Mary Valle
Mary Valle lives in Baltimore and is the author of Cancer Doesn't Give a Shit About Your Stupid Attitude: Reflections on Cancer and Catholicism. She blogs on KtB as The Communicant. For more Mary, check out her blog or follow her on Twitter.
Recent Posts by Mary
Occupy, Eh?
I keep planning to go visit Occupy Baltimore and then I keep getting stymied by the cold or just my own love of staying home. I was super-excited to go sing some protest songs at OB one afternoon, but it rained. Friends, it would take me about 15 minutes to get there. I’d love to visit…
Gayness Continues to Boggle Rome
In Catholics-coping-with-homosexuality news, an actual D.C. bishop-advising lawyer, Daniel Avila, who works “in the office that opposes the spread of same-sex marriage,” has indicted the “devil” “for same-sex attraction.” In print. In The Pilot, which has since apologized for the theological error and deleted the column: “A spokeswoman for the bishops’ conference said that Mr. Avila’s column…
Your Reformation Day Blowout!
Did you know that October 31 is not only a great time to be a Catholic or Pagan, but also a very special day for Protestants? That’s right! October 31 marks Reformation Day, which Brother Jeffrey Gros recently told me has fallen into disuse: “Since the 1980s, traditional Reformation Day services have evolved into commemorations…
A Kinder, Gentler Apocalypse
Remember all the world-ending-on-May-21 hype earlier this year? Apparently God was playing more of his “I’m gonna pretend to high-five you, then pull my hand away at the last minute and say ‘Psych!’” games with all of us. Harold Camping of Family Radio was admittedly “flabbergasted” when it didn’t happen as planned. But lo! It has…
Fan Art!
Blogging can be a lonely job. Sometimes I feel my words blowing through cyberspace like little pixellated tumbleweeds. Or I’ll be tweeting away, thinking “Why am I writing this stuff? No one cares!” But sometimes I hear from people. Sometimes I actually get fan art! Recently I was tweeting about the Guitar Mass and realized…
The Latin Mass of My Dreams
St. John the Baptist Catholic Church “rejects both the liturgical and doctrinal changes of Vatican II in their entirety and without exception.” Indeed, there are other churches in the Louisville area that offer the Tridentine Mass, but “what differentiates St. John the Baptist Church from these other communities is its total fidelity to the Catholic…
Holy Haulers, Baltimore!
Baltimore is the land of a million amateur haulers. The streets are teeming with old trucks hand-painted with phone numbers and offers to haul anything—telephone poles always have handwritten ads for the same service. Having moved into two old-lady houses since moving here, I can see the need. One was still full of a hoarder’s…
Use the Right Prop, Michelle
Governor Perry, I’ve got more ideas for you, but I gotta talk to Mrs. Bachmann for a few minutes. Michelle: the “$2 gas” idea is great. Nice use of a Wal-Mart-i-an “loss-leader”… get them in the door with “limited supplies” of 50-cent taco filling, and watch them fill up their carts with high-ticket China-made gizmos. Good…
Helping Rick Perry Help Himself
Rick Perry’s recent 30,000 strong prayer meeting was dwarfed by a similar event the same day—seven miles away in Texas, 100,000 people showed up for a free back-to-school event where children got free school supplies, haircuts, uniforms, immunizations, and “three-pound bags of food.” As a genetic Republican, this gives me odd pain. It’s the same…
Officer, I Can Explain
Even the law is telling me not to fuck things up.
Religion: ___
Once July 15 passes, it’s all back-to-school displays in the megastores and reenrollment paperwork/digital forms/paying of tuition tout de suite. It still makes my stomach hurt. A friend just passed along this list from her son’s back-to-school forms. If you’re wondering what the religion choices might be at an “independent” “East Coast” stone-walled place of…
Taoist Foreplay Works Anyway
Taoist Foreplay: Love Meridians and Pressure Points by Mantak Chia and Kris Deva North This book had me at “Taoist.” Add in “foreplay” and I was pressing the One-Click button. Hard, so to speak. Ahem. [Five minutes elapse.] What? Oh, just doing a bit of “single cultivation.” For, uh, research purposes. I’m back. This book…
The Bad Old Days
A dear friend who was recently on a family vacation in Wisconsin went above and beyond the call of duty. Way beyond. When she returned, she presented me with a clutch of souvenirs from the Queen of the Holy Rosary, Mediatrix of Peace Shrine in Necedah, Wisconsin, a place she knew holds some fascination for…
The Desiccated Finger of Fate
I reported to the Johns Hopkins Outpatient Center yesterday for an appointment in the Avon Foundation Breast Center(!). The first thing I saw as I exited the parking structure was what I assume to be an Episcopalian priest in a dog collar. Then, while I waited in the waiting room, considering just how ugly the…
Shine On, You Crazy Diamonds
In a recent Guardian article about Italian Bishop Domenico Mogavero’s flash new Armani-designed liturgical duds, mention was also made of the Pope’s rumored penchant for Prada footwear. “The Vatican daily L’Osservatore Romano scotched the rumours, pointing out that the shoes in question were in fact made by an Italian artisan. ‘The Pope is not dressed…
The Most Dangerous Game
David Holthouse, in Alternet, reports on the twice yearly Machine Gun Shoot in West Point, Kentucky, where he found lots of Nazi t-shirts and books and anti-Muslim paraphernalia for sale, along with, of course, deadly weapons. This “family-friendly” event is said to have a “split personality”: The rent-a-machine-gun portion of the event is family-oriented. Fathers pay…
The Fault, Fault, Fault Line
The new “closer to Latin” translation of the Roman Missal seems to be another salvo in the “smaller, purer” campaign being currently mounted by Ratzinger and Co. in the Mother Church. Mary Hunt, writing in Religion Dispatches about attacks on socially-active priests and theologian nuns, says that the “large tent of the church” is now…
A Quaker’s Lament
This just in from Baltimore, Wednesday—question, KtB! Why do people tell me such sad things all the time??? Why are old men constantly looking away and almost breaking down in tears in their blazers around me? WHY??? In the meetinghouse vestibule, amongst peace pamphlets and before an engraving of Elizabeth Fry reading to prisoners, a…