literally.  Second, because of the wild plenitude of talents and gifts.  There are singers, pianists, at least one organist, harpists, string players, various wind instruments, quite a few types of percussion going on and, as it progresses along, dancers.  A marvelous profusion of musical crafts.  Not to mention the technical expertise that it must have taken to mix, edit, cut, clean up and so on - I assume there is another army behind the scenes, doing the diaconal work.  Third, because of the diversity.  So many people, so many walks of life, so many backgrounds, so many ages, so many stories and histories.  Fourth, because it isn't just diversity: it is unity in diversity.  All these diverse peoples, coming together as best they can in a common artistic endeavor.  Fifth, because everyone is taking such evident joy in it.  Sixth, because it is all for the glory of God.  Somehow, people are able to set aside their daily work, play, stresses, joys and suffering and offer up their best for God.  

Click here to view it and listen to it.

What is your idea of what heaven will be like?

Some Scary Data

 

Biden Is Not Out of the Woods

Four of the six states Trump won by fewer than five points in 2016 allow voters to register by party: Arizona, Florida, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. In recent months, there have been substantially more Republicans added to the rolls than Democrats in each of them except for Arizona.

Wasserman’s data:

Florida, since the state’s March primary, added 195,652 Republicans and 98,362 Democrats.

Pennsylvania, since June, Republicans plus 135,619, Democrats up 57,985.

North Carolina, since March, Republicans up 83,785 to Democrats 38,137.

In Arizona, the exception, “Democrats out-registered Republicans 31,139 to 29,667” in recent months.

Even though Biden is raising large amounts of money, Trump  still has the loyalists. Looks like they have been very busy recruiting new voters to the Republican party.

After following 538 in 2016, I have not been following it this  year, because I don't think that Trump was just a statistical fluke.  If you look at their 

Election Forecast

especially the "snake" these are precisely the states that will put Trump over 270 electoral votes.

Fun in the Time of Covid

 I spent the morning at the endodontist getting a root canal. To do it, the endodontist had to cut the crown which was on the tooth off in sections.  I'm not whining. Well, yes I am whining, but more about the cost than the unpleasantness of the procedure. This is the first big procedure since I retired and am no longer on the company's dental insurance. The advice I was given was that it rarely pays to pick up your own dental insurance, that it is mostly just pre-paying for dental costs. I am going to have to rethink that, since I have notoriously bad teeth in spite of having taken care of them.

An Amy Barrett Video

 

Hesburgh Lecture 2016: 

Professor Amy Barrett at the JU Public Policy Institute

The video is slightly less than an hour. It  is Amy talking to ND Law alumni and friends. It occurred on November 3, 2016, right before the election. It was posted in on December 5, 2016. 

Basically she discusses the implications of the election for the future of the Supreme Court.  The fear that she expresses is what happens if Hilary is elected since it is likely she will be able to appoint four people to the Supreme Court. Of course the big lost has been the death of her idol, Judge Scalia. What about Trump? "Who knows?" is her answer. She is skeptical that he will go with someone on the list that he had published.

The hour is an excellent introduction to the meanings of conservative and liberal as applied to Supreme Court which she insists are not the same as conservative and liberal as applied to partisan politics.

Conservative as applied to the Supreme Court she connects to the Scalia doctrine of originalism which she defines as interpreting the Constitution as federal law in light of the text as is was understood at the time of its adoption even in applying it to situations that the authors did not foresee. She contrasts this with liberal interpretations (or the living Constitution) which allow judges to decide how the law might be better understood or applied by taking into consideration how things have changed.

She says that Scalia greatly valued democracy and saw the law as it was in its origins as an expression of  democracy, and any alteration afterwards by the Courts as not being an expression of democracy. Later on she says that what is at stake in Supreme Court rulings is "Who shall decide?'  i.e. the courts or the people through the legislature.

She points out that although Scalia was a very law and order person when he worked in the Justice Department he became a great defended of the rights of the accused on the Court because that is how he read the Constitution, e.g. he defended "flag burning" as free speech not because he approved of flag burning but because the Constitution supported free speech.

The video gives some very good ideas of her likely decision making.  She says Roe vs Wade is likely to remain settled law because of its long history, however some attempts of state legislatures to regular abortion especially in its late stages might succeed. She thinks Citizens United is very vulnerable because it is recent without much history to back it up.  She said a Right to Die was not endorsed because it had very little precedent. 

My sense was that she was very concerned that four appointments by Hilary would have created a young liberal court with many  years in which to establish all sorts of rights, to suicide, to a decent wage, to health care, etc.  All these creating a Court that would be a policy making arm of the government rather than an interpretive body. 

I have no problem with this conservative philosophy of legal interpretation; I think she might actually make a very good successor to Scalia, perhaps even a better version of his philosophy.  I hope she will give a strong message to political conservatives and liberals to settle their policy disputes in the legislature rather than in the courts. 

Unfortunately many of the conservatives appointed to the Supreme Court are conservative libertarians such as Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Gorsuch and Justice Scalia. Barrett does not appear to that type of conservative. 

I found the hour very worthwhile, with no need to follow the hearings first hand or second hand.

 

 

Invited to the feast

 This is my homily for Sunday, the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A.  The readings for Sunday are here.  I had recently written that the parables for the past few Sundays can be perilous for a preacher, because of what I view as Matthew's polemical intent toward Jews with whom his community probably was in conflict.  I tried to steer well clear of the polemics and attempted instead to "accentuate the positive" to be found in this parable.   Here is the text of the homily:

NYT on People of Praise

 

Inside the People of Praise

The authors recognize that they are likely presenting a biased report since they mainly talked to people who had left the community.

My Comments on article and People of Praise

Holiness, ideology and political parties

Photo from asianews.it, via Google

The Holy Father has a new document out, which looks great but which I have yet to plunge into.  But while we're gearing up to read Fratelli tutti, I'd like to play one of Francis's old hits here.  This passage is from Gaudete et exsultate, his 2018 apostolic exhortation on the call to holiness in today's world.  Francis has written so much that is important and provocative that this document doesn't always ping in my radar.  But it's pretty good.

This particular passage was highlighted in a letter from my boss, Cardinal Cupich, to the clergy of our diocese.  This is Francis on how a person who wishes to lead a holy life should think about ideologies:

A Perfect Specimen of What?

 “I’m back because I’m a perfect physical specimen and I’m extremely young.”

 “To my favorite people in the world, the seniors… I’m a senior. I know you don’t know that. Nobody knows that. Maybe you don’t have to tell them. But I’m a senior.”
Should an obese stable genius who babbles like that be let out of Walter Reed, even if he does not have COVID-19?
 Seriously.

Decisions, decisions, decisions. And then an election

  We will cast our ballots Saturday. Alas.
 Voting early is a bad idea I have excoriated for years. Who knows what will come up between now and Nov. 3? Not in the presidential race. We know what we have there, and The Don is unlikely to go to Damascus between now and then. But there are local races, judicial retention votes and constitutional questions on the ballot as well.

 Just this week we learned that one candidate had not paid taxes for five years! His reply is that his opponent still owes the government $27,000. Voters in that district will need more information so they can decide which evader can best represent them.
  Our newspaper, a shadow of its former self, is just getting around to starting endorsements, as if the election won’t be until Nov. 3. The usual race-by-race coverage seems to be beyond its current capabilities. It’s all Trump-Biden all the time because it doesn’t take many reporters to do that. Even though I have been out to pasture a long time I still know some of the players, but if you never heard of these people and see their names on the ballot, how do you make up your mind? Good heavens, you won’t find much you can trust on social media.
 There are six constitutional questions, including two put there by the Legislature at the governor’s prodding. More tax cuts for old folks. And you wonder why people move to Florida when they retire.
 The others are murkier. My favorite is the one that would provide a “citizenship requirement to vote in Florida elections.” Who could be against that? Nobody, actually.  As the League of Women Voters said, the amendment would have “no functional or financial impact on elections because the constitution already mandates that U.S. citizenship is a requirement.”
 So why is it there? To remind Trump voters that the Democrats want to let undocumented aliens vote and go on welfare. And, who knows? ETs may come in their flying saucers and want to vote for Biden because he is one of theirs.
 Here are the things we took into consideration in voting “by mail”:
 1. Usually there are so many early voters they stand in long lines, and we breeze through on election day. But voting in person is still in a closed room, with poll workers as well as other voters, and Trump voters without masks.
 2. In addition, we may have to pass through a line of Proud Boys who are armed and impolite. If they carry fishing tackle as well as assault rifles, they are perfectly legal, as their pals have already proven here.
 3. If we vote by mail, it may already be too late to have them delivered by the Trump Post Office, which is almost as much a hot mess as the Trump Census. And the Trump Justice Department, for that matter.
 3. We can deliver our ballots to a drop box at the Election Supervisor’s office.  I pass it every time I go grocery shopping. And Saturday we will be right across the street  for a funeral. We know a Republican lawyer in a nice suit will challenge our signatures, though. So our votes won’t probably be counted. But we will survive. In 2020 even that is a lot to hope for.

Fly in the ointment

Photo from twitter.com

 

... or in whatever product Vice President Pence wears in his hair.  As a rule, vice presidential debates aren't remembered for much.  In this one, an insect stole the show in the last 15 minutes by landing on Pence's carefully groomed and apparently thoroughly gelled coiffure.  Both candidates were on camera virtually the entire 90 minutes, so America, or at least the three in my family room, watched transfixed for several minutes as the fly sat there, or did whatever flies do when they land somewhere.  Pence either was unaware of the visitor or is preternaturally disciplined because he seemingly did nothing to acknowledge its presence or shoe it away (although I thought I might have caught a couple of very surreptitious tosses of the head).

Among wags' comments: "The undecided fly made its choice".  "There was a lot of buzz about tonight's performance."  "Flies are known to land on [cow pies]."

On the whole, the two candidates were significantly better behaved than their running mates were last time out.  A fair smattering of whoppers seemingly were told.  Pence probably out-smoothed and out-unruffled Harris, but I thought Harris did fairly well.  Not sure she'd be ready to go sit in the big chair behind the desk at this point in her development.  But who among us ever is ready for that job?

Did you watch the debate?  Did anything stick in the memory?

The pyre of Denethor

You thought that this unparalleled year of mayhem, disaster and suffering is AD 2020.  But maybe we're living through TA 3019.

Christians, Jews and Matthew's parables

 I wrote this brief piece for our parish bulletin.  I find the parables from Matthew's Gospel which we've been hearing on recent weekends to be problematic because they seem so polemical against Jews of New Testament times.  What follows is my amateur attempt to address the problem to our parishioners.  Probably I could have said considerably more, but had to squeeze it into the allotted space.  I am not an expert on the topic by any means, and would appreciate any feedback and/or suggestions for improving the message.  Here is the article:

New Encyclical Today: Fratelli Tutti

ENCYCLICAL LETTER

FRATELLI TUTTI

OF THE HOLY FATHER

FRANCIS

ON FRATERNITY
AND SOCIAL FRIENDSHIP

ENGLISH TEXT OF THE ENCYCLICAL

No I have not read the text, but will do someday because Francis almost always has some words that  you know are really his, no speech writer would  use them. I suspect readers of the original in Spanish have the advantage because Francis often uses very idiomatic phrases from Argentina.

However for our discussion, the Irish Bishops have quick power point like visuals that summarize the eight chapters (links below).

IRISH BISHOPS WEB PAGE

TRUMP VS THE VIRUS UPDATED!

 President Trump has tested positive for COVID-19. 

What's the typical course of the illness?

About 40% of people who are exposed to COVID-19 don't have any symptoms at all. It's too early to know if the President will be among them as symptoms typically appear two to 14 days after exposure, according to the Centers for Disease.

If Trump was first exposed to the virus on Wednesday, it is still very early for him to begin exhibiting symptoms. Most people who are symptomatic begin to feel sick within 11 and a half days, according to the CDC. In rare cases it can take even longer. 

Because of his age and obesity, Trump is in two very high-risk groups for developing severe COVID-19 disease, hospitalization and death.

At 74, the president is five times more likely to be hospitalized and 90 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than someone between the ages of 18 and 29, according to the CDC. 

rump is 6-foot-3 and at his last reported medical checkup weighed 243 pounds, giving him a body mass index of 30.4. That's just over the line into obesity.

Adults with obesity have triple the risk of hospitalization due to a COVID-19 infection, according to the CDC. This is in part because obesity is linked to impaired immune function and decreased lung capacity and reserve. 

JUST REMEMBER BIDEN IS JUST AS VULNERABLE.  

THIS COULD BECOME PENCE VS HARRIS

OR MAYBE PELOSI COULD BECOME PRESIDENT 

IF BOTH TRUMP AND PENCE BECOME INCAPICITATED BY THE VIRUS.

The 25th Amendment, Section 1, clarifies Article II, Section 1, Clause 6, by stating unequivocally that the vice president is the direct successor of the president, and becomes president if the incumbent dies, resigns or is removed from office. It also, in sections 3 and 4, provides for situations where the president is temporarily disabled, such as if the president has a surgical procedure or becomes mentally unfit, establishing procedures whereby the vice president can become acting president. Additionally, in Section 2, the amendment provides a mechanism for intra-term vice presidential succession, establishing that a vice presidential vacancy will be filled by a president's nominee upon confirmation by a majority vote of both houses of Congress.[D] Previously, whenever a vice president had succeeded to the presidency or had died or resigned from office, the vice presidency remained vacant until the next presidential and vice presidential terms began; there were 16 such vacancies prior to 1967.[12]

UPDATE:

 The NY Times is beginning to reconstruct Trump's contents. 

From the Rose Garden Ceremony introducing Judge Barratt, his nominee, both Representative Lee and ND President Jenkins have both tested positive. It was on occasion when masks were not used and social distance rules were not observed.

The fact that Hope Hick became symptomatic before Trump does not mean she gave it to him. He could have given it to her or some third person could have given it to both.

Wallace on Fox made it clear that the Trump party did not obey the mask rules the night of the debate. Only he, Trump and Biden were supposed to be unmasked. The offers from Cleveland Clinic of masks were refused.

The fact that Biden has tested negative does not mean that he was not infected during the debate.  (If he does become infected, has to withdraw or dies there could be very seriously outcomes of the Trump parties disregard of the rules).

Trump is moving to Walter Reed to undergo an experimental treatment. 

Anniversary of Ordination

 

Today is the 20th anniversary of my husband's ordination to the permanent diaconate.

The photo above is a little faded, but it is Deacon Kelly, me, and Archbishop Elden Curtiss. The years have gone by quickly.  We look 20 years older, but the archbishop emeritus looks about the same.