Journeys of a Catholic Poster Girl

This, from Andy on the Corner, is a great illustration of NY Times nuttiness:

I heard a lot of feedback from my post of yesterday (see here) regarding the nurse’s chilling infanticide testimony, quoted at length by the Court.  But, for my money, if you want a sense of the ineffable, impenetrable coarseness of what passes for pro-choice thought, of the trance these people must have to put themselves in to filter out the inherent savagery of the “procedure,” try this (highlighting is mine).  It made my jaw drop:

[T]he surgeon then forces the scissors into the base of the skull or into the foramen magnum. Having safely entered the skull, he spreads the scissors to enlarge the opening.  The surgeon removes the scissors and introduces a suction catheter into this hole and evacuates the skull contents….

Safely?  “Having safely e-n-t-e-r-e-d the s-k-u-l-l?”  Right before spreading the “opening” (i.e., the wound) and “evacuat[ing] the skull contents” (i.e., sucking the brains out)?

Safely for whom?

What can you say about the mindset of human beings who could defend that?  That which they wouldn’t abide being done to a dog, and which they declaim the dire necessity of … right before their next editorial about how our lives are really threatened by gasoline fumes, second-hand smoke, aerosol spray, melting ice caps, or Dick Cheney?

With bated breath I await the Grey Lady’s next lecture about the benighted cruelty of Guantanamo Bay.

Yup, Andy, I do too.

I got back from my retreat around noon today, and I spent the afternoon unpacking and talking to my parents all about it. So here’s my report:

It was fantastic. If you’ve never made a retreat, do it the next time you get a chance. They are awesome. Mine was a silent retreat put on by the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women at St. Therese’s retreat center here in Columbus. Our diocese is really big–it stretches north into Amish county, south to the Ohio river, and east to Zanesville/Cambridge, about 1 1/2 hours from the West Virginia border. So we had women from all over, which was great. I was, by far, the youngest, but I didn’t mind. I’m used to it by now (youngest in my church choir (I think), one of the youngest on parish council, with the exception of the h.s. rep…).

Silence didn’t start immediately; we had a welcome by the DCCW president and the retreat director/planner, Nancy Jo. After that we had dinner in the dining hall (just like the one in the film Trouble With Angels, where the nuns eat), which was fish, baked potato and carrots, and  salad and dessert. The food was great; simple, but so yummy. And fresh-baked rolls….mmmm.

After dinner, silence began (although it could be broken when you went outside, or it you went to the Blue Lounge to talk to someone), and we had our first “conference” with Fr. Bertrand, the retreat director from St. Thomas in Zanesville. There were five of these altogether, and each one was full of practical advice and insight. He even got into theology with us, saying that this was th ekind of stuff the laity needed to hear. He is so right. If you are a member of his parish, you are very lucky!

The first night also has Mass in their chapel (gorgeous, with stained glass, a St. Therese reliquary, stations of the cross, and a beautiful ad orientem altar with the tabernacle prominently displayed) and evening prayer. Most of us went to bed after that, because our wake-up call for the next two days was at 7:30. Yup, that’s what time this night owl got up. Voluntarily. It was crazy. (Read on …)

Many thanks to Nutmeg over at Life in a Nutshell for adding me to her blog roll!

I hope any visitors from that site find this equally enjoyable (even if I don’t have cute kids to write about. ).

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