A Guest Post From Jack Seney

A sad commentary on the state of the world by my friend, Jack Seney. The depths to which the world is sinking!

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I remember my grandmother angrily declaring "Is nothing sacred?!" on a regular basis. Coming from a five foot tall gray-haired Italian lady, you wouldn't think that that would have the greatest force. But it surely did, as Grandma delivered it with a power that belied her small stature.

All it would take is for Grandma to see some indecency on TV, and "Is nothing sacred?!" was sure to come roaring forth.

Virtually anything of this Earth trying to be holy is itself a potential target of indecency, so in that sense nothing is sacred until Christ returns to set all earthly parameters perfectly in place again.

In the meantime, one has to deal with things like the recent online Catholic discussion I saw about THE FETISHIZATION OF TRADITIONAL CATHOLIC GIRLS!! That's right, those ultra-conservative young ladies one sees at the traditional Latin Mass with their veils, shawls, long dresses and sensible shoes supposedly have sparked a following of obsessive men who can't fantasize enough about them! It is even being suggested that some traditional Catholic girls know of the "seductive," if celibate power they have and enjoy utilizing it!

This is all very silly, to put it mildly. The use of words like "fetishization" and "obsession" cleverly makes perfectly healthy desires for a Catholic wife into something potentially nasty, which it is not. There is nothing at all wrong with romantic passion for a traditional Catholic girl, or for more than one of them if a man is alone and trying to find a traditional wife.

Neither is there anything inherently wrong with a veiled, long-dressed Catholic single girl enjoying the attention coming her way from Catholic men. This is a lot better than the immoral attention she would get from immoral men in the workaday world, as since the churchmen's intention is seriously Catholic it cannot involve premarital sex. Even if there is a special sort of "flirting" quality to her interactions with men, the traditional Catholic girl will not be entertaining potential sex partners but potential husbands only.

There will of course be the usual crass joking by lowlives about traditional Catholic girls: "Ah we know what they're REALLY like when they're not at Mass!" will come the winking, guffawing nonsense from stupid people who have long given up their own virginity in the most ugly ways, and who rather than repent would prefer to say moronic things about the traditional. Such people can be prayed for and left alone until they might become enlightened. Traditional Catholics should simply stick to their own sinless passions until such time as they find a good Catholic marriage.

As stated, any "fetishization" would of necessity have the quality of including Catholic marriage and demanding chastity until then. An "obsessive" over such traditional girls would have to be Catholic himself if he is to be taken seriously. Which means that marriage and family should be his only goals - at which point the "obsession" will be done and Catholic responsibility must take over. Not that passion must disappear, but it will take a different form. Passion clearly does NOT disappear considering the larger size that traditional Catholic families tend to be!

None of this need involve "fetishization," as that is merely a word being thrown out in an attempt to soil the simple fact of a man being passionate about a particular kind of girl - the right kind, as far as many of us are concerned.

"But what about Catholic women who are not so perfect?! What does that say against them, huh?!" will come the retort, usually from sexually impure people who do not want to repent. Seeing as nobody is perfect, nothing is necessarily "being said" about anyone. Except that the sexually impure should simply go to Confession and start their life over, becoming MORE perfect.

What is being said is that those who are living chaste lives until marriage - and thereby avoiding the brainwashing of a sex-obsessed society and concentrating on more intelligent activities than premature sexuality - should be encouraged and supported. What could possibly be wrong about that, especially from the Catholic perspective?

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Not that you would have seen it in the mainstream media, as I certainly did not, but prominent conservative Catholic priest Fr. George Rutler was cleared of all accusations this past May. The media were all over it when a female security guard, connected to a private eye notorious for making accusations against cops on behalf of gang members, accused the 75 year-old Rutler of looking at pornography and improperly touching her in his Manhattan rectory at St. Michael's, after she had worked there about one day(!).

The Manhattan DA's office, hardly known for its love of conservative priests, announced months ago that there was no foundation for the charges, going even further than usual in its language to declare the accusations baseless. Funny how I didn't see the mainstream media, which was screaming about it when Rutler was accused, reporting on this exoneration very much at all. Funny how I didn't see the disgraceful "Christian" writer Rod Dreher, who had diarrhea of the keyboard when the accusations were made, having a peep to offer when Rutler was cleared.

May God bless Fr. Rutler, and while one would not blame him for retiring after such an ordeal, may he continue his good work regardless of his official standing.