St. Pius X on St. Joan

Jeanne d’Arc est interrogée par le cardinal de Winchester dans sa prison (1824) par Paul Delaroche.
Here is an excerpt from the decree of beatification of Jeanne d'Arc.

...In our time more than ever before, the chief strength of the wicked, lies in the cowardice and weakness of good men... All the strength of Satan’s reign is due to the easy-going weakness of Catholics. Oh! if I might ask the Divine Redeemer, as the prophet Zachary did in spirit: What are those wounds in the midst of Thy hands? The answer would not be doubtful: With these was I wounded in the house of them that loved Me. I was wounded by My friends, who did nothing to defend Me, and who, on every occasion, made themselves the accomplices of My adversaries. And this reproach can be leveled at the weak and timid Catholics of all countries....

Pope St. Pius X, Discourse at the Beatification of St. Joan of Arc, Dec. 13, 1908"

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Stand and Fight

Here is a rant from a lady named Ann Barnhardt. In spite of some of the crude expressions, graphic language and name-calling she makes some excellent points about the dangers of retreat and compromise when faced with unjust laws. The only way to deal with unjust laws is to refuse to obey them and to give no quarter. To quote Miss Ann:

 I do not understand how it is that this isn't glaringly, beat-you-over-the-head obvious, but whatever. I'll explain it....Withdrawing health insurance (like Franciscan University at Steubenville, Ohio), shutting down schools, closing adoption agencies, soup kitchens or ANYTHING ELSE in "protest" of ObamaCare and the HHS "mandates" is EXACTLY, PRECISELY, TOTALLY and COMPLETELY what the Obama regime wants....

The Obama regime is sitting back and watching all of you cowardly fools fold your own tents. None of the stupid bread-and-circus addicted crowd knows anything about any of this. You have to break out of your narcissistic little world and understand that even though these things are earth-shattering to you, uh, most people in this country don't even know that their "government" has declared war on the Church.

So, in a few months, after you all have played right into their hands and shut down your facilities, hospitals, schools and services, congratulating yourselves on your "brave protest", the Obama regime is going to make a ginormous propaganda offensive telling all of the stupid TV-addled idiots that the Catholic Church doesn't give a crap about "the people" because they have shut down their hospitals, schools, their soup kitchens, their adoption agencies and won't even provide health insurance plans to the poor, poor youths attending their universities. The Catholic Church hates "the people", hates charity, hates sick people, hates women, hates children, hates poor people and is hoarding all of its money.

Oh, but the Obama regime LOVES you. The Obama regime will provide you and anyone else who joins their Free Shit Army with all of the "free healthcare", "free education", "free food" and free unicorn farts they could ever want or need.

Listen, you fools. YOU DON'T SHUT ANYTHING DOWN. You keep going exactly as you have been, and you force those dirty rotten SOBs to literally storm your hospitals and shut YOU down at gunpoint. And I'm not kidding. Make them physically shut down your hospital by dragging you out at gunpoint. Make them physically shut down your schools. Make them shut down your university by force because you won't cover abortions in your student health plan. Make them physically shut down your soup kitchens....

In other words, STAND AND FIGHT.

The only proper course of action is total non-compliance with these totalitarian edicts of the regime, and FORCING THEIR HAND.

Anything less than that, and you LOSE. MEN fight wars. If you refuse to do your duty and act like MEN, then the war is already lost. And make no mistake, cowardice is a grave sin, and you will answer for it.

Every bishop is given a crosier upon his ordination to the episcopacy. A crosier is a shepherd's staff. It is a six to seven foot long staff that a shepherd uses to beat the crap out of wolves. That's your job. Beating the crap out of the wolves - not killing all of the sheep yourself so that there is nothing left for the wolves to eat. (Read entire article.)

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Tiaras

From the Wall Street Journal:

This renewed interest in tiaras is likely to heighten in coming months as Queen Elizabeth II—the woman said to have the finest collection in the world—dons a glittering assortment for her Diamond Jubilee, and exhibitions mark the occasion. At Buckingham Palace, her majesty's "Girls of Great Britain" tiara, made by Garrard, and other personal jewels will be available for closer study in "Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration," opening June 30. The fairy-tale diamond tiara, with its delicate festoon-and-scroll design, was presented to Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, who later became Queen Mary, as a wedding gift in 1893, on behalf of the "Girls of Great Britain and Ireland." She passed it on to her granddaughter Elizabeth on her wedding day in 1947.

Last year, Prince Albert II of Monaco's wedding gift to his bride, now Princess Charlene, was the "Océan" tiara [above], fashioned from diamonds and sapphires by Van Cleef & Arpels. But it isn't only royals with state banquets to attend who go shopping for bespoke tiaras. "With the growth of republics and democracy, so many courts vanished in the 20th century and therefore the tiara assumed a decorative value. It no longer has the same political implication," says Diana Scarisbrick, a London-based jewelry historian and author whose books include "Timeless Tiaras." "But always it is to transform the looks to make you look rather more special than the next person." (Read entire article.)

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Paris Through the Eyes of Children

A creative way to explore Paris with the family.

It's no accident that a passport is a book, and no question that books are passports. Especially Paris books, and especially in our house. Whenever Ludwig Bemelmans's "12 little girls in two straight lines"—including "the smallest one...Madeline"—embark on another walk through the city, we tag along. When Albert Lamorisse's "Red Balloon" takes flight, we leap after the string. And when young Hugo nervously approaches the little toy shop in "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," we take a deep breath and follow him.

If you're packing for Paris, here's advice no guidebook will give you: Bring a 4-year-old. And a 9- and 11-year-old, if you have them. Stuff their suitcases not with electronics but books—children's books with Paris at their core—and once you land, prepare to do something really counterintuitive: Let your kids lead you around the French capital.

When my wife and I did just that for a week this spring, we not only survived, but had the most fun we've ever experienced in Europe. We saw things we'd never have otherwise: A tiny toy shop full of surprises so startling my daughters gasped. A restaurant so very French we were the only foreigners dining. And a bookstore where pondering a purchase caused us to rethink our lives.

We started with "Madeline," because Mr. Bemelmans not only takes his book's 12 little girls on a comprehensive Parisian tour, but also shows readers how to tour: Stick together, ignore the weather, run and play whenever possible and stay out of the metro.

It's not that the author had anything against the subway, just that his vibrant books made me realize the obvious—it's hard to see Paris from underground. Less obvious was that the dozen little girls don't walk a straight line through Paris. Rather, we discovered, they embark on a wandering expedition that totals almost 16 miles. Perhaps Mr. Bemelmans took liberties; we took the bus. (Read entire post.)

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Franklin at the Court of France

Benjamin Franklin was received with great deference in 1778 by Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and their court, although Louis personally did not care for him, and put Franklin's picture in the bottom of a chamber pot. To quote:

Print shows Benjamin Franklin receiving a laurel wreath upon his head. From left to right, some of the members of the French court include: Duchesse Jules de Polignac, Princesse Lamballe (holding flowers), Diane de Polignac (holding wreath), Comte de Vergennes, Mme Campan, Contesse de Neuilly, Marie-Antoinette (seated), Louis XVI, Princess Elizabeth. 

The Franco-American alliance  was promoted in the United States by Thomas Jefferson, a Francophile. Based on the Model Treaty of 1776, Jefferson encouraged the role of France as an economic and military partner to the United States, in order to weaken British influence. (Read entire post.)

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Good Humor Treats

The ice cream truck is part of the magic of summer for many neighborhoods. (I like Blue Bunny, too.) To quote:

Good Humor treats date back to 1920, when Harry Burt, a candy maker in Youngstown, Ohio, stuck some ice cream on a stick and dubbed it the Good Humor Bar. Mr. Burt received a patent for "ice cream on a stick" in 1923, after years of debate among authorities about whether his creation differed enough from the Eskimo Pie. (Eskimo Pie, a contemporaneous chocolate-covered ice-cream bar, had no stick; it received a patent in 1922.)

Later, Mr. Burt waged a legal battle against Popsicle Corp., whose fruity ice on a stick, he claimed, infringed his rights. The companies struck a licensing agreement. Unilever, which bought Good Humor in 1961, today owns Popsicle, too.

Good Humor developed franchises, and the "Good Humor Man," with his trademark truck, became a fixture of the American summer by the 1950s. In the late 1970s, the company sold the trucks off to individual buyers.

Today, Mrs. Chimbolo, 46 years old and the owner of a classic 1969 version of the truck, is starting her fourth summer delivering frozen sweets in Madison, a seaside Connecticut village.

"Who wouldn't want to drive an ice-cream truck?" she says, ringing her brass bell as she rolled slowly past stone walls and Colonial style houses. "People recognize you and it's like, 'It's the ice-cream lady!' " (Read entire post.)

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The May Queen

The Mad Monarchist has a post on the Belgian princess who became the last Queen of Italy.

The time finally came on January 8, 1930 when the glamorous Belgian Princess was married, in Rome, to her tall and dashing Italian prince. It was a lavish, colorful ceremony, planned to awe and inspire but it was something of an ordeal for the new Princess of Piedmont. She would have preferred something simpler but Prince Umberto, fastidious himself, was determined that the ‘look’ of the event would be one all Italians would always remember. The new couple did have some things in common. They were devoted Catholics, they dreamed of a glorious future for the Italian people and they were both compassionate and good-hearted individuals. Aside from that, there were not many things they shared. For Princess Marie-Jose, the vibrant, outgoing free spirit, there was also the fact that she had married into the Italian Royal Family during the Fascist era and with her background, attitude and character, she clashed with the brutish dictator from the very start. Mussolini disliked everything about her, from the way she spelled her own name (she refused to convert to the Italian version out of nationalism) to how she dressed (Fascists preferred a more dour and matronly appearance) and he certainly didn’t like her ideas on freedom, tolerance and the sort of liberal, artistic people she surrounded herself with. Of course, Princess Marie Jose was just as repelled by everything Mussolini stood for, be it his bombastic, crude manners, his love of war or his fawning friendship with Germany. (Read entire post.)

For an in-depth discussion of Queen Marie-José, please visit the Tea at Trianon forum.

For everything you would ever want to know about the Queen and her extended family, I encourage a visit to the wonderful and erudite Cross of Laeken blog. Share

Silent No More

A mother grieves. To quote:

There is no consolation to be had for the mother that loses a child. She will grieve in her heart for the rest of her life. Abortion; however, not only robs a child of it’s life and a mother of it’s child, it also robs the mother of her grieving. She is not allowed to grieve because she cannot publicly claim the title Mother.

Abortion advocates will never admit a post-abortive woman is a Mother because to admit that would acknowledge the existence that there was once a child. Not a clump of cells, but a very real living child. When girls begin menstruating they are not called mothers to a clump of cells, yet so many people really believe an abortion is just like having a heavy period or passing a large menstrual clot. This was how it was described to me when I found myself in their clinic fifteen years ago. Two years later when I returned to have a second abortion the lie had not changed.

For fifteen long years I’ve lived with the pain, shame and guilt associated with my past. In that time I’ve experienced denial, anger, and depression. It wasn’t till my conversion to Catholicism that I finally sought the reconciliation my soul needed. Once I received the grace of forgiveness I was charged with the next most important task of my life… to tell as many women as I can how horrible, evil and despicable abortion is.

However, it has taken me another six years to find my courage. In order to honestly talk about the truth I needed to admit to my past and in this one area my words failed me. Today I write this past so that I may finally own up to what it is I have done and make the necessary reparations for my crimes so that others will know just how fundamentally soul-destroying abortion is. (Read entire post.)

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