The Final Strike

by Thomas A. Droleskey

Remember the reaction of the late Robert Kardashian, Orenthal James Simpson's attorney-friend, who looked stunned standing next to Simpson when the jury in the latter's criminal trial for the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman announced its "not guilty" verdict on Tuesday, October 3, 1995. Kardashian was seen removing Simpson's garment bag after the latter's return from Chicago on June 13, 1994, to which Simpson had flown immediately after the murder, leading prosecutors to conclude that Kardashian might have disposed of the clothing Simpson wore on the night of the murders and disposed of the actual murder weapon itself. The expression on Kardashian's face said it all as his cheeks puffed up before he exhaled noticeably. It was clear that he expected a guilty verdict because he knew his friend to be guilty of the murders.

Similarly, a lot of current and former Major League Baseball players have exhaled noticeably following the report on the use of steroids and other illegal performance enhancing drugs and substances that was issued by former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell (D-Maine), expressing a sigh of release that their names were not included among the players about whom Mitchell's report concluded had used illegal substances to attempt to improve their performances by cheating. Most of those who were named have been silent. The gutless wonder named Roger Clemens, who loved to throw at batters when he pitched in the American League (1984-2003, 2007), knowing that he would not have to face retaliation from opposing pitchers because of the American League's ridiculous "designated hitter" rule (part of baseball's own "regime of novelty"), sent out his attorney to speak for him to deny the detailed reports of his own involvement with the taking of anabolic steroids, which are illegal for anyone to be in possession of and to use without a physician's prescription. Others are similarly hiding behind agents and their own attorneys to avoid making any public comment themselves. The vast majority of players who have used these substances "got off" yet again, their guilt as lawbreakers and cheaters to be revealed perhaps only on the Last Day at the General Judgment of the Living and the Dead.

Most baseball players today are not noted for their high levels of intelligence. Rob Dibble, part of the Cincinnati Red's "Nasty Boys" triumvirate that included Randy Myers and Norm Charlton, once asked a waitress to put more "neutrons" on his salad when he was in the minor leagues in 1986. David Wells, the portly journeyman pitcher noted for his near-idolatry of the late George Herman "Babe" Ruth, told a reporter in 2003 that he had not read his own "autobiography," Perfect I'm Not: Boomer on Beer, Brawls, Backaches and Baseball, being unable to comment on some of the controversial statements made therein. Rickey Henderson, the all-time stolen bases leader in baseball history, was noted for speaking of himself in the third person, once said to reporters after emerging on the street after a New York Mets' loss to the Philadelphia Phillies at old Veterans Stadium in September of 1999, "Rickey look for Rickey limo."

The fact that so many players were so stupid to take anabolic steroids, which have played a role in the deaths of high school and professional athletes, and amphetamines and human growth hormones, the new "drug of choice" for which there is reliable test at the present time, speaks volumes about the abyss into which the world must fall when people are not informed by the Deposit of Faith that Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and are not attempting to cooperate with the graces He won for them by she shedding of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross and that flow into human souls through the loving hands of Our Lady, the Mediatrix of All Graces. The world naturalism is premised upon a relativistic, anti-Incarnational foundation, one that must perforce founder over the course of time as it comes from the devil and leads to personal and social ruin.

Relativism is very much at work in the whole sordid business of what professional sports has become, a caricature of anything resembling a legitimate diversion and the very embodiment of all that goes wrong in a world of naturalism and materialism and hedonism and just unbridled licentiousness. The officials of Major League Baseball and the owners and general managers and other top executives of the thirty Major League Baseball clubs knew about the problems associated with anabolic steroids and other substances. So did field managers and coaches and trainers and medical personnel. They didn't care. They just wanted to "win." Tony La Russa, now the manager of the Saint Louis Cardinals, presided over a clubhouse as manager of the Oakland Athletics (and with the Cardinals) where one had to be Mister Magoo himself not to have seen what was going on amongst the players. Joe Torre didn't see or suspect anything with the changes in the body physique of some members of his championship New York Yankees' teams? No one wanted to see. No one cared. What's the big deal, right? Nobody's getting hurt?

The officials of Major League Baseball and owners and general managers and other top executives and field managers and coaches and trainers and medical personnel were not alone in their dereliction of civic duty and their responsibility to maintain the competitive integrity of the sport in which they were employed. True to the corrupt legacy of American labor unions, the Major League Baseball Players' Association, led for the past two decades by Donald Fehr and his assistant Gene Orza, have sought to indemnity the players at every turn, agreeing in 2005 to a strengthening of a pathetically weak testing program that was instituted in the terms of the 2002 Collective Bargaining Agreement between the Association and Major League Baseball, only as a result of Congressional hearings that were called to investigate the use of steroids in professional baseball. The consistent tune of Donald Fehr and Gene Orza has been that there was no testing before 2002, which ignores that the Major League Players' Association opposed such testing for a long time, and that it is obligation of the Association to "protect" its members. Wrong.

Pope Leo XIII pointed out in Rerum Novarum, May 15, 1891, that workers' associations have an obligation to uphold the moral law, which requires workers to perform their work honestly. No one, whether an employee or an employee or a union official, has any right to "protect" those who are doing this contrary to the binding precepts of the Divine Positive Law and the Natural Law and thus places the integrity of his work, a mattered covered by the Seventh and Eighth Commandments, in jeopardy:

In order that an association may be carried on with unity of purpose and harmony of action, its administration and government should be firm and wise. All such societies, being free to exist, have the further right to adopt such rules and organization as may best conduce to the attainment of their respective objects. We do not judge it possible to enter into minute particulars touching the subject of organization; this must depend on national character, on practice and experience, on the nature and aim of the work to be done, on the scope of the various trades and employments, and on other circumstances of fact and of time -- all of which should be carefully considered.

To sum up, then, We may lay it down as a general and lasting law that working men's associations should be so organized and governed as to furnish the best and most suitable means for attaining what is aimed at, that is to say, for helping each individual member to better his condition to the utmost in body, soul, and property. It is clear that they must pay special and chief attention to the duties of religion and morality, and that social betterment should have this chiefly in view; otherwise they would lose wholly their special character, and end by becoming little better than those societies which take no account whatever of religion. What advantage can it be to a working man to obtain by means of a society material well-being, if he endangers his soul for lack of spiritual food? "What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?" This, as our Lord teaches, is the mark or character that distinguishes the Christian from the heathen. "After all these things do the heathen seek . . . Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His justice: and all these things shall be added unto you." Let our associations, then, look first and before all things to God; let religious instruction have therein the foremost place, each one being carefully taught what is his duty to God, what he has to believe, what to hope for, and how he is to work out his salvation; and let all be warned and strengthened with special care against wrong principles and false teaching. Let the working man be urged and led to the worship of God, to the earnest practice of religion, and, among other things, to the keeping holy of Sundays and holy days. Let him learn to reverence and love holy Church, the common Mother of us all; and hence to obey the precepts of the Church, and to frequent the sacraments, since they are the means ordained by God for obtaining forgiveness of sin and for leading a holy life.

 

A workers' association founded on naturalistic, materialistic principles winds up protecting the criminal behavior of its members, oblivious to the common moral good of society. This is all part and parcel of a larger economic system based on Calvinist and Judeo-Masonic principles that deny the social effects of the Incarnation and the Redemptive Act of Our Lord and deny any thought of the pursuit of man's Last End as defining even the economic relationships between management and workers. In this regard, you see, the officials of Major League Baseball and of its thirty clubs and of the Players' Association are united in their disregard of the common moral good of society as each seek to maximize the economic benefits of expanded revenues from attendance, television, radio, cable and satellite broadcasts, advertising and merchandising (and the licensing of merchandising for manufacture and sale by third parties, who provide royalties to Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players' Association).

Aided and abetted by a not a few journalists, themselves the products of a relativistic and individualistic age devoid of any concept of First and Last Things, almost everyone involved in the sordid business of overlooking and/or enabling or excusing the use of illegal "performance enhancing" drugs and substances in baseball has avoided one important consideration: SUCH DRUGS ARE ILLEGAL UNDER THE FEDERAL CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES ACT OF 1970.  Anyone associated with the sale, distribution, possession and use of anabolic steroids, forbidden under Schedule III of the Federal Controlled Substances Act, and amphetamines, forbidden under Schedule II of the Federal Controlled Substances Act, has engaged in a Federal felony. None of the individuals involved in the supervision of major league baseball players thought enough, even on the pure naturalistic level, of the common good of society to report illegal activity to appropriate law enforcement agencies.

The Mitchell Report summarized the pertinent Federal law as it was amended in 1988 and 1990:

There is a widespread misconception that the use of steroids and other performance enhancing substances, such as human growth hormone, was not prohibited in Major League Baseball before the inclusion of the joint drug program in the 2002 Basic Agreement. In fact, as early as 1991 baseball’s drug policy expressly prohibited the use of “all illegal drugs and controlled substances, including steroids or prescription drugs for which the individual … does not have a prescription.” Even before then, however, the use of any prescription drug without a valid prescription was prohibited in baseball, and even earlier under federal law. In 1971, baseball’s drug policy required compliance with federal, state, and local drug laws and directed baseball’s athletic trainers that anabolic steroids should only be provided to players under a physician’s guidance.

A. Laws Regarding Performance Enhancing Substances

Since 1938, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act has prohibited distribution of all prescription drugs except when a physician, based upon an individualized determination of a proper course of treatment, has authorized use of a drug by a patient under the physician’s supervision.

In 1970, in reaction to a perceived epidemic of drug abuse in the United States, Congress enacted the Controlled Substances Act, which among other things established criminal penalties for drug offenses. The act created five schedules of controlled substances that categorized pharmaceuticals and drugs of abuse based on their “potential for abuse, accepted medical utility, and safety of use under medical supervision.” The categories ranged from Schedule I, which was reserved for drugs such as heroin that have “high potential for abuse,” “no currently accepted medical use,” and a “lack of accepted safety,” to Schedule V, for drugs that have a “currently accepted medical use” and a “low potential for abuse.”

More recently, “[i]n recognition of the fact that illegal drug trafficking in anabolic steroids and human growth hormone was becoming larger in scope and presenting an ever increasing health risk to young athletes, Congress addressed the issue with two amendments . . . , first in 1988 and then later in 1990.”59 The 1988 amendment added a provision making “the distribution of anabolic steroids illegal unless (1) it was done pursuant to the order of a physician, and (2) it was for the purpose of treating a disease.”

The 1990 amendment, called the Anabolic Steroids Control Act of 1990, imposed more stringent controls with higher criminal penalties for offenses involving the illegal distribution of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone. That enactment reclassified anabolic steroids as Schedule III controlled substances, effectively raising penalties for their illegal possession or distribution to levels similar to those applicable to narcotics.

In addition, the unlawful distribution of human growth hormone was classified as a felony punishable by up to five years imprisonment (or up to ten years imprisonment for distribution to individuals under the age of 18). Those penalties also applied to distribution of human growth hormone for a use other than treatment of a disease or as otherwise expressly approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Human growth hormone has never been approved by the FDA for cosmetic, anti-aging, or athletic performance purposes. Human growth hormone was not included with steroids as a Schedule III controlled substance, however, meaning that under current federal law, there is no criminal penalty for simple possession of HGH. Several states have regulated human growth hormone as a controlled substance, however, under their own versions of the Controlled Substances Act. [Those states, listed in footnote 66, are: Colorado, Idaho, Rhode Island, and Virginia.]

Mitchell Report

 

While George Mitchell is a relativist of the first rank, a Catholic who supported the "right" of women to murder their own preborn babies under cover of law, and eschewed any penalties being imposed upon those players named in his report, there are few things that serve as an effective deterrent to immoral personal behavior (the pollution of one's body and the cheating at one's work are both immoral acts) of an antisocial nature than the imposition of criminal penalties for the social consequences of violating a just civil law that is in accord with the precepts of the Divine Positive Law and the Natural Law (libertarians would, of course, say that all such laws are unjust, recognizing no authority of the civil state to regulate what one does to "his" own body, a sophism that is exploded by the simple fact that none of us creates our own bodies and must use them as befits redeemed creatures according to God's laws, the violation of which frequently has social consequences that the civil state may, upon due consideration of the proportionate good end to be sought, enact legislation to penalize). Had anyone in baseball had a modicum of civic responsility he would have warned individuals seen engaging in this behavior that they would be reported to Federal authorities if they did not cease and desist immediately. The levers of due process of law would then have commenced to determine guilt and to seek prosecution, barring a plea agreement, for the offense. A conviction for or a plea agreement to the commission of a felonious act could then be used as a basis to ban such an individual from the game of baseball permanently and to strike his entire playing record, including any and all career or single-season records, from the record books in perpetuity.

There was no such sense possessed by anyone in Major League Baseball. Officials in the offices of Major League Baseball and the owners and executives of the thirty clubs were raking in millions upon millions of dollars in revenue. Field managers and coaches simply wanted to "win" to retain their jobs. Players wanted to set various playing records and thus to get even richer than they had been in the past for playing a game that has become a substitute for the true Faith in the lives of so many ordinary people in the United States of America. The Mitchell Report was authorized by Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan H. "Bud" Selig only after the book, A Game of Shadows, detailing former Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants outfielder (and, one can only hope, former major leaguer) Barry Bonds's use of a variety of anabolic steroids, was published in early-2006. Selig may protest that he had tried to do more than the players' association was willing to do, which was nothing, prior to 2002, which is partly true. Partly true.

The plain truth of the matter is, of course, that Selig became Acting Commissioner in September of 1992 a few months after his predecessor, Francis T. "Fay" Vincent, was overturned by arbitrator after he sought to ban habitual cocaine user Steve Howe, then a relief pitcher for the New York Yankees from the game of baseball forever. Vincent even warned then Yankee manager Buck Showalter not to show up at Howe's arbitration hearing to plead his case, saying that doing so would jeopardize his, Showalter's, career in baseball. Such display of firm leadership in the face of a serious problem (Howe died on April 28, 2006, when his pickup truck rolled over; he had, according to toxicology reports, a high level of methampetamine in his body) was too much for the "lords of baseball." Fay Vincent had to go. What? A commissioner who actually wanted to enforce discipline? Perish the thought.

Selig, who remained the owner of the Milwaukee Brewers until January 13, 2005, fully four and one-half years after he became baseball's "permanent" commissioner in 1998, was concerned about baseball's "bottom line," which is why he was in the forefront, along with Chicago White Sox principal owner Jerry Reinsdorf, of the collusion episodes, designed to conspire against the signing of free agents so as to depress player salaries (owners showed themselves incapable of doing this on their own, thus acting in concert with each other to do so) in the 1980s that resulted in the paying out of over $280 million to the players in compensation. Bud Selig did not want anything to get in the way of the economic expansion of baseball, which the home run contest between souped-up Mark McGwire of the Saint Louis Cardinals and the equally souped-up Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs in 1998 helped to effect following the souring on baseball that occurred in the wake of the players' strike the ended the 1994 season on August 12, 1994, and prevented the 1995 season from opening until April 25, 1995. He was deaf, dumb and blind to the issue of the felonious use of steroids in baseball in the 1990s, although the Mitchell Report details Selig's efforts to deal with the matter internally without involving law enforcement agencies, being rebuffed at almost every turn by the players' association, which was most content to let the issue go away on its own.

The Mitchell Report named a handful of players, to be sure. Others are breathing that Robert Kardashian "sigh of relief." The attorney for Roger Clemens noted that the accusations contained in The Mitchell Report as they come from sources other than Roger Clemens. This is most interesting. Roger Clemens was contacted by former Senator Mitchell to present his side of the matter during the investigative process. Clemens declined to present his side of the matter. I mean, what can a a bright light like Clemens say to experienced investigators? Remember, Clemens once threatened home plate umpire Terry Cooney in Game 4 of the 1990 American League Championship Series between the Boston Red Sox, for whom Clemens pitched between 1984 and 1996, and the Oakland Athletics, "I know where you live!", not exactly demonstrative a good deal of intelligence. Clemens also defended himself for throwing a broken bat that had split away from the hands of New York Mets' catcher Mike Piazza, whom Clemens had beaned in the helmet and gave a concussion to on July 8, 2000, in Game One of the 2000 World Series by saying, "I thought the bat was the ball.;" If Clemens thought the bat was the "ball," you see," why didn't he throw the "ball" to New York Yankees' first baseman Tino Martinez rather than at Piazza as he ran up the base line leading from the batter's box at home plate to first base?

Perhaps Clemens will following the path of the disgraced gambler named Peter Edward Rose and deny his guilt for fifteen years before he writes a book to admit it all and then make even more millions of dollars than he has made already. In any event, the defense that The Mitchell Report was one-sided is specious. The players named had every opportunity to present their cases. They chose not to do so. Many are facing such documented evidence of their guilt as signed notes and canceled checks with their names on them. They stand branded as cheaters and lawbreakers and should indeed be banned from the game for the rest of their lives.

Such discipline will not be meted out in most cases. Whatever discipline might be meted out will be most negligible. The Major League Baseball Players' Association will intervene to appeal any of even negligible. suspensions. The fans? Most of them, according to some surveys taken in the immediate aftermath of The Mitchell Report, are yawning, eager for the 2008 baseball season to begin. I'm not surprised. Are you? I mean, most of the fans who are not outraged lead lives of complete relativism without realizing for a single moment that those who contend that nothing is true and that is morality is "relative" (most would use the word "depends") to given circumstances or personal motives have made an absolute statement. That is, the contention that nothing is absolutely true is itself an absolute statement that contradicts the contention that nothing is absolutely true. Most people don't think that deeply, do they? No, they emote as they chug their beer and down their chips as the rationalize the violations of the law committed by their sports "heroes" in whom they invest so much time and energy and effort and money, wasting a good deal of their waking hours in bread and circuses when they could be spending time before the Blessed Sacrament in prayer or praying Rosaries at home in reparation for their own sins and those of the whole world. Steroids? Big deal. Who cares? Human growth hormone? Ah, forget about it.

Many of the baseball fans who are dismissing The Mitchell Report are also fans of the alleged sport called football, which is played by steroid-produced humanoids. Some homes feature as many as many as four wide-screen televisions hooked up to different cables or satellite systems in order to get the ever-precious "games" to which they devote the Lord's Day, Sunday, as a pagan ritual replete with its own "liturgical" rubrics, if you will (pre-pre game shows, pre-game shows, the game, half-time, post-game shows, analysis, scoreboard programs, highlights programs, post-post game shows). Who cares if rock music is blared from the stadia during the broadcast or played by the network broadcasting the game to promote various programs and products? Who cares if immodestly dressed cheerleaders are shown regularly? Who cares about all of that? It's the "game" that "matters," right? The players just have to "do" what they need to "do" in order to win. Winning is "everything," right?

Most of the people who dismiss the felonious criminality of the cheaters in baseball and other professional sports are fully supportive of the daily slaughter of the preborn by means of chemical abortifacients and surgical means. They watch the most vile and repulsive images imaginable on network and cable television (and by going to motion picture theaters). They are shameless in the use of profane and obscene language in public places. What should it matter to them that athletes are taking "dope." Doesn't everybody cut corners to "get ahead" in the world.

Ah, you see, our goal in life is not to "get ahead" in the world. It is to know, to love and to serve God as He has revealed Himself through His true Church, the Catholic Church, which He Himself founded upon the Rock of Peter, the Pope, and to be ready at all moments to die in a state of Sanctifying Grace so as to enjoy the glory of the Beatific Vision of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost for all eternity. Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had something to say about those who believe that the goal in life to is "get ahead:"

Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For he that will save his life, shall lose it: and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it.

For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then will he render to every man according to his works (Mt. 16: 24-27.)

 

The "young turks" who populate the mid-level echelons of decision-making in the advertising and marketing divisions of the professional sports leagues only know about "getting ahead," which is why there have been commercial tie-ins in the past ten to fifteen years between sports leagues and Hollywood to promote even so-called PG-13 motion pictures that are filled with bad language and crudities. Various pharmaceutical products have been advertised in stadia and arenas and during over-the-air telecasts and broadcasts that are thoroughly inappropriate for public discussion, especially in the presence of the young, whose innocence Our Lady wants to protect at all costs. The horror of rock music has replaced the soothing melody of the organ. Other grotesque, if not diabolical, images are displayed at various times on giant television screens in stadia and arenas so as to exhort fans to "root" for their teams and/or to "psyche out" the visiting teams. Major League Baseball began to market in the recently ended season immodest, indecent, suggestive attire for women, advertising them by means of scantily clad women on various websites. Major League Baseball has even permitted one of its licensed manufacturers, New Era Cap Company, to manufacture caps for urban gangs (the Crips, the Bloods, the Kings, et al.) that carry the logo and/or insignia of its various teams. It's all about getting ahead and making money.

As I have commented upon at length in the past, I wasted far too much of my own time in my life on baseball. I walked out of William A. Shea Municipal Stadium on July 16, 2002, after having attended over 1600 Major League Baseball games in various stadia around the United States of America because of the advertising of one of those pharmaceutical products. I should have walked out in 1980 when the new owners of the New York Mets, Sterling Enterprises, run by Fred Wilpon, and Doubleday and Company, owned by Nelson Doubleday, Jr, introduced the horror of rock "music" and replaced the live organ that had been featured at Shea Stadium since it opened on Friday, April 17, 1964, through the end of the 1979 season. I did not. I wanted to have my "relaxation" at the park. It took the advertising of that pharmaceutical product to drive me out and to recognize what a chump I had been for so long for helping to subsidize a waste of time that featured overpaid athletes spending their millions of dollars on criminally-forbidden methods to cheat at the game for which they were being paid so handsomely. I have much reparation to do, believe me, for how much time of my life I wasted on what I thought (in a truly self-delusional, rationalizing sense) was but a "diversion" but degenerated all too logically as a result of the consequences of naturalism in every aspect of a nation that does not recognize the Social Reign of Christ the King and honor His Most Blessed Mother publicly as its Immaculate Queen.

Pope Leo XIII explained the connection between the Catholic Faith and a just social order throughout his twenty-five year pontificate in a most moving manner on Christmas Day in 1888, nearly 199 years ago now, in Exeunte Iam Anno. Consider his moving words:

We must therefore strive diligently that after beginning well we may also end well, that the counsels of God may be both understood and put in practice. The obedience shown to the Apostolic See will then be full and perfected, if it be joined with Christian virtue, and thus lead to the salvation of souls -- the only end to be sought for, which will also abide forever. In the exercise of Our high Apostolic office, bestowed upon Us by the goodness of God, We have many times, as in duty bound, undertaken the defense of truth, and have striven to expound particularly those doctrines which seemed to be most useful to all, in order watchfully and carefully to avoid the dangers of error. But now, as a loving parent, We wish to address all Christians, and in homely words to exhort all to lead a holy life. For beyond the mere name of Christian, beyond the mere profession of faith, Christian virtues are necessary for the Christian, and upon this depends, not only the eternal salvation of their souls, but also the peace and prosperity of the human family and brotherhood.

If We look into the kind of life men lead everywhere, it would be impossible to avoid the conclusion that public and private morals differ much from the precepts of the Gospel. Too sadly, alas, do the words of the Apostle St. John apply to our age, "all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of life." For in truth, most men, with little care whence they come or whither they go, place all their thoughts and care upon the weak and fleeting goods of this life; contrary to nature and right reason they willingly give themselves up to those ways of which their reason tells them they should be the masters. It is a short step from the desire of luxury to the striving after the means to obtain it. Hence arises an unbridled greed for money, which blinds those whom it has led captive, and in the fulfillment of its passion hurries them madly along, often without regard for justice or injustice, and not seldom accompanied by a disgraceful contempt for the poverty of their neighbor. Thus many who live in the lap of luxury call themselves brethren of the multitude whom in their heart of hearts they despise; and in the same way with minds puffed up by pride, they take no thought to obey any law, or fear any power. They call selflove liberty, and think themselves "born free like a wild ass's colt. Snares and temptation to sin abound; We know that impious or immoral dramas are exhibited on the stage; that books and journals are written to jeer at virtue and ennoble crime; that the very arts, which were intended to give pleasure and proper recreation, have been made to minister to impurity. Nor can We look to the future without fear, for new seeds of evil are sown, and as it were poured into the heart of the rising generation. As for the public schools, there is no ecclesiastical authority left in them, and in the years when it is most fitting for tender minds to be trained carefully in Christian virtue, the precepts of religion are for the most part unheard. Men more advanced in age encounter a yet graver peril from evil teaching, which is of such a kind as to blind the young by misleading words, instead of filling them with the knowledge of the truth. Many now-adays seek to learn by the aid of reason alone, laying divine faith entirely aside; and, through the removal of its bright light, they stumble and fail to discern the truth, teaching for instance, that matter alone exists in the world; that men and beasts have the same origin and a like nature; there are some, indeed, who go so far as to doubt the existence of God, the Ruler and Maker of the World, or who err most grievously, like the heathens, as to the nature of God. Hence the very nature and form of virtue, justice, and duty are of necessity destroyed. Thus it is that while they hold up to admiration the high authority of reason, and unduly elevate the subtlety of the human intellect, they fall into the just punishment of pride through ignorance of what is of more importance.

When the mind has thus been poisoned, at the same time the moral character becomes deeply and essentially corrupted; and such a state can only be cured with the utmost difficulty in this class of men, because on the one hand wrong opinions vitiate their judgment of what is right, and on the other the light of Christian faith, which is the principle and basis of all justice, is extinguished.

In this way We daily see the numerous ills which afflict all classes of men. These poisonous doctrines have utterly corrupted both public and private life; rationalism, materialism, atheism, have begotten socialism, communism, nihilism-evil principles which it was not only fitting should have sprung from such parentage but were its necessary offspring. In truth, if the Catholic religion is willfully rejected, whose divine origin is made clear by such unmistakable signs, what reason is there why every form of religion should not be rejected, not upheld, by such criteria of truth? If the soul is one with the body, and if therefore no hope of a happy eternity remains when the body dies, what reason is there for men to undertake toil and suffering here in subjecting the appetites to right reason? The highest good of man will then lie in enjoying life's pleasures and life's luxuries. And since there is no one who is drawn to virtue by the impulse of his own nature, every man will naturally lay hands on all he can that he may live happily on the spoils of others. Nor is there any power mighty enough to bridle the passions, for it follows that the power of law is broken, and that all authority is loosened, if the belief in an ever-living God, Who commands what is right and forbids what is wrong is rejected. Hence the bonds of civil society will be utterly shattered when every man is driven by an unappeasable covetousness to a perpetual struggle, some striving to keep their possessions, others to obtain what they desire. This is wellnigh the bent of our age.

There is, nevertheless, some consolation for Us even in looking on these evils, and We may lift up Our heart in hope. For God "created all things that they might be: and He made the nations of the earth for health." But as all this world cannot be upheld but by His providence and divinity, so also men can only be healed by His power, of Whose goodness they were called from death to life. For Jesus Christ redeemed the human race once by the shedding of His blood, but the power of so great a work and gift is for all ages; "neither is there salvation in any other." Hence they who strive by the enforcement of law to extinguish the growing flame of lawless desire, strive indeed for justice; but let them know that they will labor with no result, or next to none, as long as they obstinately reject the power of the gospel and refuse the assistance of the Church. Thus will the evil alone be cured, by changing their ways, and returning back in their public and private life to Jesus Christ and Christianity.

Now the whole essence of a Christian life is to reject the corruption of the world and to oppose constantly any indulgence in it; this is taught in the words and deeds, the laws and institutions, the life and death of Jesus Christ, "the author and finisher of faith." Hence, however strongly We are deterred by the evil disposition of nature and character, it is our duty to run to the "fight proposed to Us," fortified and armed with the same desire and the same arms as He who, "having joy set before him, endured the cross." Wherefore let men understand this specially, that it is most contrary to Christian duty to follow, in worldly fashion, pleasures of every kind, to be afraid of the hardships attending a virtuous life, and to deny nothing to self that soothes and delights the senses. "They that are Christ's, have crucified their flesh, with the vices and concupiscences" -- so that it follows that they who are not accustomed to suffering, and who hold not ease and pleasure in contempt belong not to Christ. By the infinite goodness of God man lived again to the hope of an immortal life, from which he had been cut off, but he cannot attain to it if he strives not to walk in the very footsteps of Christ and conform his mind to Christ's by the meditation of Christ's example. Therefore this is not a counsel but a duty, and it is the duty, not of those only who desire a more perfect life, but clearly of every man "always bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus." How otherwise could the natural law, commanding man to live virtuously, be kept? For by holy baptism the sin which we contracted at birth is destroyed, but the evil and tortuous roots of sin, which sin has engrafted, and by no means removed. This part of man which is without reason -- although it cannot beat those who fight manfully by Christ's grace -- nevertheless struggles with reason for supremacy, clouds the whole soul and tyrannically bends the will from virtue with such power that we cannot escape vice or do our duty except by a daily struggle. "This holy synod teaches that in the baptized there remains concupiscence or an inclination to evil, which, being left to be fought against, cannot hurt those who do not consent to it, and manfully fight against it by the grace of Jesus Christ; for he is not crowned who does not strive lawfully." There is in this struggle a degree of strength to which only a very perfect virtue, belonging to those who, by putting to flight evil passions, has gained so high a place as to seem almost to live a heavenly life on earth. Granted; grant that few attain such excellence; even the philosophy of the ancients taught that every man should restrain his evil desires, and still more and with greater care those who from daily contact with the world have the greater temptations -- unless it be foolishly thought that where the danger is greater watchfulness is less needed, or that they who are more grievously ill need fewer medicines.

But the toil which is borne in this conflict is compensated by great blessings, beyond and above heavenly and eternal rewards, particularly in this way, that by calming the passions nature is largely restored to its pristine dignity. For man has been born under this law, that the mind should rule the body, that the appetites should be restrained by sound sense and reason; and hence it follows that putting a curb upon our masterful passions is the noblest and greatest freedom. Moreover, in the present state of society it is difficult to see what man could be expected to do without such a disposition. Will he be inclined to do well who has been accustomed to guide his actions by self-love alone? No man can be high-souled, kind, merciful, or restrained, who has not learnt selfconquest and a contempt for this world when opposed to virtue. And yet it must be said that it seems to have been pre-determined by the counsel of God that there should be no salvation to men without strife and pain. Truly, though God has given to man pardon for sin, He gave it under the condition that His only begotten Son should pay the due penalty; and although Jesus Christ might have satisfied divine justice in other ways, nevertheless He preferred to satisfy by the utmost suffering and the sacrifice of His life. Thus he has imposed upon His followers this law, signed in His blood, that their life should be an endless strife with the vices of the age. What made the apostles invincible in their mission of teaching truth to the world; what strengthened the martyrs innumerable in their bloody testimony to the Christian faith, but the readiness of their soul to obey fearlessly His laws? And all who have taken heed to live a Christian life and seek virtue have trodden the same path; therefore We must walk in this way if We desire either Our own salvation or that of others. Thus it becomes necessary for every one to guard manfully against the allurements of luxury, and since on every side there is so much ostentation in the enjoyment of wealth, the soul must be fortified against the dangerous snares of riches lest straining after what are called the good things of life, which cannot satisfy and soon fade away, the soul should lose "the treasure in heaven which faileth not." Finally, this is matter of deep grief, that free-thought and evil example have so evil an influence in enervating the soul, that many are now almost ashamed of the name of Christian -- a shame which is the sign either of abandoned wickedness or the extreme of cowardice; each detestable and each of the highest injury to man. For what salvation remains for such men, or on what hope can they rely, if they cease to glory in the name of Jesus Christ, if they openly and constantly refuse to mold their lives on the precepts of the gospel? It is the common complaint that the age is barren of brave men. Bring back a Christian code of life, and thereby the minds of men will regain their firmness and constancy. But man's power by itself is not equal to the responsibility of so many duties. As We must ask God for daily bread for the sustenance of the body, so must We pray to Him for strength of soul for its nourishment in virtue. Hence that universal condition and law of life, which We have said is a perpetual battle, brings with it the necessity of prayer to God. For, as is well and wisely said by St. Augustine, pious prayer flies over the world's barriers and calls down the mercy of God from heaven. In order to conquer the emotions of lust, and the snares of the devil, lest we should be led into evil, we are commanded to seek the divine help in the words, "pray that ye enter not into temptation." How much more is this necessary, if we wish to labor for the salvation of others? Christ our Lord, the only begotten Son of God, the source of all grace and virtue, first showed by example what he taught in word: "He passed the whole night in the prayer of God," and when nigh to the sacrifice of his life, "He prayed the longer."

The frailty of nature would be much less fearful, and the moral character would grow weak and enervated with much less ease if that divine precept were not so much disregarded and treated almost with disdain. For God is easily appeased, and desires to aid men, having promised openly to give His grace in abundance to those who ask for it. Nay, He even invites men to ask, and almost insists with most loving words: "I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you." And that we should have no fear in doing this with confidence and familiarity, he softens His words, comparing Himself to a most loving father who desires nothing so much as the love of his children. "If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more will your Father who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask Him?" And this will not seem excessive to one who considers it, if the efficaciousness of prayer seemed so great to St. John Chrysostom that he thought it might be compared with the power of God; for as God created all things by His word, so man by prayer obtains what he wills. For nothing has so great a power as prayer, because in it there are certain qualities with which it pleases God to be moved. For in prayer we separate ourselves from things of earth, and filled with the thought of God alone, we become aware of our human weakness; for the same reason we rest in the embrace of our Father, we seek a refuge in the power of our Creator. We approach the Author of all good, as though we wish Him to gaze upon our weak souls, our failing strength, our poverty; and, full of hope, we implore His aid and guardianship, Who alone can give help to the weak and consolation to the infirm and miserable. With such a condition of mind, thinking but little of ourselves, as is fitting, God is greatly inclined to mercy, for God resisteth the proud, but to the humble he giveth grace. Let, then, the habit of prayer be sacred to all; let soul and voice join together in prayer, and let our whole daily life agree together, so that, by keeping the laws of God, the course of our days may seem a continual ascent to Him.

The virtue of which we speak, like the others, is produced and nourished by divine faith; for God is the Author of all true blessings that are to be desired for themselves, as we owe to Him our knowledge of His infinite goodness, and our knowledge of the merits of our Redeemer. But, again, nothing is more fitted for the nourishment of divine faith than the pious habit of prayer, and the need of it at this time is seen by its weakness in most, and its absence in many men. For that virtue is especially the source whereby not only private lives may be amended, but also from which a final judgment may be looked for in those matters which in the daily conflict of men do not permit states to live in peace and security. If the multitude is frenzied with a thirst for excessive liberty, if the inhuman lust of the rich never is satisfied, and if to these be added those evils of the same kind to which We have referred fully above, it will be found that nothing can heal them more completely or fully than Christian faith.

 

Read those words of Pope Leo XIII quoted above over and over again. Naturalism leads to social degeneration. Naturalism cannot be retarded by Protestantism, which is from the devil, or by inter-denominationalism, condemned by Pope Saint Pius X in Pascendi Dominci Gregis, September 8, 1907, but embraced with gusto by the counterfeit church of conciliarism and endorsed very heartily by Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI. Naturalism and is logically degenerative social consequences can be retarded only by the conversion of souls and nations to the full and unequivocal embrace of the Catholic Faith. Period.

Although I walked out of Shea Stadium five years and five months ago this very day, I still looked at the internet reports of what was going on in baseball. No more. Even that will be jettisoned. Although The Mitchell Report contains nothing really new, it should be "the final strike" for anyone who can understand that he has been played for a chump by the "lords of baseball" and by the overpaid athletes and their union enablers. Baseball will never be "redeemed." From whence do professional sports draw is players? From the poisonous of American public schools (and conciliar schools, most of which are just as bad as the public schools) and of the naturalistic, relativistic, positivistic, hedonistic, and materialistic licentiousness of popular culture.

There's no "getting back" that which has occurred because of the very false, anti-Incarnational and religiously indifferentist premises of Modernity. No, not even the removal of baseball's vaunted exemption from Federal anti-trust laws, something that is long overdue but will never occur as the members of the United States Congress lack the collective will to repeal this exemption, would change much in baseball. This exemption has been used by the "lords of baseball" to talk about the threat of the moving of franchises as a result, something that is a patent absurdity as almost every Major League Baseball club, save for about three or four, has either built--within the past fifteen to seventeen years--or is in the process of building a new stadium. Of those that haven't build a new stadium, is anyone going to contend that the Chicago Cubs are leaving Chicago, Illinois, any time soon? The threat of moving franchises at will is an empty one that should be called for the bluff it is by the members of Congress. The culture must change, which would mean that sports would be demoted in the larger scheme of things and not occupy the place that it does in people's lives. And the culture won't change unless the nation is converted to the true Faith.

The great saints got home to Heaven without having to be diverted by bread and circuses. Indeed, they got home to Heaven because they were not diverted by bread and circuses, as Pope Pius XI reminded us in Divini Illius Magistri, December 31, 1931:

More than ever nowadays an extended and careful vigilance is necessary, inasmuch as the dangers of moral and religious shipwreck are greater for inexperienced youth. Especially is this true of impious and immoral books, often diabolically circulated at low prices; of the cinema, which multiplies every kind of exhibition; and now also of the radio, which facilitates every kind of communications. These most powerful means of publicity, which can be of great utility for instruction and education when directed by sound principles, are only too often used as an incentive to evil passions and greed for gain. St. Augustine deplored the passion for the shows of the circus which possessed even some Christians of his time, and he dramatically narrates the infatuation for them, fortunately only temporary, of his disciple and friend Alipius. How often today must parents and educators bewail the corruption of youth brought about by the modern theater and the vile book!

 

Tomorrow the bishops and priests and the consecrated religious of the Catholic Church will begin praying the O Antiphons in Vespers of the Divine Office, meaning that we are but one week away from that time before the Vigil of Christmas, December 24, 2007, a day of complete abstinence and fasting. The O Antiphons, which run through December 23, which is the Fourth Sunday of Advent this year. The first O Antiphon, O Sapientia (O Wisdom), prays that we be taught the way of prudence:

O Wisdom, that proceedest from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end mightily, and disposing all things sweetly! come and tech us the way of prudence. (As quoted in Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year.)

 

The way of true prudence for a Catholic is to follow Our Lady to Calvary each day and to stand there with her at the offering of the Holy Sacrifice of te Mass at the hands of a true bishop or a true priest in the catacombs where no concessions are made to conciliarism or to the nonexistent legitimacy of its false shepherds. The way of true prudence for a Catholic is to offer his whole day's activities as a prayer to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. The way of true prudence for a Catholic is to embrace the Rosary as the means by which he can help to cooperate with the graces won for him by the shedding of every single drop of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Most Precious Blood to save his own soul and to make reparation for his own sins and those of the whole world.

Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort put it this way in The Secret of the Rosary:

Dear reader, I promise you that if you practise this devotion and help to spread it you will learn more from the Rosary than from any spiritual book. And what is more, you will have the happiness of being rewarded by Our Lady in accordance with the promises that she made to Saint Dominic, to Blessed Alan de la Roche and to all those who practise and encourage this devotion which is so dear to her. For the Holy Rosary teaches people about the virtues of Jesus and Mary, an leads them to mental prayer and to imitate Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It teaches them to approach the Sacraments often, to genuinely strive after Christian virtues and to do all kinds of good works, as well as interesting them in the many wonderful indulgences which can be gained through the Rosary.

People are often quiet unaware of how rich the Rosary is in indulgences. This is because many priests, when preaching on the Rosary, hardly ever mention indulgences and give rather flowery and popular sermon which excites admiration but scarcely teaches anything.

Be that as it may I shall say no more than to assure you, in the words of Blessed Alan de la Roche, that the Holy Rosary is the root and the storehouse of countless blessings. For through the Holy Rosary:

1. Sinners are forgiven;

2. Souls that thirst are refreshed;

3. Those who are fettered have their bonds broken;

4. Those who weep find happiness;

5. Those who are tempted find peace;

6. The poor find help;

7. Religious are reformed;

8. Those who are ignorant are instructed;

9. The living learn to overcome pride;

10. The dead (the Holy Souls) have their pains eased by suffrages.

 

One day Our Lady said to Blessed Alan:

"I want people who have a devotion to my Rosary to have my Son's grace and blessing during their lifetime and at their death, and after their death I want them to be freed from all slavery so that they will be like kings wearing crowns and with sceptres in their hands and enjoying eternal glory."

 

Amen. So be it. (Saint Louis Mary de Montfort, The Secret of the Rosary, Montfort Publications, 27th Printing, 1992, pp. 85-86.)

 

You can call Major League Baseball out on strikes. It's up to you.

Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ put it this way:

Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal.

For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also. (Mt. 6: 19-21.)

 

Shouldn't we put our treasure in Our Lady's Immaculate Heart and in her Most Holy Rosary? It's up to you.

Isn't it time to pray a Rosary now?

 

Viva Cristo Rey!

 

Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saint Elizabeth, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Andrew the Apostle, pray for us.

Saint Eusebius, pray for us.

Saint Barbara, pray for us.

Saint Francis Xavier, pray for us.

Saint Peter Chrysologus, pray for us.

Saint Bibiana, pray for us.

Saint Sabbas, pray for us.

Saint Nicholas, pray for us.

Saint Ambrose, pray for us.

Pope Saint Melchiades, pray for us.

Pope Saint Damasus, pray for us.

Pope Saint Pius V, pray for us.

Pope Saint Pius X, pray for us.

Saint Sylvester the Abbot, pray for us.

Saint Gertrude the Great, pray for us.

Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, pray for us.

Saint Benedict, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, pray for us.

Saint Dominic de Guzman, pray for us.

Saint Francis of Assisi, pray for us.

Saint Hyacinth, pray for us.

Saint Peter Nolasco, pray for us.

Saint John Matha, pray for us.

Saint John Bosco, pray for us.

Saint John of God, pray for us.

Saint Philip Neri, pray for us.

Saint Francis Solano, pray for us.

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, pray for us.

Saint Teresa of Avila, pray for us.

Saint Brendan the Navigator, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saint Anthony of Padua, pray for us.

Saint Peregrine, pray for us.

Saint Leonard of Port Maurice, pray for us.

Saint John Fisher, pray for us.

Saint Thomas More, pray for us.

Saint Peter Canisius, pray for us.

Saint Ignatius of Loyola, pray for us.

Saint Francis Borgia, pray for us.

Saint John Francis Regis, pray for us.

Saint Genevieve, pray for us.

Saint Casimir, pray for us.

Saint Hedwig, pray for us.

Saint Louis IX, King of France, pray for us.

Saint Stephen of Hungary, pray for us.

Saint Bridget of Sweden, pray for us.

Saint Brigid of Kildare, pray for us.

Saint Patrick, pray for us.

Saint Martin of Tours, pray for us.

Pope Saint Leo the Great, pray for us.

Pope Saint Gregory the Great, pray for us.

Pope Saint Gregory VII, pray for us.

Saint Boniface, pray for us.

Saint Meinrad, pray for us.

Saint Catherine of Siena, pray for us.

Saint Bernardine of Siena, pray for us.

Saint Louis de Montfort, pray for us.

Saint Joseph Cupertino, pray for us.

Saint Joseph Calasanctius, pray for us.

Saint John Damascene, pray for us.

Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, pray for us.

Saints Isidore the Farmer and Maria de Cappella, pray for us.

Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, pray for us.

Pope Saint Damasus I, pray for us.

Saint Jerome, pray for us.

Saint Basil the Great, pray for us.

Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Saint Louise de Marillac, pray for us.

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, pray for us.

Saint Antony of the Desert, pray for us.

Saint Bonaventure, pray for us.

Saint Turibius, pray for us.

Saint Isaac Jogues, pray for us.

Saint Rene Goupil, pray for us.

Saint John Lalonde, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel Lalemont, pray for us.

Saint Noel Chabanel, pray for us.

Saint Charles Garnier, pray for us.

Saint Anthony Daniel, pray for us.

Saint John DeBrebeuf, pray for us.

Saint Irenaeus, pray for us.

Saint Polycarp, pray for us.

Blessed Rose Philippine Duchesne, pray for us.

Saint Rita, pray for us.

Saint Philomena, pray for us.

Saint Therese Lisieux, pray for us.

Saint Athanasius, pray for us.

Saint Bonaventure, pray for us.

Saint Philip Neri, pray for us.

Saint Peter Damian, pray for us.

Saint Peter of Alcantara, pray for us.

Saint Stanislaus, pray for us.

Saint Stanislaus Kostka, pray for us.

Saint Dominic Savio, pray for us.

Saint Stephen the Protomartyr, pray for us.

Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, pray for us.

Saint Adalbert, pray for us.

Saint Norbert, pray for us.

Saint John Chrysostom, pray for us.

Saint Cyril of Alexandria, pray for us.

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, pray for us.

Saints Cosmas and Damian, pray for us.

Saints Gervase and Protase, pray for us.

Saint Cecilia, pray for us.

Pope Saint Clement I, pray for us.

Saint Tarcisius, pray for us.

Saints Fabian Sebastian, pray for us.

Saint Lawrence the Deacon, pray for us.

Saint Lawrence of Brindisi, pray for us.

Saint Eustachius and Companions, pray for us.

Saints Pontian and Hippolytus, pray for us.

Saint Clare of Assisi, pray for us.

Saint Agnes, pray for us.

Saint Agatha, pray for us.

Saints Perpetua and Felicity, pray for us.

Saint Rose of Lima, pray for us.

Saint Scholastica, pray for us.

Saint Margaret of Scotland, pray for us.

Saint Peter Lombard, pray for us.

Saint Albert the Great, pray for us.

Saint Augustine, pray for us.

Saint Monica, pray for us.

Saint Augustine of Canterbury, pray for us.

Saint Anselm, pray for us.

Saint Canute, pray for us.

Saint Clotilde, pray for us.

Saint Brendan the Navigator, pray for us.

Saint Coleman, pray for us.

Saint Maria Goretti, pray for us.

Saint Mary Magdalene, pray for us.

Saint Joan of Arc, pray for us.

Saint Ignatius of Antioch, pray for us.

Blessed Father Vincent Pallotti, pray for us.

Saint Josaphat, pray for us.

Saint Anthony Mary Claret, pray for us.

Saint Bernadette Soubirous, pray for us.

Blessed Edmund Campion, pray for us.

Saint Saturninus, pray for us.

Saint Gerard Majella, pray for us.

Saint Alphonsus Liguori, pray for us.

Venerable Juan Diego, pray for us.

Venerable Junipero Serra, pray for us.

Venerable Miguel Augustin Pro, pray for us.

Venerable Pauline Jaricot, pray for us.

Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich, pray for us.

Jacinta Marto, pray for us.

Francisco Marto, pray for us.

O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.