Last Week In Life:  June 14, 2021 – June 20, 2021

Last Week’s SPECTACULAR STORY OF WEEK

The Titanic Priests

Although the Titanic sunk in 1912, it has risen from the depths of the ocean to the heights of the collective consciousness of history. Several books and movies have made this real-life tragedy an occasion for storytelling. Stories such  as the survival of Charles Joughin the head baker of the Titanic.

He was the head baker on the Titanic, but his real claim to fame is the story of how he survived the shipwreck. You see, even though Joughin was asleep when the ship hit the iceberg, in the succeeding hours he managed to order his bakers to bring bread to the lifeboats, have a drink, help women and children into lifeboats (at times by force, as they were scared to leave the Titanic), and throw roughly 50 deck chairs into the water to act as flotation devices before riding the topmost part of the ship into the water as it sank.

Joughin proceeded to tread water for about two hours before encountering a lifeboat, and eventually being rescued by the RMS Carpathia. He is believed to be the very last survivor to leave the ship, and he claimed that his head barely even got wet. When he was rescued his only medical complaint was swollen feet.

While Charles the Baker  was the last survivor to leave the ship, the last survivor who survived the sinking, Eliza Gladys “Millvina” Dean, died  of pneumonia on the morning of May 31, 2009, 97 years and seven weeks after the Titanic sailed, at a care home in Ashurst, Hampshire. At two months old, she was also the youngest passenger aboard the fateful ship.

Another survivor of the Titanic worth mentioning is Violet Jessop. That is because she not only survived the Titanic sinking but the sinking of the HMHS Britannic in 1916. And before the Titanic she survived when the ship she was on called RMS Olympic, when it collided with a British warship, HMS Hawke, in 1911. God was definitely telling her to stay off of boats.

And God was talking to the people on the sinking ship as it was going on. He spoke through the The musicians of the RMS Titanic as they kept playing to calm the nerves of passengers who were not going to make it off the boat. They played music till they sunk beneath the ocean. Their final selection was the hymn “Nearer, My God, to Thee“.

And God spoke to the panicked passengers through 3 priests.

 The three priests were Fr. Thomas Byles (age 42) of England, Fr. Josef Benedikt Peruschitz, O.S.B. (age 41) of Bavaria, and Fr. Juozas Montvila (age 27) of Lithuania. Each of the priests died on the ship, and none of the bodies were recovered.

The 3 Heroic Priests Aboard the Titanic Who Died Saving the Lives & Souls of Passengers | (churchpop.com)

Witnesses gave testimony of Father Byles’ bravery while the ship was sinking.

“When the crash came we were thrown from our berths … Slightly dressed, we prepared to find out what had happened. We saw before us, coming down the passageway, with his hand uplifted, Father Byles. We knew him because he had visited us several times on board and celebrated mass for us that very morning. ‘Be calm, my good people,’ he said, and then he went about the steerage giving absolution and blessings…. A few around us became very excited and then it was that the priest again raised his hand and instantly they were calm once more. The passengers were immediately impressed by the absolute self-control of the priest. He began the recitation of the rosary. The prayers of all, regardless of creed, were mingled and all the responses, ‘Holy Mary,’ were loud and strong.”¹⁵ — Miss Helen Mary Mocklare, third class passenger.

When we remember those who have died and survived tragedies, it’s good to remember God is with the suffering and dying singing peace to all who come to Him in repentance and Hope of forgiveness and eternal life.

 FEAST DAYS ,HOLIDAYS AND LAST WEEK IN HISTORY

 Mon  June 14,  2021

Flag Day (United States)
World Blood Donor Day

• 1789– Mutiny on the Bounty: HMS Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 7,400 km (4,600 mi) journey in an open boat.
• 1811 – Harriet Beecher Stowe, American author and activist (d. 1896) is born.
• 1900– Hawaii becomes a United States territory.
• 1926– Brazil leaves the League of Nations.
•  1936– G. K. Chesterton, English essayist, poet, playwright, and novelist (b. 1874) dies.
• 1937– Pennsylvania becomes the first (and only) state of the United States to celebrate Flag Day officially as a state holiday.
• 1949– Albert II, a rhesus monkey, rides a V-2 rocket to an altitude of 134 km (83 mi), thereby becoming the first monkey in space.
• 1951– UNIVAC I is dedicated by the S. Census Bureau.
• 1954– U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill into law that places the words “under God” into the United States Pledge of Allegiance.
• 1959– Disneyland Monorail System, the first daily operating monorail system in the Western Hemisphere, opens to the public in Anaheim, California.
• 1966– The Vatican announces the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (“index of prohibited books”), which was originally instituted in 1557.
• 1994 – Henry Mancini, American composer and conductor (b. 1924) dies.
• 1995 – Roger Zelazny, American author and poet (b. 1937) dies.
• 2017 – US Republican politician Steve Scaliseof Louisiana is shot and wounded by a terrorist while practicing for charity baseball.

 Tuesday June 15, 2021

Global Wind Day(international)
National Beer Day (United Kingdom)

• 763 BC– Assyrians record a solar eclipse that is later used to fix the chronology of Mesopotamian^[1]
• 1502– Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Martinique on his fourth voyage.
• 1520– Pope Leo X threatens to excommunicate Martin Luther in Exsurge Domine.
• 1648– Margaret Jones is hanged in Boston for witchcraft in the first such execution for the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• 1667– The first human blood transfusion is administered by Dr. Jean-Baptiste Denys.
• 1752– Benjamin Franklin proves that lightning is electricity (traditional date, the exact date is unknown).

• 1776– Delaware Separation Day: Delaware votes to suspend government under the British Crown and separate officially from Pennsylvania.
• 1804– New Hampshire approves the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratifying the document.
• 1836– Arkansas is admitted as the 25th S. state.
• 1844– Charles Goodyear receives a patent for vulcanization, a process to strengthen rubber.
• 1846– The Oregon Treaty extends the border between the United States and British North America, established by the Treaty of 1818, westward to the Pacific Ocean.
• 1864 – Arlington National Cemeteryis established when 200 acres (0.81 km²) of the Arlington estate (formerly owned by Confederate General Robert E. Lee) are officially set aside as a military cemetery by S. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.^[5]
• 1878– Eadweard Muybridge takes a series of photographs to prove that all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it runs; the study becomes the basis of motion pictures.
• 1916– United States President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America, making them the only American youth organization with a federal charter.
• 1985– Rembrandt‘s painting Danaë is attacked by a man (later judged insane) who throws sulfuric acid on the canvas and cuts it twice with a knife.
• 1992– The United States Supreme Court rules in United States v. Álvarez-Machaín that it is permissible for the United States to forcibly extradite suspects in foreign countries and bring them to the United States for trial, without approval from those other countries.
• 1994– Israel and Vatican City establish full diplomatic relations.
• 2016– Lois Duncan, American author (b. 1934) dies.
• 2019– Franco Zeffirelli, Italian film director (b. 1923)
• 2021- The Senate unanimously passed a resolution establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday. It still needs to pass through the House and be signed by President Biden in order to become law.

Wednesday June 16,  2021

Bloomsday (Dublin, Ireland)

• 1846– The Papal conclave of 1846 elects Pope Pius IX, beginning the longest reign in the history of the papacy.
• 1858– Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.
• 1884– The first purpose-built roller coaster, LaMarcus Adna Thompson‘s “Switchback Railway“, opens in New York’s Coney Island amusement park.
• 1890– Stan Laurel, English actor and comedian (d. 1965) is born.
• 1896– Murray Leinster, American author and screenwriter (d. 1976) is born.
• 1897– A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States is signed; the Republic would not be dissolved until a year later.
• 1903– The Ford Motor Company is incorporated.
• 1903 – Roald Amundsenleaves Oslo, Norway, to commence the first east-west navigation of the Northwest Passage.
• 1904 – Irish author James Joyce begins a relationship with Nora Barnacle and subsequently uses the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses; this date is now traditionally called “Bloomsday“.
• 1944– In a gross miscarriage of justice, George Junius Stinney Jr., age 14, becomes the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century after being convicted in a two-hour trial for the rape and murder of two teenage white girls.
• 1966 – Phil Vischer, American voice actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, co-created VeggieTales
• 1981– US President Ronald Reagan awards the Congressional Gold Medal to Ken Taylor, Canada’s former ambassador to Iran, for helping six Americans escape from Iran during the hostage crisis of 1979–81; he is the first foreign citizen bestowed the honor.
• 2016– Shanghai Disneyland Park, the first Disney Park in Mainland China, opens to the public.^[10]
• 2019– Upwards of 2,000,000 people participate in the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests, the largest in Hong Kong’s history.

Thursday June 17,  2021

World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought (International)

• 653– Pope Martin I is arrested and taken to Constantinople, due to his opposition to monothelitism.
• 1603– Joseph of Cupertino, Italian mystic and saint (d. 1663) is born.
• 1631– Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, will spend the next 17 years building her mausoleum, the Taj Mahal.
• 1839– In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the edict of toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaii Catholic Church and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace are established as a result.
• 1885– The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.
• 1898– The United States Navy Hospital Corps is established.
• 1933– Union Station massacre: In Kansas City, Missouri, four FBI agents and captured fugitive Frank Nash are gunned down by gangsters attempting to free Nash.
• 1939– Last public guillotining in France: Eugen Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is executed in Versailles outside the Saint-Pierre prison.
• 1943 – Barry Manilow, American singer-songwriter and producer is born.
• 1963– The United States Supreme Court rules 8–1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against requiring the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord’s Prayer in public schools.
• 1972– Watergate scandal: Five White House operatives are arrested for burgling the offices of the Democratic National Committee during an attempt by members of the administration of President Richard M. Nixon to illegally wiretap the political opposition as part of a broader campaign to subvert the democratic process.^[9]
• 1991– Apartheid: The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act which required racial classification of all South Africans at birth.

 Friday  June 18, 2021

Autistic Pride Day (International)
Waterloo Day (United Kingdom)

• 1178– Five Canterbury monks see what is possibly the Giordano Bruno crater being formed. It is believed that the current oscillations of the Moon‘s distance from the Earth (on the order of meters) are a result of this collision.
• 1429– French forces under the leadership of Joan of Arc defeat the main English army under Sir John Fastolf at the Battle of Patay. This turns the tide of the Hundred Years’ War.^[1]
• 1858– Charles Darwin receives a paper from Alfred Russel Wallace that includes nearly identical conclusions about evolution as Darwin’s own, prompting Darwin to publish his theory.
• 1873– Susan B. Anthony is fined $100 for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election.
• 1923– Checker Taxi puts its first taxi on the streets.

  Saturday June 19,   2021

Saint Romuald, abbot – Optional Memorial
Juneteenth(United States, especially African Americans)
World Sickle Cell Day(International)

• 325– The original Nicene Creed is adopted at the First Council of Nicaea.
• 1586– English colonists leave Roanoke Island, after failing to establish England’s first permanent settlement in North America.
• 1770– New Church Day: Emanuel Swedenborg writes: “The Lord sent forth His twelve disciples, who followed Him in the world into the whole spiritual world to preach the Gospel that the Lord God Jesus Christ reign. This took place on the 19th day of June, in the year 1770.”
• 1862– The S. Congress prohibits slavery in United States territories, nullifying Dred Scott v. Sandford.
• 1865– Over two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, slaves in Galveston, Texas, United States, are finally informed of their freedom. The anniversary is still officially celebrated in Texas and 41 other contiguous states as Juneteenth.
• 1897 – Moe Howard, American comedian (d. 1975) is born.
• 1910– The first Father’s Day is celebrated in Spokane, Washington.
• 1960– The first NASCAR race was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
• 1961– Kuwait declares independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1964– The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is approved after surviving an 83-day filibuster in the United States Senate.
• 1966– Ed Wynn, American actor and comedian (b. 1886) dies.
• 1988– Pope John Paul II canonizes 117 Vietnamese Martyrs.
• 2012– WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requested asylum in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy for fear of extradition to the US after publication of previously classified documents including footage of civilian killings by the US army.
• 2018– The 10,000,000th United States Patent is issued.

Sunday June 20,  2021

World Refugee Day(International)

Father’s Day

• 1756– A British garrison is imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.
• 1837– Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne.^[2]
• 1863– American Civil War: West Virginia is admitted as the 35th S. state.
• 1925 – Audie Murphy, American lieutenant and actor, Medal of Honorrecipient (d. 1971) is born.
• 1963– Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union and the United States sign an agreement to establish the so-called “red telephone” link between Washington and Moscow.
• 1972– Watergate scandal: An 18½-minute gap appears in the tape recording of the conversations between U.S. President Richard Nixon and his advisers regarding the recent arrests of his operatives while breaking into the Watergate complex.
• 1975– The film Jaws is released in the United States, becoming the highest-grossing film of that time and starting the trend of films known as “summer blockbusters“.

Bishop Barron’s Homily of the Week

 Last Week’s News of the World

 4 mass shootings in 6 hours leave 38 wounded, 6 dead across US – ABC News (go.com)

At least four major U.S. cities were reeling from an onslaught of mass shootings over the weekend that left at least 39 people wounded, six dead and police officials alarmed that the surge in gun violence is a prelude to a bloody summer as the nation emerges from the pandemic.

Police in Austin, Cleveland, Chicago and Savannah were all investigating on Sunday mass shootings that erupted over a six-hour streak that began around 9 p.m. on Friday and spilled over into Saturday morning.

First Nation leaders ask Canadian Catholics to skip Mass to protest abuses of Indigenous – Catholic World Report

First Nation leaders are encouraging Canadian Catholics to skip Mass in response to historic abuses at Catholic-run schools for Indigenous children.

“Something that everybody and every Christian can do is have that show of solidarity and not show up for church on Sunday,” said Felix Thomas, chief of the Kinistin Saulteaux Nation, to Canadian media on Friday, June 11. The Kinistin Saulteaux Nation, a First Nation community, is located northeast of Saskatoon, the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.

“If it’s not this Sunday,” said Thomas to Catholics of skipping Mass, “pick a Sunday.”

Thomas was referring to Pope Francis having not issued a formal apology for the Church’s role in Canada’s residential schools. The remains of 215 Indigenous children were recently discovered in unmarked graves at the site of a former Catholic-run boarding school in Kamloops, British Columbia.

Thinner Mints: Girl Scouts have millions of unsold cookies (apnews.com)

The Girl Scouts have an unusual problem this year: 15 million boxes of unsold cookies.

The 109-year-old organization says the coronavirus — not thinner demand for Thin Mints — is the main culprit. As the pandemic wore into the spring selling season, many troops nixed their traditional cookie booths for safety reasons.

“This is unfortunate, but given this is a girl-driven program and the majority of cookies are sold in-person, it was to be expected,” said Kelly Parisi, a spokeswoman for Girl Scouts of the USA.

The impact will be felt by local councils and troops, who depend on the cookie sales to fund programming, travel, camps and other activities. The Girl Scouts normally sell around 200 million boxes of cookies per year, or around $800 million worth.

 Live updates: Biden and Putin meet in Geneva (cnn.com)

US President Joe Biden wrapped up a news conference today after his sit-down meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva. Putin held his own news conference just before Biden’s, where he said the summit was “productive” overall.

Texas governor redirects $250 million in taxpayer money to kickstart his state border wall (yahoo.com)

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) gave more details Wednesday about the wall he wants the state to build along the Mexico border to slow and entrap immigrants. He did not say where the wall will be built or how much it will cost, but he and other Republican officials tapped state funds for a $250 million “down payment” to hire a project manager who will make those decisions. The wall will cost “far more than $250 million,” Abbott conceded. He also pledged to build more jails along the Mexico border to house immigrants he said Texas will arrest.

Request to conserve energy shows year-round vulnerability of Texas grid (nbcnews.com)

ERCOT, which oversees 90 percent of Texas’ energy production, asked residents Monday to limit their electrical usage through Friday because of an energy emergency, with soaring temperatures and a series of mechanical problems at power plants.

Recently, ERCOT said that the chance of summer power outages was less than 1 percent and that rolling blackouts would occur only in extreme circumstances. However, the nonprofit group avoided blackouts Monday only by using reserve power and asking customers to turn up their thermostats, turn off lights and avoid using some appliances, including ovens and washing machines.

Supreme Court rules in favor of Catholic charity that wouldn’t allow same-sex foster parents (nbcnews.com)

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the city of Philadelphia went too far in imposing its anti-discrimination law on a Roman Catholic charity, Catholic Social Services, that refused to consider same-sex parents eligible to adopt foster children.

The case required the justices to decide whether the Constitution allows a religious freedom exception to anti-discrimination laws. It was the first of this term’s major legal disputes to be heard with Justice Amy Coney Barrett, an appointee of President Donald Trump, on the court.

The court’s ruling was unanimous, but it was narrowly confined to the facts of this case and is therefore unlikely to have a nationwide impact.

Although the text of a proposed Eucharistic document has not yet been drafted, a proposed outline was provided by the bishops’ doctrine committee in advance of the U.S. bishops’ meeting this week. The document, if approved, would explain the Church’s Eucharistic teaching on a number of points, including the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, the importance of Sunday as a holy day, and the need for Catholics to live out the Church’s teaching in their lives after receiving Communion.

 POPE FRANCIS’S FAMOUS LAST WEEK’S WORDS 

“This is a challenge that governments and world institutions need to take up with a farsighted social model capable of countering the new forms of poverty that are now sweeping the world and will decisively affect coming decades. “If the poor are marginalized, as if they were to blame for their condition, then the very concept of democracy is jeopardized and every social policy will prove bankrupt.”
Pope Francis: Marginalizing the poor threatens ‘the very concept of democracy’ (catholicnewsagency.com)

 BLOG/ARTICLES POSTS OF THE WEEK

How Tolkien and a Board Game Brings Greater Insight to the Papacy

I am a huge fan of fantasy literature and among my favorite authors is J.R.R. Tolkien, better known as the creator of Middle Earth and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien described the creation of Middle Earth more as a discovery of a fictional world already in existence.

It was not until I started creating my own board game when I realized the truth in Tolkien’s words. My journey in making my board game was more of a discovery of a game already existent. I simply happened to be the one to uncover it.-

Prodigal Trads and the Holy Father | The American Conservative

I’ve attended the Latin Mass on two continents and interacted with thousands of trads around the world. I can say without hesitation that most are not rigid, defensive neo-Pelagians. But if your only exposure to the Latin Mass community came via the internet—and bear in mind that Westerners’ experience of everything is mediated by the Almighty Screen—I can see why you might take a rather low view of the traditionalist movement.

The fact is that no other “clique” within the Church shares our reputation for disobedience and uncharity. Whether it’s the Eastern Catholics, or the Anglican Ordinariate, or the JPII fanatics, or the mommy bloggers who are really into Tolkien and essential oils…trads are in a league of our own here.

And this “trad fatigue” is affecting traditionalists as well. I’ve talked to so many trads over the last few months who are walking away from the Latin Mass, maybe forever. They can’t muster enough hatred for the bishops to fit in with the scene. They can’t stomach any more twaddle about “Antipope Bergoglio,” the “Lavender Mafia,” and the “African Queen.” They can’t sit through another rant about Cardinal Cupich or Fr. Martin. That’s not what they signed up for.

All is grace – even in suffering – Our Sunday Visitor (osvnews.com)

The Church offers the sacraments, beauty, truth and works of charity. It teaches us how to suffer well, and why suffering can be redemptive. The world offers substitutes for much of what the Church offers — poor, warped substitutes: symbols instead of sacraments; preferences and constructs for beauty; relativism and individualism for truth; and professional charities for personal responses, rooted in love, to others in need. But the only suffering the world understands is to attain a greater good — exercise for health, studying for tests. Suffering that does not lead to something or that is not overcome in this life is considered random and void.

I bring all this up because recently we discovered that I have breast cancer. It is scary and unknown to me and my family. Suffering may allow me to beat it, or it may not. While the outcome is not irrelevant to me or those I love, or who love me, it’s not the ultimate reality that matters. Our faith teaches that this is an opportunity to witness this reality of our faith, even for those who have walked away.

Pondering Podcasts OF THE WEEK

#168 | Slender Man, The Watchers & The Rolling Calf (spreaker.com)

 On today’s show, we’ll be covering bizarre humanoids, spirits, strange creatures, and much more, all coming up on this episode of Paranormal Mysteries.

Book Em, Dano on your reading list

The Reason for the Darkness of the Night: Edgar Allan Poe and the Forging of American Science by John Tresch

The Wisdom of the Word by Michael Dauphinais and Matthew Levering

The Maidens Alex Michaelides