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The Vatican/Holy See recognizing that the SSPX/FSSPX/Lefebvrists/Lefebvrians is not officially part of the Roman Catholic Church isn’t all that surprising. I'm sharing excerpts: one from an AP article, another from Vatican News. There's more detail and links in the Vatican News piece.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Excerpts from AP and a Vatican News. How I see the situation, briefly, and links to more of my views.)

As I said when the Artemis II mission started, this is a big deal. Not an Easter-level big deal, but a big deal nonetheless. Four of us — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch, and Jeremy Hansen — have gone back to the Moon. They set a record, going a few miles farther from Earth than the Apollo 13 crew did back in 1970. But they didn't land. So maybe I should say 'back toward the Moon'.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Written as Artemis II returned from the Moon: how I see going to the Moon and beyond, what is new in this mission, and what is not new.)

I'm a Catholic, so this weekend I'm celebrating a particular series of events. Seriously Two millennia back, someone was tortured and executed. We celebrated, maybe "remembered" or "observed" would be a better word, that on Thursday and Friday. Saturday — I see it as a day when we wait and review what led up to that execution and what happened later. The day's readings this year are from Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, Baruch, Ezekiel, Romans and Matthew. Sunday, tomorrow, is the big celebration of our year. Calling it a celebration makes sense, since a few days after he'd been killed, Jesus stopped being dead.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (A very quick review of what we celebrate during Easter. Also four old Easter-themed greeting cards)

Rockford, Illinois: Central Park Gardens Amusement Park's roller coaster. (ca. 1930) Quite a bit has changed since my childhood. Even more has changed since my father's. Human nature, on the other hand — how and why folks do what they do — details shift, but the basics don't. Like kids taking crazy risks, and adults acting with dubious wisdom.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Maybe the amusement park ride operator had a heart of gold. But the free rides ended for my father when his mother found out.)

I take quite a few things seriously, including art. I'll be talking about that — art, I mean — along with attitudes, the Eighth Commandment, and whatever else comes to mind. But first, a quick look at how I see art, the universe, and God. More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Something G. K. Chesterton jotted between the lines of a book, a bogeyman of yesteryear, and how the Eighth Commandment relates to media and art.)

Detail, "The Fight Between Carnival and Lent", Pieter Brueghel the Elder. (1559) In this bit, Lent's winning. It's Lent and I'm a Catholic. So how come I'm not sitting in some dark corner, reflecting on doom, gloom, and how perfectly rotten I am? Or at least moaning and wringing my hands over the world's dreadfully dire state: as illustrated in my news feed. Basically, it's because neither will help me line myself up with Jesus: doing prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Work on lining myself up, that is: it's a job that lasts as long as life does.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Being miserable is not the goal of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving during Lent; following Jesus is. Plus a look at the history of fashionable melancholy.)

Hot topic from yesteryear: "Charity Begins at Home", Louis Dalrymple in Puck (NY). (December 28, 1898) Minnesota and Minneapolis have been national news for more than a month now. This is my home state. I'm not happy about what's in the news, and concerned about what's dropped out of the news. Ignoring the mess isn't an option. So this week I'll talk about what's allegedly been happening, and why I take so much of what I read with a few bulk lots of salt. Activists and a Distinct Perspective Apparently (Over-) Cautious: an Alleged Disclaimer Political? No! Perturbed? Yes Out of Step With The Establishment: Five Decades and Counting Minnesota: Good Grief, Another Month 'We Interrupt Your Worship to Bring You Our Message' Alternatively-Legal Immigrants Immigrants, Rules, and Unchanging Principles It's Just Fraud, Pay No Attention Headlines and Me It's (Not) Simple Labels, Attitudes, and America: Then and Now Bo...

Last Saturday I learned that my home parish, Our Lady of Angels in Sauk Centre, will almost certainly close this year. I'm not happy about that. At all. More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (The parish my wife and I were married in will almost certainly be closed this year. A quick look at parish history, and some photos.)

We got a new pope this year, Leo XIV. Now we've got a new archbishop for the Archdiocese of New York. Already I'm seeing the all-too-predictable headlines. I also noticed this excerpt from a transcript of a five-minute interview, complete with an embedded audio recording of the interview.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Link to an excerpt from and audio recording of a five minute interview with the new Archbishop of New York. Also links to my take related topics.)

Dunseith, North Dakota, Frontage Road SW My memory, like my father's, is occasionally creative. I remembered a someone writing that England's public schools were dedicated to the idea "...that Tennyson would never happen again...." Then, recently, I started re-reading a Wodehouse book. "...It was almost as if these [English public] schools, founded in the 1830s, had it for their main objective that Shelley and Byron would never happen again...." (Introduction by Wilfred Sheed (1975) to "Leave in to Psmith", P. G. Wodehouse (1924)) That both corrected my memory of the passage and, along with something my oldest daughter showed me, started me writing this post. I'll get to that, after a clarification or three. "Public" Schools, Puritans, Progressives, and Attitudes My Year as a Teacher The Curious Case of the Vanishing Counselor A Student Newspaper and 'Problem' Students Making a Difference ... More at A Cath...

Mary Ann Glendon, former U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Receiving the Gaudium et Spes Award, States Dinner, (August 5 2025) I'm not comfortable with the way today's America works, but I think this is a good time to be an American and a Catholic. That's because part of my job is easier now, than it would have been in my youth. Granted, experiencing "increasing opposition" from The Establishment 1 isn't comfortable. But honestly: why would I want their approval? Vatican II and Making Sense "...The End of Christendom ... Not a Gloomy Picture..." An Assumption and "The Apotheosis of Washington" "...Great and Wonderful Days in Which to be Alive...." Goals, and the Best News Humanity's Ever Had Justice, Charity, Respect: Sounds Good to Me ... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (I think Fulton Sheen was right. The end of Christendom is not a gloomy picture. These are great days to be alive, and we have a jo...

Kids started going back to school here in Sauk Centre on Wednesday. No shots rang out, and nobody got killed. That, happily, is routine. But sometimes bad things happen. Classes started last week at the Church of the Annunciation's school in Minneapolis. Since it's a Catholic school, they started the day with Mass at the church next door. Then somebody killed two of the students and injured many other folks before killing himself. The priest who was celebrating Mass made some good points in the following Sunday's homily. I'll be talking about that, and somewhat-related topics: Church of the Annunciation: After the Killings Remembering Who's In Charge Repairing the Damage Cleanup Procedures Heroes, Hope, and Prayer America: Death, Changing Attitudes, and Good News ... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (After killings at the Church of the Annunciation: what their priest said, an Archbishop Hebda video, how I see student actions, changing Americ...

When I asked our oldest daughter what she'd like me to write about this week, she suggested "stories about when each of us was born". The birth of each child was an important event, at least for me and my wife, so I figured it'd be a matter of deciding which memories to pick. Then I started poking around the labyrinthine interior of my mind. Turns out I've got a few vivid snapshots, but not nearly as many details as I thought there'd be. I've got a pretty good memory; apart from things like appointment times, anniversaries — fact is, I'll be asking my wife for help with this post. It's been decades since the mental machinery filed away those experiences. Meanwhile, I'll start talking about our oldest child's birth, and see what happens. Birth: The First Time Changes: Delivery Rooms and Fainting Fathers Focused New Experiences and Evaporative Cooling A Couple Details Baptism of Desire, Uncertainty, and Hope ... More at A C...

My oldest daughter suggested that I start telling 'family stories' about eight months back: which struck me as a good idea. This week's, involving a door and — I think — showing where I get some of my attitudes and priorities, got me started looking for places in one of my ancestral homelands. I'll be talking about that; and, eventually, what happened when a husband's idea of what's good enough didn't line up with his wife's. Surnames and Ancestry, Mostly A Place in Ottertail County: Scenic, But Not Practical Names, Language, Accents, and Legacies Changes — or — Seeking Lost Branting and Beridalen "An Interesting Pattern" Priorities and a Door Family, Names, and Links More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Another family story: this one involving a pioneer couple, a first home, and a door. Also surnames, ancestry, and what's changed in an ancestral homeland.)

I wrote this paper in 1972 for Dr. K. Smemo's History 349, The Scandinavians in America. I'm planning to share a 'family story' or two about this side of the family in Saturday's post: which will be both shorter, and easier to read than this. More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (A paper I wrote in 1972, following part of my mother's family back to a gaard in Norway, and touching on how we adopted American language and customs.)

I've had memorable instructors. Most of them were memorable in good ways. Like Dr. Hong, 1 who taught Moorhead State's ancient history classes in the early 1970s. By the time I graduated, I think I'd taken every 'ancient history' class the History Department offered. One reason I liked, and like, that subset of humanity's long story is that we know a fair amount about it: and it's a part of the story that's now complete. As I see it, pretty much all the "history" since then is still in progress. Studying it is interesting. But it's a bit like reading a mystery story, where the last few chapters are missing. Most students very likely didn't see ancient history that way, since Dr. Hong's classes seldom had more than maybe a half-dozen students. That's probably why they were in what I'm guessing was a conference room in MacLean Hall. More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Remembering a favorite college professor; review...

Things keep changing. That's hardly a new idea. "Everything changes and nothing stands still" ("πάντα χωρεῖ καὶ οὐδὲν μένει", quoted by Plato in " Cratylus " ) ( Heraclitus , Wikiquote) I'll be talking about the new mural in my town's Walmart, how this isn't the America I grew up in, changes that have been for the better, and why the latest thing in looming dooms — looks both familiar, and not all that distressing. Sauk Centre's Walmart Still Here: So is Downtown Sauk Centre A Marvelous Mural, Mainly America Has Changed: Good News, Actually Good Ideas and Perspective Crises du Jour, Doing Our Job ... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (A new mural in a store that was new two decades back. Changes and constants in America, a crisis of yesteryear, good ideas, and doing our job.)

Growing up, my folks and I would go to Itasca State Park, north of Park Rapids, in Minnesota's lake country. The place has changed since then, a little. The place I remember as a parking area, a little north of the Mississippi headwaters, where the river officially starts, isn't there any more. It was about a thousand feet east of the Mary Gibbs Mississippi Headwaters Center. Google Maps says that spot is the "Headwaters Concession Ruins".... ...New buildings. A place I remember labeled as a ruins. Change happens.... More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (Remembering the time my father found the perfect spot for taking a picture: the middle of a poison ivy patch.)

About a week ago, in a discussion of what's been happening in Vatican City, someone referred to the late Pope Francis as a "commie in a cassock". I hadn't run into that particular phrase, but I'm all too familiar with the attitude. The "commie in a cassock" remark reminded me of the "communist crucifix" incident and material I'd put together, back in 2015, focusing mostly on a "corn altar" in Paraguay. Then another non-crisis popped up, which I'll talk about first. Social Media Highbrow Hijinks?? Nonsense and Perspective The Curious Case of the Communist Crucifix Bolivia, a Superficially Cursory Overview The "Communist Crucifix", "Commie in a Cassock": Really?? Recognizing Realities How I See Diplomatic Gifts Altar de Maiz: Corny? Yes! — Appealing? To Me, Yes!! Photos: Views of the "Altar of Corn" It's Art, It's Sculpture, and Now It's Recycled Pope Leo XIV: ...

More than 130 Cardinals will start voting on who gets Simon Peter's job — the job he had before becoming St. Peter — after Pope Francis, starting next Monday.... Viewpoints and Background Expectations Cardinals: Not Just European The Catholic Church: Unchanging Basics, Changing Details A Millennium of Cardinals: Very Briefly The Last Supper: da Vinci, Dali, and Me Newfangled Architecture, Old-Fashioned Attitudes — — and a Reasonable Request More at A Catholic Citizen in America . (The College of Cardinals, 1050 to now. Paintings by da Vinci and Dali, newfangled architecture. Something I like about being Catholic. A prayer request.)