Thank God for friends! This was what I saw when I dashed out of the Grotta Azzura hotel. I didn’t know this video was being made. My first run must have been no more than about two minutes after the quake. I was running to my friend’s house to let her and our friend from Rome out of the house. This was my second run through town. That morning, my phone hadn’t informed me that it was Time Change day, so I had come down the hill on my bike for Mass (in the gift shop for the Feast of Christ the King because the Scavi had been rendered unsafe in the quakes the previous Wednesday) at seven-thirty instead of eight-thirty.

Hello. One of Hilary’s site admins here. Hilary and friends are ok, but can’t go home – Norcia is severely damaged. They’ve evacuated to Rome, with the kitties, until damage can be evaluated and repairs begun. The devastation is heartbreaking. Please keep them in your prayers!

I just found this from Cardinal Zen’s own blog, written in English, Italian and Chinese, published July 28, 2016. (So if there’s a point of disagreement, no one can shout “It’s the translaaaayyyyshuns!”) 平安抵岸全靠祂 (…the URL of which reads “Oldyosef,” which I find amusing.) “My first statement is: ‘you need not follow (that agreement all the way)’. “Yes, in our acceptance of the provisions from Rome there is a limit, the limit of conscience.

Yes, we had another one. We’re all fine. Most of the stuff that was going to get knocked down by a big earthquake was already knocked down in August. The Basilica of San Benedetto suffered quite a bit more damage, but that is all. No one was hurt and the buildings that were vulnerable had already been shored up and reinforced with a mind to just this. Italian seismic engineers know their work.

Battle of Agincourt Day Some other good scenes. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead. In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility: But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard-favour’d rage

Break on through to the Traddie side. You can do it. This from the Irish Times is another example of how I’m right, have always been right, and always will be frickin right about the meaninglessness of the “conservative/liberal” narrative of the Church since Vatican II.

Might as well listen to the Ev-ille music, amirite? ~

The other day The Skodge suggested that the pope and his little band of incompetent minions are starting to feel a little … errrmm… pressed. A little hemmed in by the opposition. So, taking the initiative, they’ve lashed out at anyone who opposes them. Not for the first time, of course. Maleficent on the minion problem. Today, Pope Francis complains loudly about the wicked, wicked folk who still think that Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity isn’t a liar.

A short time ago there were some news stories circulating that Bishop Morlino in the US had started celebrating Mass ad orientem. After Cardinal Sarah straightened the path a bit, apparently Bishop Dominique Rey of the Diocese of Frejus-Toulon in France announced that he would follow Bishop James Conley of the Diocese of Lincoln, who is already is offering Mass facing the altar. I suggested to some friends that it was in gestures like this that could be read signs that there is at least some opposition to the Francis juggernaut.

I know we were all expecting the crack to come from a completely different corner of the Church, and that hardly anyone has been paying attention to the eagerness of the Francis Vatican to throw the Catholic Church in China to the communist wolves. As with every jurisdictional Vatican compromise with Communist governments the one in the offing smells of betrayal. There have been four secret meetings between Vatican representatives and Chinese government officials in the past two years, the most recent being at the end of April.