Month: November 2011

Top Bishops

If you missed it last week (it was flying around the Catholic blogosphere), there is now a American Catholic Hall of Fame. I’m not clear on when the Hall started, but they inducted their first bishops earlier this month. Here’s the list:

* Archbishop John Carroll (1735-1815)
* Bishop John Hughes (1797-1864)
* Saint John Neumann, (1811-1860)
* Cardinal James Gibbons (1834-1921)
* Archbishop Joseph Rummel (1876-1964)
* Bishop Francis Xavier Ford, M.M. (1892-1952)
* Bishop Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)
* Cardinal John O’ Connor (1920-2000)
* Cardinal Terence Cooke (1921-1983)
* Bishop Austin Vaughan (1927-2000)
* Archbishop Charles Chaput (1944-)

I guess I need to bolster my knowledge of American Catholicism. Out of the 11, I’d never even heard of three. Fortunately, of the other eight, I have a fair amount of knowledge. I’ve been especially fond of Hughes. He was, from what I can discern, a holy man, but he wouldn’t flinch to defend his people. When the Nativists started attacking Philadelphia Catholics, there were (well-founded) fears they would target New York City’s Catholic churches. Hughes organized defenders for the churches and told the mayor that if any churches were burned, “New York would be another Moscow.” The Mayor took the point, and the churches were left unmolested.

Received in an Email

From my son Alex:

Drinking Corner

A TDE reader sends along this nifty review of Christmas ales. He also mentions that the article’s writer, Michael Heaton, is brother of actress Patricia Heaton.

If you need to get drunk quick, it looks like you want Mad Elf. 11% alcohol.

Funny Fallon

“I just heard about a woman in … Read the rest

QE3 v. Wine

Stocks surged yesterday on news that Bernanke was ready to unleash Quantitative Easing Part 3 (parts 4, 5, and 28 are presumably also on the runway). But at least one indicator says stocks are ready to plunge anyway: The fine wine index. It measures auction prices of the 100 most actively-traded wines, and it’s sagging bad. You can find a list of the wines here.

Uncle Joe’s Daughter Dies

I was surprised to see that Stalin had any children. For some reason, I always envisioned him as a cold, calculating, sex-less being, but I guess I was confusing him with Hitler (or my wife . . . badaboom). He had a couple of wives and children. His sole daughter has now died. Let’s pray for her and hope she hasn’t been reunited with her father. Link to obit.

Whenever I see a reference to Stalin, I’m always reminded of Robert Conquest, whose The Great Terror described Stalin’s liquidation of the kulaks and other atrocities. Conquest consistently maintained that the number killed was in the eight figures. The Left consistently scoffed, but after Communism fell and records became available, everyone knew Conquest was right all along. When his publisher got ready to re-issue The Great Terror, he asked Conquest if he wanted to suggest a different title. Conquest replied, “I told you so, you f***ing fools”.

Holiday Pastime

Few things are more enjoyable for me than to read in a recliner next to our Christmas tree. It’s my favorite holiday pastime. I especially like to play mellow, instrumental holiday music in the background. My favorite collection in this regard: … Read the rest

“Foster those noble thoughts, those incipient holy desires . . . A single spark can start a conflagration.” Escriva… Read the rest

“[T]here are no institutions on earth that enable each separate person to have a hand in the exercise of Power, for Power is command, and everyone cannot command. Sovereignty of the people is, therefore, nothing but a fiction, and one which must in the long run prove destructive of individual liberties.” de Jouvenel, On Power.

“the spirit of domination never slumbers.” de Jouvenel, On Power.

“On Power‘s fundamental insight [is] that the ideological allure of democracy and socialism had made modern man dangerously complacent before the usurpations of Power.” Daniel J. Mahoney, Bertrand de Jouvenel. … Read the rest