The musings and meandering thoughts of a crotchety old man as he observes life in the world and in a small, rural town in South East Nebraska. My Pledge-Nulla dies sine linea-Not a day with out a line.
07 February 2025
Bishops Trying To Stop Trump Could Face the Most Serious Legal Consequences
I'd say it would never happen but its clear the new administration is not messing around.
The Right Honourable Saint Sir Thomas More, PC (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535)
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CBC Was Finally Forced To Acknowledge Its Anti-Catholic Bias
Did you mean the Communist Broadcasting Corporation? State-funded media in all countries is inevitably left-wing and anti-Christian.
From LifeSiteNews
By Jack Fonseca
I wouldn’t doubt that the CBC editor wanted it to be written by someone who harbors animosity towards the Catholic Church, to ensure the story would be a vicious, one-sided smear job, with the objective of ousting Trustee LaGrange from office.
We’ve complained for years that the CBC is horribly biased against Christians and pushes leftist narratives.
Well, the CBC Ombudsman, Maxime Bertrand, has finally released a report about an official complaint I submitted against CBC’s journalistic malpractice more than 16 months ago.
I objected to the state broadcaster’s biased reporting on an incident involving Monique LaGrange, a Catholic school Trustee in Red Deer, Alberta, who was under fire from the LGBT lobby.
LaGrange was being unfairly punished by her woke trustee colleagues on the Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools (RDCRS) division for posting a certain meme on social media.
The meme compared the brainwashing tactics of Nazi propaganda to the LGBT indoctrination machine that comes after our children in their classrooms.
It was clear to me the CBC’s reporting was grotesquely slanted against Monique, showing zero effort to balance out its negative coverage with quotes from the many people who were supporting her.
It was a flat-out smear job, and I told the Ombudsman so.
In fact, I think the CBC’s hit pieces played a major role in Trustee LaGrange’s woke trustee colleagues feeling emboldened enough to take the extreme step of removing her from her duly elected seat as a trustee.
It was a startlingly anti-democratic move, and it was the CBC which fanned the flames of fake outrage to make it happen.
In my complaint, I called out the writer’s lack of objectivity, then-CBC reporter Aaron Sousa, for not including any background about the religious or democracy angles which should have been central to the story.

Here’s some of what I wrote to the CBC Ombudsman in my letter of complaint:
Why did Mr. Sousa not bother to provide the absolutely essential context for this story that she is a Catholic trustee in a religious school board, and that Catholic moral doctrine is officially opposed to homosexual acts, transsexualism, cross-dressing and same-sex marriage?
Don’t you think that’s essential context for a story about a religious institution whose reason for existence is to pass on Catholic doctrine to the next generation?
Mr. Sousa wrote the article as if it was a secular school board, which it’s clearly not. Worse, he wrote it as if it’s an anti-Catholic organization that is opposed to the teachings of the Church.
Long story short: I called out the CBC for its shameful, one-sided reporting.
In what we can claim as a win for truth, the CBC Ombudsman actually agreed with me!
She opined that the original news report “violated the principle of balance outlined in CBC’s Journalistic Standards and Practices.”
The Ombudsman’s findings also include a response from Stephanie Coombs, the Director of Journalism and Programming for CBC Edmonton, who conceded that the organization could have done a much better job in researching Monique’s side of the story and the support she was receiving from the community:
I feel that [this] is a failing on our part — we could and should have dug deeper to determine what submissions had been made and whether we could have accessed them.
I’m totally onboard with these assessments about the CBC’s failures, but I don’t accept the explanation for the lack of balance that Ms. Bertrand provided in her ruling.
The Ombudsman rejected my assertion that the CBC article was a deliberate “smear-job.”.Instead, she chalked up the unfair reporting to the “inexperience of a young journalist” who “may have benefited from more thorough guidance.”
I don’t buy this excuse at all. Aaron Sousa was more than just inexperienced.
CBC journalist was in a gay lifestyle
It turns out the reporter who wrote the hit piece against Trustee Monique La Grange is a practicing homosexual himself, which he admits publicly on his Substack account, an excerpt of which is below:
My hyper-fixation of my body’s appearance took a turn for the worse after I met my current boyfriend, who, by the way, has been very supportive in helping me through my struggles. (emphasis added)

I find it hard to believe that, being a practicing homosexual, his personal disdain for Catholic teaching on homosexual acts had nothing to do with his biased reporting on the topic of a Catholic trustee’s opposition to the Pride flag.
Although I can’t prove it, I would bet that Mr. Sousa’s self-identification as “gay” was precisely the reason why he was assigned to cover this story.
I wouldn’t doubt that the CBC Editor wanted it to be written by someone who harbors animosity towards the Catholic Church, to ensure the story would be a vicious, one-sided smear job, with the objective of ousting Trustee LaGrange from office.
That’s only my opinion, admittedly. But why else would an editor assign a journalist to a story when a reasonable apprehension of bias is so clearly present?
This debacle over the Monique LaGrange story falls in line with a long history of anti-Catholic coverage by the CBC, from its praise for an “artist” who placed a crucifix in a jar of urine to openly mocking the Holy Eucharist to negative opinion pieces and the white-washing of Canadian church burnings.
There’s an unmistakable pattern here.
The CBC’s biased reporting about Monique LaGrange looks like it’s ideologically driven, so, to that end, I don’t think the little footnote which the Ombudsman ordered to be tagged onto the original article (see screenshot below) is sufficient to right the wrong done to Monique’s reputation.
In the end, however, I think it’s a good day whenever the CBC is forced to apologize for violating journalistic standards.
This article first appeared at Campaign Life Coalition. Republished with permission.
St Romuald, Abbot
St Romuald, Abbot
The Calendar’s list of Martyrs is interrupted for two days; the first of these is the Feast of Romuald, the hero of penance, the Saint of the forests of Camaldoli. He is a son of the great Patriarch St. Benedict, and, like him, is the father of many children. The Benedictine family has a direct line from the commencement, even to this present time; but, from the trunk of this venerable tree there have issued four vigorous branches, to each of which the Holy Spirit has imparted the life and fruitfulness of the parent stem. These collateral branches of the Benedict Order are: Camaldoli, by Romuald; Cluny, by Odo; Vallombrosa, by John Gualbert; and Citeaux, by Robert of Molesmes.
The Saint of this seventh day of February is Romuald. The Martyrs whom we meet with on our way to Lent, give us an important lesson by the contempt they had for this short life. But the teaching offered us by such holy penitents as the great Abbot of Camaldoli, is even more practical than that of the Martyrs. They that are of Christ, says the Apostle, have crucified their flesh, with its vices and concupiscences; (Galatians 5:24) and in these words he tells us what is the distinguishing character of every true Christian. We repeat it: what a powerful encouragement we have in these models of mortification, who have sanctified the deserts by their lives of heroic penance! How they make us ashamed of our own cowardice, which can scarcely bring itself to do the little that must be done to satisfy God’s justice and merit his grace! Let us take the lesson to heart, cheerfully offer our offended Lord the tribute of our repentance, and purify our souls by works of mortification.
The Office for St. Romuald’s Feast gives us the following sketch of his life.
Romuald was the son of a nobleman, named Sergius. He was born at Ravenna, and whilst yet a boy, withdrew to the monastery of Classis, there to lead a life of penance. The conversation of one of the Religions increased in his soul his already ardent love of piety; and after being twice favored with a visit of Saint Apollinaris, who appeared to him, during the night, in the church which was dedicated to him, he entered the monastic state, agreeably to the promise made him by the holy Martyr. A few years later on, he betook himself to a hermit named Marinus, who lived in the neighborhood of Venice, and was famed for his holy and austere life, that, under such a master and guide, he might follow the narrow path of high perfection.
Many were the snares laid for him by Satan, and envious men molested him with their persecutions; but these things only excited him to be more humble, and assiduous in fasting and prayer. In the heavenly contemplation wherewith he was favored, he shed abundant tears. Yet such was the joy which ever beamed in his face, that it made all who looked at him cheerful. Princes and Kings held him in great veneration, and his advice induced many to leave the world and its allurements, and live in holy solitude. An ardent desire for martyrdom induced him to set out for Pannonia; but a malady, which tormented him as often as he went forward, and left him when he turned back, obliged him to abandon his design.
He wrought many miracles during his life, as also after his death, and was endowed with the gift of prophecy. Like the Patriarch Jacob, he saw a ladder that reached from earth to heaven, on which men, clad in white robes, ascended and descended. He interpreted this miraculous vision as signifying the Camaldolese Monks, whose founder he was. At length, having reached the age of a hundred and twenty, after having served his God by a life of most austere penance for a hundred years, he went to his reward, in the year of our Lord one thousand and twenty-seven. His body was found incorrupt five years after it had been in the grave; and was then buried, with due honor, in the church of his Order at Fabriano.
Faithful servant and friend of God! how different was thy life from ours! We love the world and its distractions. We think we do wonders if we give, each day, a passing thought to our Creator, and make him, at long intervals, the sole end of some one of our occupations. Yet we know, how each hour is bringing us nearer to that moment, when we must stand before the divine tribunal, with our good and our evil works, to receive the irrevocable sentence we shall have merited. Thou, Romuald, didst not thus waste life away. It seemed to thee as though there were but one thought and one interest worth living for: how best to serve thy God. Lest anything should distract thee from this infinitely dear object, thou didst flee into the desert. There, under the Rule of the great Patriarch, St. Benedict, thou wagedst war against the flesh and the devil; thy tears washed away thy sins, though so light if compared with what we have committed; thy soul, invigorated by penance, was inflamed with the love of Jesus, for whose sake thou wouldst fain have shed thy blood. We love to recount these thy merits, for they belong to us in virtue of that Communion which our Lord has so mercifully established between Saints and Sinners. Assist us, therefore, during the penitential Season, which is soon to be upon us; Divine Justice will not despise our feeble efforts, for he will see them beautified by the union he allows them to have with such glorious works as thine. When thou wast living in the Eden of Camaldoli, thy amiable and sweet charity for men was such, that all who came near thee, were filled with joy and consolation: what may we not expect from thee, now that thou art face to face with the God of Love? Remember, too, the Order thou hast founded; protect it, give it increase, and ever make it, to those who become its children, a Ladder to lead them up to heaven.
St Romuald: Zeal & Love for God
St Richard, King & Confessor
St Romuald, Abbot & Confessor, Founder of the Order of Camaldoli
From his life, written by St. Peter Damian. fifteen years after his death. See also Mugnotii, Eremi Camaldul. descriptio, Romæ, an. 1570. Historiarum Camaldulensium, libri 3. auth. Aug. Florentino, in 4to. Florentiæ, 1575 Earumdem pars posterior, in 4to. Venetiis, 1579. Dissertationes Camaldulenses, in qnibus agitur de institutione Ordinis, ætate St. Romualdi, &c. auth. Guidone Grando, ej. Ord. Lucæ, 1707. The Lives of the Saints of this Order, in Italian, by Razzi, 1600, and in Latin, by F. Thomas de Minis, in two vols, in 4to. an. 1605, 1606. Annales Camaldulenses Ordinis St. Benedicti, auctoribus Jo. Ben. Mittarelli. abbate, et Ans. Costadoni, presbyteris et monachis è Cong. Camald. Venetiis, in four vols fol., of which the fourth is dedicated to pope Clement XIII., in 1760.
A. D. 1027.
ST. ROMUALD, of the family of the dukes of Ravenna, called Honesti, was born in that capital about the year 956. Being brought up in the maxims of the world, in softness and the love of pleasure, he grew every day more and more enslaved to his passions: yet he often made a resolution of undertaking something remarkable for the honor of God; and when he went a hunting, if he found an agreeable solitary place in the woods, he would stop in it to pray, and would cry out: “How happy were the ancient hermits, who had such habitations! With what tranquillity could they serve God, free from the tumult of the world!” His father, whose name was Sergius, a worldly man, agreed to decide a dispute he had with a relation about an estate by a duel. Romuald was shocked at the criminal design; but by threats of being disinherited if he refused, was engaged by his father to be present as a spectator: Sergius slew his adversary. Romuald, then twenty years of age, struck with horror at the crime that had been perpetrated, though he had concurred to it no further than by his presence, thought himself, however, obliged to expiate it by a severe course of penance for forty days in the neighboring Benedictine monastery of Classis, within four miles of Ravenna, He performed great austerities, and prayed and wept almost without intermission. His compunction and fervor made all these exercises seem easy and sweet to him: and the young nobleman became every day more and more penetrated with the fear and love of God. The good example which he saw, and the discourses of a pious lay-brother, who waited on him, concerning eternity and the contempt of the world, wrought so powerfully upon him, that he petitioned in full chapter to be admitted as a penitent to the religious habit. After some demurs, through their apprehensions of his father’s resentment, whose next heir the saint was, his request was granted. He passed seven years in this house in so great fervor and austerity, that his example became odious to certain tepid monks, who could not bear such a continual reproach of their sloth. They were more exasperated when his fervor prompted him to reprove their conduct, insomuch, that some of the most abandoned formed a design upon his life, the execution of which he prevented by leaving that monastery, with the abbot’s consent, and retiring into the neighborhood of Venice, where he put himself under the direction of Marinus. a holy hermit, who there led an austere ascetic life. Under this master, Romuald made great progress in every virtue belonging to a religious state of life,
Peter Urseoli was then doge of Venice. He had been unjustly raised to that dignity two years before by a faction which had assassinated his predecessor Peter Candiano; in which conspiracy he is said by some to have been an accomplice: though this is denied by the best Venetian historians.* This murder, however, paved the way for his advancement to the sovereignty, which the stings of his conscience would not suffer him quietly to enjoy. This put him upon consulting St. Guarinus, a holy abbot of Catalonia, then at Venice, about what he was to do to be saved. The advice of St. Marinus and St. Romuald was also desired. These three unanimously agreed in proposing a monastic state, as affording the best opportunities for expiating his crimes. Urseoli acquiesced, and, under pretence of joining with his family at their villa, where he had ordered a great entertainment, set out privately with St. Guarinus, St Romuald, and John Gradenigo, a Venetian nobleman of singular piety, and his son-in-law John Moresini, for St. Guarinus’s monastery of St. Michael of Cusan, in that part of Catalonia which was then subject to France. Here Urseoli and Gradenigo made their monastic profession: Marinus and Romuald, leaving them under the conduct of Guarinus, retired into a desert near Cusan, and there led an eremitical life. Many flocked to them, and Romuald being made, superior, first practised himself what he taught others, joining rigorous fasts, solitude, and continual prayer, with hard manual labor. He had an extraordinary ardor for prayer, which he exceedingly recommended to his disciples, in whom he could not bear to see the least sloth or tepidity with regard to the discharge of this duty; saying, they had better recite one psalm with fervor, than a hundred with less devotion. His own fasts and mortifications were extremely rigorous, but he was more indulgent to others, and in particular to Urseoli, who had exchanged his monastery for St. Romuald’s desert, where he lived under his conduct; who, persevering in his penitential state, made a most holy end, and is honored in Venice as a saint, with an office, on the 14th of January: and in the Roman Martyrology, published by Benedict XIV., on the 10th of that month.
Romuald, in the beginning of his conversion and retreat from the world, was molested with various temptations. The devil sometimes directly solicited him to vice; at other times he represented to him what he had forsaken, and that he had left it to ungrateful relations. He would sometimes suggest that what he did could not be agreeable to God; at other times, that his labors and difficulties were too heavy for man to bear. These and the like attempts of the devil he defeated by watching and prayer, in which he passed the whole night; and the devil strove in vain to divert him from this holy exercise by shaking his whole cell, and threatening to bury him in the ruins. Five years of grievous interior conflicts and buffetings of the enemy, wrought in him a great purity of heart, and prepared him for most extraordinary heavenly communications. The conversion of count Oliver, or Oliban, lord of that territory, added to his spiritual joy. That count, from a voluptuous worldling, and profligate liver, became a sincere penitent, and embraced the order of St. Benedict. He carried great treasures with him to mount Cassino, but left his estate to his son. The example of Romuald had also such an influence on Sergius, his father, that, to make atonement for his past sins and enormities, he had entered the monastery of St. Severus, near Ravenna; but after some time spent there, he yielded so far to the devil’s temptations, as to meditate a return into the world. This was a sore affliction to our saint, and determined him to return to Italy, to dissuade his father from leaving his monastery. But the inhabitants of the country where he lived, had such an opinion of his sanctity, that they were resolved not to let him go. They therefore formed a brutish extravagant design to kill him, that they might keep at least his body among them, imagining it would be their protection and safeguard on perilous occasions. The saint being informed of their design, had recourse to David’s stratagem, and feigned himself mad: upon which the people, losing their high opinion of him, guarded him no longer. Being thus at liberty to execute his design, he set out on his journey to Ravenna, through the south of France. He arrived there in 994, and made use of all the authority his superiority in religion gave him over his father; and by his exhortations, tears, and prayers, brought him to such an extraordinary degree of compunction and sorrow, as to prevail with him to lay aside all thoughts of leaving his monastery, where he spent the remainder of his days in great fervor, and died with the reputation of sanctity.
Romuald, having acquitted himself of his duty towards his father, retired into the marsh of Classis, and lived in a cell, remote from all mankind. The devil pursued him here with his former malice; he sometimes overwhelmed his imagination with melancholy, and once scourged him cruelly in his cell. Romuald at length cried out: “Sweetest Jesus, dearest Jesus, why hast thou forsaken me? hast thou entirely delivered me over to my enemies?” At that sweet name the wicked spirits betook themselves to flight, and such an excess of divine sweetness and compunction filled the breast of Romuald, that he melted into tears, and his heart seemed quite dissolved. He sometimes insulted his spiritual enemies, and cried out: “Art all your forces spent? have you no more engines against a poor despicable servant of God?” Not long after, the monks of Classis chose Romuald for their abbot. The emperor, Otho III. who was then at Ravenna, made use of his authority to engage the saint to accept the charge, and went in person to visit him in his cell, where he passed the night lying on the saint’s poor bed. But nothing could make Romuald consent, till a synod of bishops then assembled at Ravenna, compelled him to it by threats of excommunication. The saint’s inflexible zeal for the punctual observance of monastic discipline, soon made these monks repent of their choice, which they manifested by their irregular and mutinous behavior. The saint being of a mild disposition, bore with it for some time, in hopes of bringing them to a right sense of their duty. At length, finding all his endeavors to reform them ineffectual, he came to a resolution of leaving them, and went to the emperor, then besieging Tivoli. to acquaint him of it; whom, when he could not prevail upon to accept of his resignation, the saint, in the presence of the archbishop of Ravenna, threw down his crosier at his feet. This interview proved very happy for Tivoli; for the emperor, though he had condemned that city to plunder, the inhabitants having rebelled and killed duke Matholin, their governor, spared it at the intercession of St. Romuald. Otho having also, contrary to his solemn promise upon oath, put one Crescentius, a Roman senator, to death, who had been the leader in the rebellion of Tivoli, and made his widow his concubine; he not only performed a severe public penance enjoined him by the saint, as his confessor, but promised, by St Romuald’s advice, to abdicate his crown and retire into a convent during life; but this he did not live to perform. The saint’s remonstrances had a like salutary effect on Thamn, the emperor’s favorite, prime minister and accomplice in the treachery before mentioned, who, with several other courtiers, received the religious habit at the hands of St. Romuald, and spent the remainder of his days in retirement and penance. It was a very edifying sight to behold several young princes and noblemen, who a little before had been remarkable for their splendid appearance and sumptuous living, now leading an obscure, solitary, penitential life in humility, penance, fasting, cold, and labor. They prayed, sung psalms, and worked. They all had their several employments: some spun, others knit, others tilled the ground, gaining their poor livelihood by the sweat of their brow. St. Boniface surpassed all the rest in fervor and mortification. He was the emperor’s near relation, and so dear to him, that he never called him by any other name than, My soul! He excelled in music, and in all the liberal arts and sciences, and after having spent many years under the discipline of St. Romuald, was ordained bishop, and commissioned by the pope to preach to the infidels of Russia, whose king he converted by his miracles, but was beheaded by the king’s brothers, who were themselves afterwards converted on seeing the miracles wrought on occasion of the martyr’s death. Several other monks of St. Romuald’s monastery met with the same cruel treatment in Sclavonia, whither they were sent by the pope to preach the gospel.
St. Romuald built many other monasteries, and continued three years at one he founded near Parenzo, one year in the community to settle it, and two in a neighboring cell. Here he labored some time under a spiritual dryness, not being able to shed one tear; but he ceased not to continue his devotions with greater fervor. At last being in his cell, at those words of the psalmist; I will give thee understanding, and will instruct thee, he was suddenly visited by God with an extraordinary light and spirit of compunction which from that time never left him. By a supernatural light, the fruit of prayer, he understood the holy scriptures, and wrote an exposition of the psalms full of admirable unction. He often foretold things to come, and gave directions full of heavenly wisdom to all who came to consult him, especially to his religious, who frequently came to ask his advice how to advance in virtue, and how to resist temptations; he always sent them back to their cells full of an extraordinary cheerfulness. Through his continual weeping he thought others had a like gift, and often said to his monks: “Do not weep too much; for it prejudices the sight and the head.” It was his desire, whenever he could conveniently avoid it, not to say mass before a number of people, because he could not refrain from tears in offering that august sacrifice. The contemplation of the Divinity often transported him out of himself; melting in tears, and burning with love, he would cry out: “Dear Jesus! my dear Jesus! my unspeakable desire! my joy! joy of the angels! sweetness of the saints!” and the like, which he was heard to speak with a jubilation which cannot be expressed. To propagate the honor of God, he resolved, by the advice of the bishop of Pola and others, to exchange his remote desert, for one where he could better advance his holy institute. The bishop of Parenzo forbade any boat to carry him off, desiring earnestly to detain him; but the bishop of Pola sent one to fetch him. He miraculously calmed a storm at sea, and landed safe at Capreola. Coming to Bifurcum, he found the monks’ cells too magnificent, and would lodge in none but that of one Peter, a man of extraordinary austerity, who never would live in a cell larger than four cubits. This Peter admired the saint’s spirit of compunction, and said, that when he recited the psalms alternately with him, the holy man used to go out thirty times in a night as if for some necessity, but he saw it was to abandon himself a few moments to spiritual consolation, with which he overflowed at prayer, or to sighs and tears which he was not able to contain. Romuald sent to the counts of the province of Marino, to beg a little ground whereon to build a monastery. They hearing Romuald’s name, offered him with joy whatever mountains, woods, or fields he would choose among them. He found the valley of Castro most proper. Exceeding great was the fruit of the blessed man’s endeavors, and many put themselves with great fervor under his direction. Sinners, who did not forsake the world entirely, were by him in great multitudes moved to penance, and to distribute great part of their possessions liberally among the poor. The holy man seemed in the midst of them as a seraph incarnate, burning with heavenly ardors of divine love, and inflaming those who heard him speak. If he travelled, he rode or walked at a distance behind his brethren, reciting psalms, and watering his cheeks almost without ceasing with tears that flowed in great abundance.
The saint had always burned with an ardent desire of martyrdom, which was much increased by the glorious crowns of some of his disciples, especially of St. Boniface. At last, not able to contain the ardor of his charity and desire to give his life for his Redeemer, he obtained the pope’s license, and set out to preach the gospel in Hungary, in which mission some of his disciples accompanied him. He had procured two of them to be consecrated archbishops by the pope, declining himself the episcopal dignity; but a violent illness which seized him on his entering Hungary, and returned as often as he attempted to proceed on his intended design, was a plain indication of the will of God in this matter; so he returned home with seven of his associates. The rest, with the two archbishops, went forward, and preached the faith under the holy king, St. Stephen, suffering much for Christ, but none obtained the crown of martyrdom. Romuald in his return built some monasteries in Germany, and labored to reform others; but this drew on him many persecutions. Yet all, even the great ones of the world, trembled in his presence. He refused, to accept either water or wood, without paying for it, from Raynerius, marquis of Tuscia, because that prince had married the wife of a relation whom he had killed. Raynerius, though a sovereign, used to say, that neither the emperor nor any mortal on earth could strike him with so much awe as Romuald’s presence did. So powerful was the impression which the Holy Ghost, dwelling in his breast, made on the most haughty sinners. Hearing that a certain Venetian had by simony obtained the abbey of Classis, he hastened thither. The unworthy abbot strove to kill him, to preserve his unjust dignity. He often met with the like plots and assaults from several of his own disciples, which procured him the repeated merit, though not the crown, of martyrdom. The pope having called him to Rome, he wrought there several miracles, built some monasteries in its neighborhood, and converted innumerable souls to God. Returning from Rome, he made a long stay at Mount Sitria. A young nobleman addicted to impurity, being exasperated at the saint’s severe remonstrances, had the impudence to accuse him of a scandalous crime. The monks, by a surprising levity, believed the calumny, enjoined him a most severe penance, forbid him to say mass and excommunicated him. He bore all with patience and in silence, as if really he had been guilty, and refrained from going to the altar for six months. In the seventh month he was admonished by God to obey no longer so unjust and irregular a sentence pronounced without any authority and without grounds. He accordingly said mass again, and with such raptures of devotion, as obliged him to continue long absorbed in ecstasy. He passed seven years in Sitria, in his cell, in strict silence, but his example did the office of his tongue and moved many to penance. In his old age, instead of relaxing, he increased his austerities and fasts. He had three hair-shirts which he now and then changed. He never would admit of the least thing to give a savor to the herbs or meal-gruel on which he supported himself. If any thing was brought him better dressed, he, for the greater self-denial, applied it to his nostrils, and said: “O gluttony, gluttony, thou shalt never taste this; perpetual war is declared against thee.” His disciples also were remarkable for their austere lives, went always barefoot, and looked excessive pale with continual fasting. No other drink was known among them but water, except in sickness. St. Romuald wrought in this place many miraculous cures of the sick. At last, having settled his disciples here in a monastery which he had built for them, he departed for Bifurcum.
The holy emperor St. Henry II., who had succeeded Otho III., coming into Italy, and being desirous to see the saint, sent an honorable embassy to him to induce him to come to court. At the earnest request of his disciples he complied, but not without great reluctance on his side. The emperor received him with the greatest marks of honor and esteem, and rising out of his chair, said to him: “I wish my soul was like yours.” The saint observed a strict silence the whole time the interview lasted, to the great astonishment of the court. The emperor being convinced that this did not proceed from pride or disdain, but from humility and a desire of being despised, was so far from being offended at it, that it occasioned his conceiving a higher esteem and veneration for him. The next day he received from him wholesome advice in his closet. The German noblemen showed him the greatest respect as he passed through the court, and plucked the very hairs out of his garments for relics, at which he was so much grieved, that he would have immediately gom back if he had not been stopped. The emperor gave him a monastery on Mount Amiatus.
The most famous of all his monasteries is that of Camaldoli. near Arezzo, in Tuscany, on the frontiers of the ecclesiastical state, thirty miles east from Florence, founded by him about the year 1009. It lies beyond a mountain, very difficult to pass over, the descent from which, on the opposite side is almost a direct precipice looking down upon a pleasant large valley, which then belonged to a lord called Maldoli, who gave it the saint, and from him it retained the name Camaldoli.1 In this place St. Romuald built a monastery, and by the several observances he added to St. Benedict’s rule, gave birth to that new order called Camaldoli, in which he united the cenobitic and eremitical life. After seeing in a vision his monks mounting up a ladder to heaven all in white, he changed their habit from black to white. The hermitage is two short miles distant from the monastery. It is a mountain quite overshaded by a dark wood of fir-trees. In it are seven clear springs of water. The very sight of this solitude in the midst of the forest helps to fill the mind with compunction, and a love of heavenly contemplation. On entering it, we meet with a chapel of St. Antony for travellers to pray in before they advance any further. Next are the cells and lodgings for the porters. Somewhat further is the church, which is large, well built, and richly adorned. Over the door is a clock, which strikes so loud that it may be heard all over the desert. On the left side of the church is the cell in which St. Romuald lived, when he first established these hermits. Their cells, built of stone, have each a little garden walled round. A constant fire is allowed to be kept in every cell, on account of the coldness of the air throughout the year: each cell has also a chapel in which they may say mass: they call their superior, major. The whole hermitage is now enclosed with a wall: none are allowed to go out of it; but they may walk in the woods and alleys within the enclosure at discretion. Every thing is sent them from the monastery in the valley: their food is every day brought to each cell; and all are supplied with wood and necessaries, that they may have no dissipation or hinderance in their contemplation. Many hours of the day are allotted to particular exercises; and no rain or snow stops any one from meeting in the church to assist at the divine office. They are obliged to strict silence in all public common places; and everywhere during their Lents, also on Sundays, Holydays, Fridays, and other days of abstinence, and always from Complin till prime the next day.
For a severer solitude, St. Romuald added a third kind of life; that of a recluse. After a holy life in the hermitage, the superior grants leave to any that ask it, and seem called by God, to live forever shut up in their cells, never speaking to any one but to the superior when he visits them, and to the brother who brings them necessaries. Their prayers and austerities are doubled, and their fasts more severe and more frequent. St. Romuald condemned himself to this kind of life for several years; and fervent imitators have never since failed in this solitude.
St. Romuald died in his monastery in the valley of Castro, in the marquisate of Ancona. As he was born about the year 956, he must have died seventy years and some months old, not a hundred and twenty, as the present copies of his life have it. The day of his death was the 19th of June; but his principal feast is appointed by Clement VIII. on the 7th of February, the day of his translation. His body was found entire and uncorrupt five years after his death, and again in 1466. But his tomb being sacrilegiously opened, and his body stolen in 1480, it fell to dust, in which state it was translated to Fabriano, and there deposited in the great church, all but the remains of one arm, sent to Camaldoli. God has honored his relics with many miracles. The order of Camaldoli is now divided into five congregations, under so many generals or majors. The life of the hermits is very severe, though something mitigated since the time of St. Romuald. The Cenobitos are more like Benedictines, and perhaps were not directly established by St. Romuald, says F. Helyot.
If we are not called to practise the extraordinary austerities of many saints, we cannot but confess that we lie under an indispensable necessity of leading mortified lives, both in order to fulfil our obligation of doing penance, and to subdue our passions and keep our senses and interior faculties under due command. The appetites of the body are only to be reduced by universal temperance, and assiduous mortification and watchfulness over all the senses. The interior powers of the soul must be restrained, as the imagination, memory, and understanding: their proneness to distraction, and the itching curiosity of the mind, must be curbed, and their repugnance to at end to spiritual things corrected by habits of recollection, holy meditation, and prayer. Above all, the will must be rendered supple and pliant by frequent self-denial, which must reach and keep in subjection all its most trifling sallies and inclinations. If any of these, how insignificant soever they may seem, are not restrained and vanquished, they will prove sufficient often to disturb the quiet of the mind, and betray one into considerable inconveniences, faults, and follies. Great weaknesses are sometimes fed by temptations which seem almost of too little moment to deserve notice. And though these infirmities should not arise to any great height, they always fetter the soul, and are an absolute impediment to her progress towards perfection.
Collect of St Richard of Wessex, King & Confessor ~ Indulgenced on the Saint's Feast (See Note)
According to the Apostolic Penitentiary, a partial indulgence is granted to those who on the feast of any Saint recite in his honour the oration of the Missal or any other approved by legitimate Authority.
V. O Lord, hear my prayer.
Let us pray
Nota bene ~ St Richard is not celebrated on the Universal Calendar, but according to the Roman Martyrology, today is his Feast Day. The Collect is taken from the Common of Confessors.
Collect of St Romuald, Abbot & Confessor ~ Indulgenced on the Saint's Feast
According to the Apostolic Penitentiary, a partial indulgence is granted to those who on the feast of any Saint recite in his honour the oration of the Missal or any other approved by legitimate Authority.
Let us pray.
May the pleading of blessed Romuald, the Abbot, make us acceptable unto thee, O Lord, we pray; that what we may not have through any merits of ours, we may gain by means of his patronage.
06 February 2025
St Michael “Casting” or “Thrusting” Satan Into Hell?
I say "thrust", but as Msgr Antall says, "If you haven’t said the prayer in a while, get back to it. Whatever wording you use for the prayer, keep on praying it."
From Crisis
By Msgr Richard C. Antall
The more I pray the St. Michael Prayer, the more I am convinced of its benefits.
When I began praying to St. Michael with my parishioners after every Mass, I didn’t realize that there was some issue with the translation. The prayer I had said for years asked the archangel to “thrust into Hell Satan and all evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls.” Some people say “cast into Hell” and others that the evil spirits “wander through the world for the ruin of souls” instead of “prowl.” Once, at a presbyteral council meeting in my diocese, the bishop, apparently indifferent or at least unopposed to the practice, mentioned that many priests said the prayer publicly after Mass, and a young priest asked, “thrust or cast?” but the bishop did not hear him.
There is a USCCB publication, “Rebuke the Devil,” which prints many collated remarks of His Holiness Pope Francis about the devil (FYI: he hates him). In the book, the pope recommends the St. Michael prayer, and the paperback has it printed on the back cover just like I say it. Which is as it should be.
I suppose I say that because the words are familiar to me, and that may be just personal taste and a bias. Nevertheless, I think there is a real case for staying with what I know, both with “thrust” and with “prowl.” Consulting the old Raccolta, I note that words in Latin for them are based on detrudere and pervagor. The Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin by Fr. Leo Stelten (recommended by Cardinal Burke when he was still a lowly monsignor working in Rome) translates detrudere as “force away” or “thrust down.”
The prayer refers, of course, to Revelation 20:2-3,
He [St. Michael] seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and locked and sealed it over him, so that he would deceive the nations no more.
Though I am a Shakespearean classicist (“small Latin and less Greek,” as a contemporary characterized the bard) I went back to the Greek text of the New Testament. The word in Greek for the verb translated as “thrust” or “cast” has many different meanings in the New Testament. According to Horst Balz and Gerhard Schneider’s Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, it has many different nuances: such as “put,” as when Jesus puts his fingers into the ears of the deaf man (Mark 7:30); or “throwing,” as in Revelation 2:22 when the “woman Jezebel,” the false prophet of the Church at Thyatira, is forced into bed; also, “deposit,” as when Jesus sees the people giving to the Temple treasury (Mark 12:41).
The archangel “seizes” Satan, which gives the idea of wrestlers grappling in contest. The archangel takes the devil and forces him into the pit, which St. Michael then “seals.” One Bible commentary I saw on the internet took this as a reference to the mythological battle of the Greek god Apollo with the giant Python who was the enemy of his mother Leto. Apollo thrust Python into the hole at the shrine of Delphi, from which the serpent never could exit.
“Cast” gives the impression of throwing a bundle off the side of a cliff down a deep chasm. But then St. Michael seals the cavity. Was the association with Apollo unconscious, or was it meant to redeem a myth by showing how good will conquer evil? One school thinks that where the myths seem to anticipate reality, like gods returning to life and the hostility of a serpent to the mother, were a kind of pre-evangelization of the unconscious to make minds ready for the reality of Redemption.
Another reason to opt for “thrust” is the reflection great artists have given of the passage we are dealing with. The great masters who painted the combat between St. Michael and Satan depict a kind of “mano a mano” physicality (e.g., the painting from the school of Peter Paul Rubens). This “imaging” or imagination of the fight makes the battle between good and evil more like a scene from an action movie. Perhaps it is because of such pictures that I see this passage of Revelation as an intimate contest of force, resonating with what I see as the strange intimacy with which the devils seem to treat Christ in the New Testament, speaking to Him, carrying Him up to high mountains, and the like. I do not comment here about the prophecy of “one thousand years” the devil loses power, which is a question great minds have puzzled about for centuries.
Satan certainly didn’t lose all power to tempt mankind and lead us to self-destruction. “Lead us not into temptation” is about the testing we will always have in this world. Which is why I prefer “prowl” rather than wander. Pervagor is similar to what the devil admits to in Job, when God asks him where he was coming from, although the word perambulare is used. “Wander” has, for some, the connotation of “without destination,” which would be misinterpreted here for “without purpose.” The Latin of the St. Michael Prayer says the devil travels around “ad perditionem animarum” for the ruin of souls. “Prowl” conveys more of that intention. This recalls what St. Peter says about the devil “seeking whom to devour” (1 Peter 5:7).
A priest recently criticized saying the St. Michael Prayer after Masses because it was distracting from the Eucharist. Bishop Paprocki answered that objection well. A prayer after Mass cannot be an obstacle to the spiritual life. Why can’t we face the crisis in the world that includes our being on the field of battle between Christ and Satan publicly and communally? We need all the help we can get; and in the Mass, we are in the vestibule of Heaven and can connect with the saints and angels in an open channel, as every Preface reminds us.
The more I pray the St. Michael Prayer, the more I am convinced of its benefits. It is a biblical prayer in the sense that it is based on Scripture and the role given there to St. Michael. As St. Ignatius of Loyola insisted in the Exercises, we ought to envision the two armies on the battlefield in order to choose the side we’re on. The recent Joe Rogan interview with Mel Gibson showed the actor’s insight into the spiritual combat we are all engaged in. Why not communicate with God’s captain, St. Michael?
And it is a prayer for individual help and that of others. I would almost, as a postscript, beg some prayers for special people. Pray for priests and religious. Patrick Fermor, not a devout Catholic but a friend of monks and the monastic vocation, imagined Satan’s devious plans against those committed to a vocation of special asceticism. It is worth reflecting on:
Satan, issuing orders at nightfall to his foul precurrers, was rumored to dispatch to capital cities only one junior fiend. This solitary demon, the legend continues, sleeps at his post. There is no work for him; the battle was long ago won. But monasteries, those scattered danger points, become the chief objectives of nocturnal flight; the sky fills with the beat of sable wings as phalanx after phalanx streams to the attack, and the darkness crepitates with the splintering of a myriad lances against the masonry of asceticism. Piety has always been singled out for the hardest onslaught of hellish aggression. The empty slopes of the wilderness become the lists for an unprecedented single combat, lasting forty days and nights, between the leaders of either faction; when the Thebaid filled up with hermits, their presence at once attracted a detachment of demons, and round the solitary pillar of St. Symeon the Stylite, the Powers of Darkness assembled and spun like swarming wasps. (From A Time to Keep Silence)
If you haven’t said the prayer in a while, get back to it. Whatever wording you use for the prayer, keep on praying it.
Pictured: Luca Giordano's The Fall of the Rebel Angels (1666) in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
For a Kiss? The Left’s Double Standards on Trial
Luis Rubiales was the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation and UEFA vice president. After the Spanish women’s football team won the World Cup in 2023, during the victory celebration, in a moment of emotion, he kissed Jenni Hermoso on the lips, one of the best players in the tournament and an influential figure on the team.
A non-consensual kiss, criticizable and reprehensible, but far from any serious sexual assault, has been turned into a scandal of historic proportions. A disproportionate media and judicial lynching could potentially result in a man serving more than two years in prison. In England, for decades, the horror of sexual exploitation networks in cities like Rotherham, Rochdale, or Telford, where thousands of girls were raped and abused by gangs of Pakistani origin, was covered up. The media and authorities looked the other way for fear of being labeled racist. In Germany, France, and Sweden, hundreds of women have been victims of sexual assaults during events such as the 2015 New Year’s Eve in Cologne and in other systematic attacks, yet these incidents do not receive the same outraged media coverage as a kiss at a sports celebration. Why?
This double standard is one of the most significant aberrations of our time. Selective justice and outrage have created a system where the crime does not matter as much as the identity of the perpetrator. If the offender is a white European man of a certain status, the machinery of cancellation and public condemnation is unleashed without restraint. If, on the other hand, the aggressor belongs to a group considered vulnerable under the progressive dogma, accusations are minimized, victims are left unprotected, and indignation vanishes.
We are witnessing the destruction of values and social cohesion based on hypocrisy and political convenience. In this dystopia, the truth is hidden, justice is selective, and equality before the law has become an illusion. The message is clear: the crime does not matter; who commits it matters.
Throughout history, justice has been a fundamental pillar of societal stability. However, today, the legal and media system seems more concerned with complying with the ideological dictates than with ensuring equal standing before the law. The criminalization of specific sectors of the population while absolving others under the premise of “historical oppression” only generates divisions and resentment.
But let’s not fool ourselves: this is not accidental. They know that resentment is a powerful weapon that, when well-nurtured and directed by the usual media propaganda, can yield electoral victories for aligned politicians. Today’s Left thrives on resentment; it needs it to remain in power. Spain also saw a similar case involving one of the leaders of the radical left: Íñigo Errejón. The former leader of Podemos, later one of the key figures of the Sumar party led by Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz, was accused of sexual abuse by a woman he allegedly tried to sleep with. Following the accusation, it was revealed that Errejón is addicted to sex and drugs while simultaneously being a staunch feminist—or so he claimed. The entire Left quickly covered up the case, which, although discussed and commented on, did not affect his political sphere. Why?
Well, Errejón does not fit the idea they want to impose on, white, heterosexual, men of a certain status. But Rubiales does. He is white, heterosexual, a man with some power and influence. In a way, tearing down certain towers sends a powerful message: if they have fallen, anyone can fall. It is a perfect way to instill self-censorship and fear of others.
These narratives affect justice, security, and trust in institutions. When specific perpetrators are protected for ideological reasons, the entire system is delegitimized. The victims of these crimes are doubly silenced, first by their aggressors and then by a society that refuses to acknowledge the problem.
True equality starts with everyone being judged by the same criteria, regardless of race, gender, or social status. Until this happens, we will continue to live in a distorted reality where justice is nothing more than a farce serving a political ideology that prioritizes its agenda over truth and fairness.
Pictured: Luis Rubiales, Former President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation and UEFA Vice President