Father Nemo Needs A Notebook

I was talking to Father Nemo, and I must now pass the ball to you.

Father Nemo needs a notebook. He will use it for exclusive blog use, so that no information about it is saved anywhere in it. Not even the password and name of his blog. Not even the email he used to set the blog up, or the photos he has posted on his blog. Nothing at all that might trace the blog back to him.

Father does, therefore, not need storage. Everything he needs will be on his blog, and a separate USB key will be aplenty for blog backups if he really wants to (he might not want to). What Father wants is something preferably not expensive, practical in use, and allowing him to go on the Internet exclusively for his blog purposes. He will, though, need a VPN service, so that the two questions might be interconnected.

Looking around, Father has found that Internet suitable devices (“suitable” means cheap, but with proper, full-size keyboard) do not come all with Windows. There are also, at the very least, Android devices, and the strange Chromebook ones. There is also Apple, but that’s expensive, sodomitical and utterly Christianophobic, so it doesn’t count.

Father has noticed these strange web-based Chromebooks. They are well cheap, but he still wonders. Will Google start asking information for him? With email verification perhaps? Will he, in other words, be anonymous for Google? How can this be, if apps can only be downloaded through the “store”, like Apple? Is it wise for him to purchase a device and trust to Google a lot on information about him? Father will, of course, not store any document on the little “cloud” at his disposal – this wouldn’t make sense, because if Inunderstand correctly everything he puts there will have his own name on it – but he does not care, as everything would be on the WordPress blog he opened fully anonymously, with an anonymous email – a big difference with other services, who asked for email verification -. If he puts nothing of himself on the cloud, where’s the danger? Well, in his having a cloud account with nothing but his name on it, perhaps? Or in Google knowing – if I understand correctly – every blogging or Catholic app he ever bought for the purpose of blogging?

Chromebooks are, apparently, very fast to be fired up. But is this so important? He would only use the device to post – VPN-protected – posts on his WordPress site, and WordPress do not know, nor do they ask to know, who he is. Why would Google? And do they in the first place? Or is the cloud thingy an optional? But then, what if one wants to buy an app? Does he have to give Google unique identification information, like his mobile phone?

I told Father when I started the blog I chose WordPress over Blogspot because the latter wanted to know who I am (through verification of email). Why on earth? How is it that WordPress, operating in the same legal environment, has no need for it? I find the attitude of Google between somewhat creepy and utterly disturbing. Put all my documents where *you* (or the NSA; or the Gaystapo) can read them? Seriously?

Then there is another Google-dominated system: android. Some cheap devices are available with this system, but it seems to him (Father) that this is no better than Chromebbok. An Android device needs to be registered to download even the most banal application. Is this really anonymous? Not the device, or the user. The use, perhaps. But only if no data on Father is anywhere on the cloud, on his account.

Linux does not come into question. Father has heard this needs some work and technical knowledge he does not want to acquire unless it is strictly necessary for his purposes. He can put time and effort to tweak his blog site, not to learn to do something other OS will do for him. Father is a priest, not a computer geek.

Lastly, there is – unless there are other ways Father doesn’t know – the bad old Windows-based laptop. Costs are now at Chromebook level, that is: very low. It has all the usual problems of Windows, but the availability of everything – from VPN services to meme-creating software – is there, very probably free if he so wishes,mor at a cheap price if he wants the added security and comfort of the “premium” account. The device can be operated in a fully anonymous way. Nowhere would there be his name. The device would be used exclusively for Catholic news to be linked to, images to be put on the blog posts, and the blog posts themselves. Some Catholic apps if practicable (but is it?). That’s it.

Father told me VPN should be dealt with separately; but clearly, how well VPN can be efficiently and anonymously organised will play a role in his decision. This is, though, for another post.

If VPN is viable, then, Father asks what device you would suggests that he buys:

1 Chromebook?

2 Android?

3 Windows?

4 Something else?

Let the game begin. If will be fun and instructive at the same time.

Father thanks in advance. All of them.

M

Sensus Hereticus, Or The Pope On The Bus

Reblog: Sensus Hereticus, Or The Pope On The Bus

Mundabor's Blog

Believe it or not, one of the three is supposed to be Catholic.

Every time that I smell something fishy in the public declarations of the man currently sullying the Papacy, several readers intervene with very apposite comments from great saints of the past.

It is the first mark of the “sensus catholicus” that a properly instructed Catholic immediately or almost immediately perceives that something is not in order, even if in the moment he might have some difficulties in saying why. Expressions like “Jesus was pretending to be angry”, or “Jesus in the Gospel was never angry” instinctively go against our grain of Catholics, because even if we cannot remember on the spot that God cannot deceive or that Jesus drove the merchant out of the temple with savage fury, we have been instructed to fear the Lord and not incur His wrath, and to say “the Word of…

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Baldisseri, The Unmerciful Cardinal

Maybe you shouldn’t be the Secretary General of the Synod…

 

“You should come up here if you know everything, maybe you should be a Synod Father.”

Can anyone imagine a Cardinal in an important position under, say, Pope Benedict, giving an answer of this sort because a journalist is making his job and posing questions about the lack of transparency in this Synod?

Am I the only one who has the impression the new Francis-style is as arrogant and reckless in practice as it proclaims to be humble and merciful in theory?

Mind: this is not your blogger, or even journalist, confronted with an obnoxious commenter.

This is a journalist making his job. This is the Cardinal who invited him.

The Cardinal who invited him so that he may pose questions.

Sheesh…

Mundabor

 

 

Meet Father Nemo

 

 

My dear readers, this is an important day in the life of this blog.

Today I introduce you to Father Nemo.

Father Nemo is a fictional, but very real newly ordained priest. He is fed up with the climate of intimidation he sees around him in his diocese after all he had to endure in the Seminary. Father Nemo wants to blog, but he has more than the suspicion that this is not going to end well for his blog – and possibly for him – anytime soon. He is also smart enough to see that the chill wind currently blowing might go on for decades, and every respite in, say, Benedict-style might well be only temporary.

Father Nemo is in a particularly delicate position, but the principles applied to him are valid for everyone else: Blogger Nemo, Anti-Communist Activist Nemo, Whistleblower Nemo, even Bishop Nemo, or Cardinal Nemo! Father Nemo might even be, say, Chinese or from another repressive regime.

Father Nemo is not very Internet savvy, but he is smart and of good will. He will search the Internet to educate himself about how to do things properly, and by that I mean properly. Father Nemo knows that he would never be able to resist investigation from a Western Government set on knowing who he is; but at the same time, he believes his kind of activity does not warrant this kind of eventuality, not in most countries at least. Certainly, Father Nemo (particularly if he lives in Countries like, say, Cuba, or the United States) wants to have as much security as a blogger can have, within reason and a bit of effort. Certainly, he wants to be free from the prying eyes of his bishop, or of some “enterprising” hacking journalist in British style; or employer, or ruling party, or mother-in-law: you name it.  

This blogger hopes that Father Titius, Caius or Sempronius will, one day, land on this blog, and be thankful for the information he finds. It goes without saying that for this, the knowledge of your humble blogger is utterly inadequate. But others will, no doubt, step in to help him, and perhaps they will be kind enough as to ask their internet friends – anonymity on the Net is now, for obvious reasons, a big issue – to help the readers of this little effort.

Brick by brick, a little Vademecum for the Anonymous Blogger will be created, updated and improved constantly.

This is, therefore, the first post of a work in progress. A suitable space will be found on the main page to have this information accessible at all times to everyone.

Every post will deal with only one issue. Interesting other issues will generate further posts, but everything will be kept simple and with a step-by-step (ahem: brick-to-brick) approach. Particular attention will be given to everyday language and easy to follow technical advice. Costs will have to be incurred, but it will be endeavoured to keep them to a minimum; bearing in mind that, within reason, Father Nemo prefers expenses to blog demise, or worse.

The idea is that in time, more and more priests like Titius, Caius and Sempronius (or laymen, anti-communist activists, Bishops, or Cardinals) will land on this blog and, after careful reflection, will say to themselves:

I am Father Nemo.

M

 

Synod: One Sentence Will Be Enough

 

 

The Synod has started, and everything is going according to plan.

After painting the devil on the wall, Kasper & The Brothel Girls are now assuring us that doctrine can’t be changed. As if it could, anyway.

This will allow Kasper and his happy girls to present themselves, after the terrain has been carefully prepared, as respectful of orthodoxy and, therefore, with the right credentials to speak a word or two on behalf of the “suffering humanity”; that is, all those people for whom mortal sin and open scandal, you see, “just happened”, but would now be terribly offended if they were told so.

No. Doctrine will not be “changed”. Two and Two will also continue to be, very officially and with Papal approval, Four. But the “pastoral practice” – that is: the way the Church works in everyday life – will be officially decoupled from doctrine.

The aim is to defend Church doctrine as “the ideal”, and to allow open sin and public scandal as, well, the praxis.

Ideally, you should not kill.

——

How will this be achieved?

The first part has already been accomplished: the creation of a widespread expectation, in certain Countries, that the prostitutes will do what the Kirchensteuer paying clients want: shut up, and please them already.

The second part is being completed in these very days, with the assurance that the Pollyannas can sleep peaceful nights. The oh church oh doctrine is not going to, oh, change. Isn’t this, oh, sooo, oh, beautiful? Isn’t the, oh, Holy Ghost doing, ooohh, overtime?

The third and last part will be the use, in the concluding document – this year, or next year at the latest – of some winged words able to be used by the Brothel Girls as a testimony that the Church “listens”; or “is merciful”; or crap like that. I can smell the stench already.

Cue the army of concubines and their friends, greeting the synod as a historical event and praising Bishop Francis The Oh So Merciful to the sky. Cue the army of slaving, opportunistic, weathervane bloggers of the “Patheos” ilk explaining to us why a new and wonderful phase in the history of the Church is about to begin. Cue mass media bloggers telling us “ten things to know and share” about why everything has happened, but there’s nothing that has really happened. Cue the army of Pollyannas invading the world’s Comboxes with their sugary songs of thanksgiving for the purity of the doctrine, now left intact, far above in the skies, there to look at a world below that does not care for it.

The “change in pastoral approach” by “keeping the doctrine unchanged” will be universally praised. The rape will begin. Soon, what was fine up to now will be considered unbearably backwards, as the Brothel Girls explain to the world how the Church “has changed” in her “pastoral approach”. Woe, then, to those priest who dare to complain. The concubines will run en masse to the bishop, complaining; and the bishop will explain to the priest that he really, really has to get the new climate of mercy.

A few will refuse. Most will comply. Francis & Co. know this perfectly well. No human force can stop them, because there is no human mechanism to stop a Pope gone astray.

Do not think that, in order to go on with the programme, very official pronouncements will be necessary. One single sentence, well placed and fed to the world press as the implicit, but very real key of interpretation, will be enough. We live in a world of diffused stupidity and effeminate emotionalism. The feeling, the climate, the general mood is what really counts; and it is what TMAHICH has been pumping up (and pimping up) since that fateful evening in March 2013.

The Great Rape Of The Church will then begin. Not in theory. No! God forbid! Um Gottes Willen!

Merely in practice!

Next stop: Sodomites…

M

 

Reblog: Ten Reasons For The Anonymity Of Catholic Bloggers

Ten Reasons For The Anonymity Of Catholic Bloggers

On The Blogger Who Froze His Blog

The “Apostolicae Curae” reblog

Mundabor's Blog

A couple of days ago, a well-known blogger announced that his “Catholic ordination” (note the words) had been postponed, clearly sine die.

The news went around the blogosphere and I also made some comment on the site of a Catholic weekly. As it is my custom, I intervened with a string of messages and then left the matter alone, being fully persuaded that those who don’t get things right when one writes them once or twice will not be able to get them right if one keeps writing them again and again.

The discussion tended about finding the reasons why the blogger’s ordination was put on ice. Some believed that an element might have been that the blogger in question can be, at times, rather abrasive. Some others – including your truly, and at least one Catholic priest blogger – tend to think that the reason might well be…

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Reblog: Intrinsically Disordered

Intrinsically Disordered