[BlackElk]

Christmas came early this year for Desdemona and other seriously Catholic folk in the St. Louis Archdiocese as Pope John Paul II sent them Archbishop-designate Raymond Burke, 55 years of age, tanned, rested and ready to demonstrate magnificently what an archbishop can do.

The relatively recent appointment of Justin Cardinal Rigali to become Archbishop of Philadelphia had created a vacancy at St. Louis, just as the promotion of Bishop Burke has now created a vacancy at La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Genuine Catholics will pray for a worthy sucessor of Bishop Burke to be apponted to La Crosse and that that repleacement will pick up where Bishop Burke left off by sending copies of the referenced latter to the same legislators and putting a deadline on their response. An unsatisfactory response should lead to the promised invitation (mandatory) to stop receiving the sacraments and the necessary public declaration of non-Catholicism of those "Catholic" legislators who refuse to obey.

Desdemona, I guess this means we probably won't be able to persuade you to move to Rockford. Sigh.

[TotusTuus]

Christmas came early this year for Desdemona and other seriously Catholic folk in the St. Louis Archdiocese as Pope John Paul II sent them ...

And let us not forget the Christmas present given to the good people of the Diocese of Phoenix. Namely, this holy Bishop:

A conservative Catholic bishop, handpicked by Pope John Paul II for most of his clerical assignments over a 30-year career, takes over next month as spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix.

The appointment Tuesday of the Most Rev. Thomas J. Olmsted, bishop of Wichita, Kan., fits a pattern of several recent bishop assignments: a church leader who studied and worked in Rome, is considered orthodox in his belief and faithful to the pope.

He was on nobody's short list for the appointment. That "hand-picked" connotation by the Pope has a nice ring to it. I'm telling you, Phoenix just might blossom under his care. He has a core of young and upcoming orthodox Priests scattered throughout several parishes to assist his oversight. The future looks bright, very bright!

[Desdemona]

Desdemona, I guess this means we probably won't be able to persuade you to move to Rockford. Sigh.

Not at the current time. Sorry.

I'm hoping that Archbishop Burke will do something about the liturgical abuses here. Rigali tried, but....