I Bow to Rome, Not Washington

Today is a milestone in my life.  After failing to get confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church, the church of my birth, when I was supposed to back when I was thirteen, I finally received the Holy Spirit and entered into fellowship with my fellow parishioners.

How did I miss getting confirmed when I was a kid?  Let's just say that, despite the traditions of Catholic confirmations, Jewish mitzvahs, and Mormon lay priesthood indoctrinations at the age of thirteen, that age, according to my own personal experience, is an extremely inappropriate age for the clergy to confer adult status on any child. 

I chose as my confirmation name Linus, after the saint to became the first successor to the Apostle St. Peter after the apostle was martyred via inverted crucifixion.   As I explained on my Facebook timeline, where I first announced the good news, Peter had established his ministry in Rome at the direction of Jesus and, with the followers he attracted, built the foundation for the Roman Catholic Church as we know it today. When Peter was martyred, Linus assumed leadership of Rome’s Christians and led the new church under difficult circumstances, and Linus himself was martyred after twelve years as the bishop of Rome. Linus was succeeded by Anacletus, and with that succession, the Holy See was firmly in place, thanks in no small part in Linus’s work as the bishop of Rome. Saint Linus represents starting from the beginning. I only returned to the Church recently and I have been confirmed 47 years late, so this is very much for me a beginning.

Unfortunately, for me and my fellow initiated Catholics in my parish, today was also the day of Rededicate 250, a Christian jubilee of recommitting These States to Jesus Christ, or at least the stern, stoic, authoritarian Jesus Christ that MAGA evangelical Christians revere unreservedly.  In addition to the usual fundamentalist charlatans and snake-oil salesmen who make up the MAGA Christian nationalist clergy, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who served his long-awaited last day as archbishop of New York three months ago, also officiated.  It was mostly a gathering of misanthropic clerics who want Americans to live a life of Christian fundamentalist self-repression and control through the federal government - and oh yes, ostracize Jews and Muslims.  And, despite the presence of Cardinal Dolan and MAGA Bishop Robert Barron, Catholics, whom MAGA Christian leaders like Pete Hegseth's pastor regard as enemies of the state.  Because, apparently we bow to a Roman dictator.

That's pretty rich from Christian nationalist Trump supporters who bow to a golden calf. 

Or should I say a golden jackass?

This monstrosity was unveiled recently at Trump's Doral golf club outside Miami.  It was dedicated by one of Trump's "spiritual advisor."  

I have a feeling that mime artists who make a living as living statues of gold will need to pick another color.

How about white?  Trump likes that!

Count me out.  By getting confirmed, I rededicated myself to a church with beautiful and enduring traditions and principles, the church of Rome, the church of my family.  I have also turned away from the land of my birth.  I am turning away from the American ideals that have propped up this nation and the reality of the U.S. as it is today, der Amerikanisches Reich.  I will direct my attention to the Vatican, and as always, I will commit myself to following the Holy Father in Rome - not the Antichrist in Washington.

And don't be surprised if the Church identifies the United States as an oppressor that must be broken up into smaller entities.