The Need For Geniality
Faith, Culture, and the Lost Art of Living Together
#/media/File:Jan_Steen_Vrolijke_huisgezin.jpg){kind=link}
Whist! here comes His Grace's carriage, 'twill be lunch time by and by,
An' I dasn't drink another—though me throat is powerful dry;
For I've got to meet th' Archbishop—I'm a laborer now no more,
But ohone, those were fine times then, lad, an' to talk o' 'em makes me sore
An' whisper—there's times, I tell you, when I'd swap this easy chair,
An' the velvit coat an' the footman, wid his Sassenach nose in the air,
An' th' Lord Archbishop himself, too, for a drink o' the days that ha' been,
For the taste o' a mornin's mornin' in Shanahan's ould shebeen!
— Gerald Brennan, “A Mornin’s Mornin’.”
A bit of time has passed since my last entry – and I must give my deepest apologies. As some compensation, Royal Court members must be advised that for those of you so inclined, our first unofficial and informal gathering shall be in October. Please let me know if you might be in Vienna at that time, and I’ll put you all in touch with one another and the details can be worked out. The release of not one but two books in a month made me far busier than usual!
The big story since last we convened has been the advent of Pope Leo XIV, and in the United States the threatened banning of the Latin Mass (both Tridentine and Novus Ordo) by Bishop Martin of Charlotte. At the same time, the political situation in in both Europe, America, and the other daughter countries becomes ever shriller. This weekend, my longtime home of Los Angeles has erupted in riot over the attempt to expel illegal immigrants.
In American politics one is supposed to support either side full and uncritically, and erupt in hysterical anger at anyone with whom we disagree – for the sake of leaders whom we shall never know, and who having more in common with each other than with most of the citizenry they dominate. The Catholic internet is filled with self-appointed inquisitors of every shrillness exceeds their knowledge. What are we to do to stay sane in this insanity?