Last night, I thought I was finished with Mr. Robert/Robby George and his fans.
I was going through my mail. So I open the envelope from Campaign Life Coalition.
Guess whose name I see again?
At the top of their newsletter, there’s a quotation.
It says, “Let us do nothing today to impede the work of the Holy Spirit”
That sounds fine.
Guess who said it?
This is what it says, underneath the quotation:
“(words of St. John Paul II as related by Prof. Robert George)”
What?
WHAT?!?!
Him again?
That Robert-Robby guy?
Aaagh! Where do I have to go to get away from him!?
How many are there of him? Two (a Robert and a Robby)?
So nowadays we can’t receive quotations from Pope John Paul II directly from Pope John Paul II? His words have to come to me through Prof Robert/Robby George?
It doesn’t even say when or where St. Pope John Paul II said this. All I know is that Professor Robert/Robby George repeated these words. He gave his ‘seal of approval,’ if you will. Is that seriously the best that Campaign Life Coalition can do? Why does Campaign Life Coalition think that it’s important for me to know that not only were such words spoken by his Holiness, but, as a matter of fact, Professor Robert/Robby George has used them too?
What kind of weirdness is this?
Is anybody listening? Since when do Pope John Paul II’s words need to come through anybody else? He needs to be translated from English into English?
Am I the only one who is weirded out?
This is a disgrace.
But here I want to tell you something quite amusing. The Professor Robert George article written in LifeSiteNews’ magazine, Faithful Insight (which was actually written by John-Henry Westen) is called, “It’s Good Friday in the Church” and that of course is wrong, because this year Good Friday falls, last I checked, on March 25th, which hasn’t happened yet, and most certainly hadn’t happened on January 28th, the day he made his speech at the “Legatus Summit,” whatever that is (“Summit” — ha ha ha, a ‘Summit’ – they wish! – those Legatus people sure seem delusional about their importance) but the amusing thing is that the Campaign Life Coalition newsletter, under the quotation from – um, here I hesitate – from Professor Robert George quoting from Pope John Paul II – proclaims “Happy Easter.”
It’s funny because it’s not Easter yet either, but it’s the same fellow who is promoting, and now being used to promote, whatever liturgical event that is not happening.
In one publication which name-drops him, it’s Good Friday, in another which name-drops the other publication [“… before a dinner meeting with staff and board members of LifeSiteNews” blah blah blah they ate at a restaurant paid for by? um maybe pro-lifers like me since I’ve donated hey guys next time why don’t you do a potluck like some of your supporters do?] it’s Easter. And the Legatus people are so busy being prestigious that maybe it doesn’t matter to them what liturgical season it isn’t. But the two publications are written at basically the same time and both rely on his quotations. Odd, but rather amusing, I find.
Oh well, I’ve unsubscribed to Campaign Life Coalition now (just phone 1-800-730-5358 to do the same, but you have to do it during office hours; the voice mail system doesn’t seem to work properly; I tried it last night). Don’t want their “newsletters” about who they hobnobbed with anymore and I won’t donate another penny ever again (especially since some Canadian New Ideas person decided that Canada would banish the penny, as if chess would be the same without the pawns, and no I don’t care that the penny was more expensive to manufacture than 1 cent. It’s not about cents, it’s about sentiment, sometimes, and even – I dare say – the beauty of math – how can anybody enjoy a system based on 10s without the 1?)
The thing is, I’m trying to break up with Professor Robert George.
But I see, he’s not going to be an easy fellow to shake.
Like I’m being stalked or something. See him everywhere I turn around.
[Metaphorically, metaphorically, dear slander and defamation lawyer — take it easy.
Hush hush baby is the tune I’ll hum for you.
Yeah, won’t even singe my rocket wings as I fly between these two suns.]
And another thing. I note that this Campaign Life Coalition Newsletter uses the same phrase, “snowmaggedon” that affected the attendance at the Pro-Life rally in January, which was used by LifeSiteNews. This coined word sounds a little, well, over-dramatic to me, but the point is that a lot of snow fell, as predicted. It wasn’t just a bit of snow, it was a lot. Alright. And the fish you almost caught, well, that was really big too, yes. Alright now.
I have, wearily, already read about it in my copy of Faithful Insight. But now that I see it mentioned yet again, as something worthy of note, let me go get that article again. I was going to let that article slide. But since I see it’s such an earth-shattering and noteworthy event – sigh – I’ll dig up the magazine again.
Let’s see here.
Would you believe? That article is almost two full pages long. Two pages about snow. Wow, where are these people from? Texas?
Let me read it again. Here’s part of it:
“A winter storm of Biblical proportions [are you sure about that? “Biblical proportions?” Is this a news story or a legend?] dumped two feet of snow inside the Beltway, and an additional foot outside the city limits, just as tens of thousands of 2016 March for Life participants tried to go home.”
Alright. Two feet of snow. (Three in some places.)
Anybody died?
Nope.
Anybody injured?
Nope.
The forecasters were there to predict it.
It happened as predicted.
Um?
Some people weren’t able to leave the area for two days.
And some of them were stuck for three.
Many of these people are young.
It sounds like it was actually quite fun for many of them.
They participated in building an altar from snow and a priest said a Mass. I guess that’s nice. Mass is good; I hope it wasn’t being used as a publicity stunt.
But I do note they are excited that “Photos and videos of the Turnpike Mass went viral and offered a powerful witness across the country, as reports exploded [“exploded”? the “reports exploded”? I just LOL’d at the thought] on social media of students building an altar of snow and singing at the Mass.”
Um — I guess this is, good?
The cover of this issue features a photo which presumably relates to this article. [WiseOne commented that the front cover of the Faithful Insight magazine looks like a knitting catalogue, featuring, as it does, a close, close up of a young woman wearing a nice knit hat. WiseOne said the hat was mainly knit, but every five stitches, was purled. The scarf was done with ribbing. Not a bad photo, especially for a knitting catalogue.]
But anyway, back to the News and the messages “that are crucial and need to be read by many thousands,” to use John-Henry Westen’s words, there were some people who were stuck in Washington DC for longer than anticipated. Um, yeah. The weather forecast did warn of an impending storm, and many people left prior to the storm’s arrival and were completely, or almost completely, unaffected. But some people did experience the snowstorm, first hand. Like, they touched the snow and everything.
The article is filled with important quotations like this: “People started to build stuff in the snow, and then they came and talked to Father Behm about Mass, and we all started to get really excited.”
Um — I guess this is, nice?
I’m happy for you darling, but, Mr. John-Henry Westen, this isn’t exactly what I call “News.” Snow is, well, rarely news where I come from. I do agree, though, it can fall really suddenly in large amounts, and two feet so suddenly would probably make the news. Snow is also really pretty and can be a lot of fun to play in, especially if you’re not used to it, as many of these marchers probably weren’t. It’s also white, and sometimes it can be fluffy. At other times, snow contains more moisture, and in those cases, snow can feel very heavy, especially when you’re shovelling it.
Felt like I was shovelling it when I went through the magazine yesterday.
(As a side note, I would caution the attendees of the so-called ‘Turnpike Mass’ that there is a bit of an age-limit on the re-telling of this story. As a matter of fact, there is an age limit on anybody telling any stories about any weather condition. You can tell such stories until you are about 29. After that, you will be lumped into the category of people called “Old People Who Tell Tales About the Weather Years Ago.”)
But I agree, it really does sound like a party, but I see it’s being promoted here as proof of incredible devotion.
That’s where I start to feel uncomfortable.
It sounds like a neat “feel-good” story that captured the media’s attention for a little while. Occasionally, the news media will put into their programs little bits of something else, even if they’re Christian bits, just to break-up the otherwise dreary feel of bad and depressing stories. It doesn’t mean that they care; it doesn’t mean they’re almost converted now. They just want different images, and young people in the snow is a little different than what they normally show, as would be young people in a nativity play. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re being really ‘unbiased’ or that they love ya.
Therefore, I think the pro-life News people are getting a bit carried away, about the overall effect of this, and how much it proves about anything. During the adrenaline-rush that would occur during such an event, a crush of young people forming almost an impromptu-Youth Day atmosphere with a bit of Survivor reality TV flavour mixed in, complete with devotions and filming and being aware of being filmed being devout, I can imagine the excitement.
I just don’t know though.
I just don’t know.
I read here: “Because of the witness of the young people and its effects on others, the Turnpike Mass was also dubbed ‘the Miracle in the Snow’ by Catholic media host Teresa Tomeo.”
Hmm. Now it’s being called “a Miracle”? Which part? Transubstantiation? Yes, that part is indeed a mystery and a miracle. I hope she explained why she called it a miracle. For that matter, I hope that is why she called it a miracle. Otherwise people will think she’s referring to the building of the altar or something. But even so, why call it Miracle in the Snow? Why not just go out on a limb and call it a Mass? That’s what it’s called. Does it really need to be renamed? Seems like it makes things kind of fuzzy.
Anyway, I am reading about feats of great devotion, mixed in with a lot of fun activities. Did you know, for instance, that some of the students made a cross using twigs or tree branches? No? Oh, I see. Well, I happen to be a subscriber, so I know such things.
But I’m not sure what I think about all of this.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am happy for the participants who enjoyed the snow, and I do feel empathy for any of the students who were caught by surprise and were prevented from returning home by the storm. It’s usually an unpleasant feeling, to be left in an airport or a hotel room, wondering when you’ll be able to catch the plane you need. Mind you, if you have young friends in the same boat as you, it can become quite an interesting adventure. But anyway, it does happen from time to time, that the weather interferes with our plans.
As for all this publicity about this supposedly-historic Mass, and the euphoric reaction to the events surrounding this post-rally snowstorm, well, I have mixed feelings.
A little uneasy, let’s say. A little uneasy about all those phones filming and photographing everything and the texting and the forwarding and the look-at-me-I’m-at-Mass-and-it’s-outside-and-we-built-an-altar-ourselves-all-out-of-snow-and-look-at-me-mom-and-are-we-viral-yet mood of it all.
A little uneasy.
But what do I know?
Perhaps I should consult Professor Robert/Robby George, both of him.
I’m sure he’s nearby.