A Fracturing Society

Oakland, CA during the 1950s-early 60s was a peaceful city, with the annual number of homicides usually at zero; these days it regularly exceeds a hundred. Homelessness has increased 131% since 2015 as a result of decriminalizing drug use. It’s a doom-loop because so many businesses have had to close due to retail theft and other crimes.

Western Europe’s Shift to the Right

Comparing the recent riots in Paris to the unrest of 2005 reveals a disturbing trend. Both were caused by similar circumstances, the death of North African immigrants after encounters with police that were viewed as unjustified and racially motivated. The upheavals of late, however, had noticeable differences: the riots were not limited to the major cities but spread throughout France and involved mass looting and gunfire. More than a thousand buildings and 5600 cars were burned in less than a week. An army of 40,000 police and gendarmes, of which more than 800 were injured, were barely able to stop the violence.

Former member of the French National Assembly Marion Maréchal warned of the consequences such anarchy:

French Revolution Part Deux

Perhaps this killing of an immigrant teenager by the police has triggered the inevitable revolt that will finally overthrow the status quo in France. For whatever reason, the media here is not covering this:

“In an update on Saturday, France’s Interior Ministry said 2,500 fires were reported overnight. Rioters set fire to 1,350 vehicles and 235 buildings nationwide. About 1,300 people were arrested, while the government mobilized 45,000 police officers with armored vehicles to quell the violence.

The Cynical ‘Unborn Victims of Violence Act’

The federal statute also known as “Laci and Conner’s Law”, named after Laci Peterson and her unborn son Conner who were murdered on Christmas Eve in 2002 by her husband Scott, considers any harm to an unborn child at any stage of development to be a crime if it occurs during the breaking of a federal law. It clearly defines the unborn as possessing human rights:

As used in this section, the term ‘unborn child’ means a child in utero, and the term ‘child in utero’ or ‘child, who is in utero’ means a member of the species homo sapiens, at any stage of development, who is carried in the womb.’’ (Sec. 1841).

But the statute is grossly misnamed because it actually promotes exponentially more violence against “unborn victims” than it prevents:

Greed and the Sin of Idolatry

Gordon “greed is good” Gekko

Greed or covetousness in the New Testament is simple enough to define: “one eager to have more, especially what belongs to others” (Thayer’s Greek lexicon). The tenth Commandment of the Decalogue prohibiting it is straightforward:

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, his male or female slave, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor (Exodus 20:17).

Modus in Fine Velocior: America’s Rapid Economic Decline

“Things speed-up toward their end”, a common Latin saying expressing the accelerated passing of time toward the end of an era. For St. Hildegard, the maxim describes the last days in her book Scivias (“Know the Ways of God”):

All things that are on Earth hasten to their end, and the world droops toward its end (Book III, Vision 11, chap. 1).†

The unipolar world of “Pax Americana” is quickly becoming financially unsustainable and will lead to the end of an era. You might remember the bi-partisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, otherwise known as “Bowles-Simpson”. It was authorized by President Obama in 2010 and charged with coming up with a plan to address the long-term financial sustainability of the U.S. government. Its recommendations were flatly rejected; the vote against it in the House of Representatives was 382 to 38. Obama distanced himself from the commission, which would have sliced four trillion dollars off the National Debt, which at the time was about twelve trillion. It was America’s watershed moment.

Anatomy of a Diocese, Post Pandemic

A revealing publication recently released by the Diocese of Oakland, the Mission Alignment Project Interim Report, represented an effort to include priests and laity in the bishop’s inevitable decisions to cluster, merge, or close a number of its 81 parishes. The 73-page report is a fascinating read for its raw data and transparency.

The Third Strike for Higher Education

STRIKE I

The decline of higher education in America commenced in the 1960s. College attendance was soaring as a result of three trends: in 1964 the baby boom generation had reached college-age and a degree was increasingly perceived as necessary for personal advancement. Also, the G.I. Bill, originally intended for education and other benefits for WWII vets, was expanded to include all military. University administrators desperately needed instructors, many of which were less than qualified and sympathetic to the radical changes taking place in society.

Students in the major universities from about 1970 on were being increasingly indoctrinated as to what were the acceptable opinions on race relations, sexuality, homosexuality, cultural values, etc. This was exposed by University of Chicago professor Allen Bloom in his widely read 1987 book The Closing of the American Mind.

Inching Toward a Dangerous Threshold

In the wake of the Roe v. Wade decision, churches have been increasingly the targets of desecration, vandalism, and arson. In response, the USCCB recently sent a letter to congress asking for an increase in funding for a program that offers security for religious institutions:

These are not mere property crimes – this is the degradation of visible representations of our Catholic faith. These are acts of hate.

How to Cope with Persecution: 5 Precepts from St. Peter

A recent report warned that Christianophobia is on the rise:

[T]he wave of violence, sacrilege, and desecration of Catholic churches in the USA and Latin American countries has not abated. Omertà, i.e. the code of silence, connivance, and complicity on the part of governments and the national and international mass media show just how violent anti-Christianity is becoming. … With the Eucharistic Christ struck down and His Mother Mary beheaded, what will happen to Christians? Let’s be prepared…

In the first epistle of St. Peter, the apostle addresses the experience of unjust suffering as a follower of Christ. He first urges a focus on hope, the anticipation of our future reward in heaven: