The dead republic

Good morning. This is my first attempt at blogging, so please bear with me. You can read a little about me by clicking the about tab above. I was inspired to begin this blog by reading some of the other blogs, most notably the ones by my brother and father. Both are excellent reading.

I can only hope that I can approach the level of articulate thought demonstrated by both authors.

I have been influenced lately by Oswald Spengler and his excellent book “The Decline of the West,” and the more popular, though perhaps less scholarly books of Pat Buchanan. Expect that this blog will be slightly more pessimistic than either of the blogs mentioned above, if that’s possible.

On an almost immediately recent note, I had an interesting conversation with a parish priest the other day. In my town, there is a Roman Catholic church that has been the site of Tridentine Mass of obligation. However, after a couple of weeks away from town, I tried to attend said Mass, only to find it no longer available. There was an english Novus Ordo, and a spanish Novus Ordo, but that was all.

So I called the parish, hoping that I had merely misread the schedule. The parish priest answered the phone, to my surprise, and in the course of our conversation offered up an interesting tidbit of “newspeak,” or perhaps more correctly, “newthought.” When asked why there was no more latin Mass offered, he opined that he thought it was “too divisive.” I found this admission staggering in it’s cognitive dissonance.

I know that this hardly bears on matters political, at least on a purely secular level, but I promise this is a rare exception. I will leave the theology to those more qualified in the future!