Civil Commotion

What do you know? It seems there is a priest in Detroit who was improperly baptized, with the result that sacraments he has performed are invalid.

Seriously: I am not making this up.

A priest in the Archdiocese of Detroit earlier this month learned his baptism, performed 30 years ago, was invalid and that sacraments he has performed for others such as marriage and confession are invalid.

The Rev. Matthew Hood, who since July has served as associate pastor of St. Lawrence Parish in Utica and at Divine Child in Dearborn since 2017, learned he was invalidly baptized as an infant by Deacon Mark Springer, who improperly used “We baptize” rather than “I baptize” to confer the sacrament from 1986 to 1999, a statement from the archdiocese said.

So if you were married by Hood, or received Last Rites from Hood, et cetera, et cetera, you’re not married in the eyes of the church and, though you’re still dead, I guess you’re writhing in hell.

The other possibility is only crazy people take this stuff seriously.

Just in case you thought the Falwell, Jr., saga couldn’t get any trashier, any more cartoony, it now comes out that Falwell is a terrific jerk because his wife had an affair with — Get Ready! — the pool boy.

Jerry Falwell Jr., suspended as president of Virginia’s Christian-focused Liberty University after a string of embarrassing acts, said that he has suffered depression caused by a former family friend who had an affair with his wife and who has been threatening to expose it.

Seriously: The Falwell’s are ripe for a gothic-trash saga by Susan Howatch.

Update: Reuters’ story, here.

How often have you read, here and elsewhere, that an especial problem with group assemblies is that Covid-19 can transmit asymptomatically? That your sweet Auntie Grizelda can contract the sickness at church or someplace else and carry it to others before she even suspects that she’s infected.

What do you know? Maine has documented an instance of exactly that.

The number of COVID-19 cases connected to a wedding reception in Millinocket continues to climb, with state health officials saying on Saturday that they could trace 53 confirmed cases of coronavirus to the reception. That’s up from 32 confirmed cases on Friday.

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Saturday that investigators identified secondary and tertiary transmission of the virus, which means that it has spread to people who did not attend the Aug. 7 wedding reception but had close contact with individuals who were present at the event (secondary cases) and close contacts of the secondary cases.

[ … ] A woman who did not attend the reception died on Friday after contracting COVID-19 from a person who did attend the event …

The unhappy truth is that there are a lot of people for whom this pandemic won’t be real until they are themselves sick, or somebody they know has died; until then it will be no more than a troublesome “hoax.” There is really no self-defense but to put such people out of your life.

Think about that: The First Felon claims that the FDA is frustrating development of a Covid-19 vaccine in order to tilt the election.

Is it really not incandescently obvious that Trump is mad?

Meantime, there’s this alarming headline in the New York Times: Facebook Braces Itself for Trump to Cast Doubt on Election Results.

We undoubtedly are headed toward a huge Constitutional crisis. Trump will almost certainly be defeated in November and corruptly attempt to delegitimize the election. This is why Trump’s loss must be huge: if there is the slightest doubt about the result — and Trump and his enabling Republican whores will be furiously manufacturing doubts — the election will be disputed for months.