Mother Angelica and the Crusades: Two Videos That Speak Truth to Power

There are a lot of folks out there that subscribe to the notion that if you don’t have anything nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything at all. But if that prevents you from speaking the truth when people need to hear it, that’s no virtue. Yelling “Fire!” in a crowded theater could be a problem, unless a fire has actually broken out in the center of the crowd, and nobody is noticing.

I’m eternally grateful for folks who speak the Truth, even when it’s not nice or popular or even necessarily welcome.

First up is a 1993 video by EWTN foundress Mother Angelica. It also marks the beginning of my reversion to the Faith, since I caught this very moment while flipping channels on a mid-August day, and was so mesmerized by the contrast of an apple-cheeked nun and the uncompromising words that came out of her that I just couldn’t stay away.

So I stuck around, and then I stuck around for the Prayer Vigil of World Youth Day Denver with Saint Pope John Paul II, and for the Mass the next day. And the rest … well, here I am today.

Enjoy:

Next, as we all struggle to understand the shattering images coming out of the Middle East, especially the brutality of the Islamist jihadists of ISIS — beheaded Catholic journalist James Foley will always be Blessed James Foley to me, and maybe one day the Church will see him the same way — it’s useful to understand the long, storied history of Muslim aggression in the region.  Here’s Michael Voris of ChurchMilitantTV with an historical perspective on a much-maligned and misunderstood era …