He is Risen, Alleluia!
A Blessed and Happy Easter to all readers of Scutum et Lorica. Like many Priests before and during Lent, I have been very occupied, but by no means have I stopped writing, and thinking. Most of my best thoughts come about when I’m in the middle of doing something else; usually being out in nature, lifting weights, looking at a piece of art, listening to music, and the like…that and (cigar) nicotine, God’s greatest gift to writers in general.
I want to take a moment to give a roadmap as to where my thoughts and analyses are going. There have been some really important moments in the past few months, and I know that it’s verbotten in the current philosophy of blogs to let too much time elapse between when something happens and “producing content” on the matter. So, I have an analysis I call a “Tale of Two Slaps”, which compares the outcry over the actions of a sacred figure, i.e., the Pope, who famously slapped down an overly enthusiastic pilgrim, and Will Smith, who recently slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars. Public reaction to these actions show way more about the Church and the state of society than we realize.
I have been wanting to get into deeper waters on the subject of Hispanic and “Ethnic” Ministries in general in the United States. I have an article entitled The Babylonian Captivity of Hispanic Ministry, which is an analysis of how the United States Bishops in particular, in their blind pursuit of using Hispanic Catholics to fill the emptying pews, have actually contributed to their being used as a virtue signaling bargaining chip, and although they may never say this, we treat them as if their green card matters more than their eternal soul. But more on that later.
In that same area, I wanted to reexplore the topic of “Preference Falsification”, a theory of behavior coined by Timur Kuran in the mid 90s. I think that this phenomenon is especially and dangerously prevalent in Church affairs and is causing a wholesale degradation of our capacity to produce true leaders, and it also makes us extremely vulnerable to external shocks. Dr. Kuran penned his work Private Truths, Public Lies as an analysis in the aftermath of the Fall of the Soviet Union. The corruption which Preference Falsification causes made the Soviet Union extremely fragile, and is a hallmark of corrupt organizations. This is especially relevant in light of the upcoming Synod on Synodality, and even can be seen in the performance of the Russian Military in their invasion of Ukraine. When Preference Falsification gains the ascendancy, the results can even be deadly. Stay tuned.
I hope these and a few other leads whet your appetite for the coming days and weeks, when I will be putting the finishing touches on my work. I hope, as always, that they are illuminating and empowering, as we all seek to love, and live, the truth.
