These days, this is what I feel is being done to our Church.

UPDATE 25 Sept:

I had a note from someone suggesting that the photoshopping with pink may have something to do with October – just around the corner – being Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Pink seems to be the official color for that.  Fine!  I’ll accept that as a possibility, and as a good cause, though it wasn’t evident from the site where I saw the images.

Some people have taken my point, however.  You should see my email!  And you can guess at the leanings of those who took greatest umbrage.  They are melting down.

_____

Some wag out there used his photoshopping skills to Hello-Kitty-ize some heroes of the silver screen.  Samples:

No… I just don’t have the heart to post Batman.   Or Superman, for that matter.  I just … can’t.

These days, this is what I feel is being done to our Church right now.

Blech.

Yes, I wrote “feel”.  I’ll start thinking again after a couple shots of espresso and some fresh air.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
This entry was posted in The Coming Storm, The Drill, The future and our choices, The Olympian Middle and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink.

37 Comments

  1. John Grammaticus says:

    You’re not the only one Father

  2. StWinefride says:

    Dear Fr Z, on a lighter note, it’s been a long time since you have posted news of Mr and Mrs Cardinal … they haven’t gone their …erm… separate ways have they?!

    [Where I live – here at the Steam Pipe Trunk Distribution Venue – I can’t have a bird feeder close to my window. It has to be on my window. Thus, I get great visits from the cardinals, but photos … just don’t work right now. Right now, Mr and Mrs Cardinal are bringing their two springoffs to the feeder. They are still doing a little begging but they are mostly fending for themselves. Also, late at night I am visited here at the SPTDV by a flying squirrel. When Rocket finishes, he hurls himself off the ledge into the darkness.]

  3. scarda says:

    LOVE the rose vestments. The kitty icon must have something to do with one of the numerous St Catherines.

  4. frival says:

    You are not alone, Father, you are not alone. There are many comparisons that could be made, but this is most likely the … sparkliest one.

  5. APX says:

    You are not alone in these feelings. Frankly, this seems to be the new normal. I went to the spa on Friday and was surrounded by “men” getting waxed, manicures, facials, etc. Men here are turning into effeminate wimps and it’s seeping into everything.

  6. pannw says:

    Oh, that would be so funny if you hadn’t put it in those terms!!! But you are right. Not only to our Church, but to Jesus, The Lord God Himself. I think it has something to do with St. Paul’s description of changing ‘the Truth of God into a lie’. I can’t imagine He will judge that too softly. The Just Judge doesn’t strike me as soft and fluffy, but to hear some describe Him, He’s just as pink and cuddly as Hello Kitty. God have mercy.

    As awful as it is for me, I can only imagine the pain and righteous anger it inspires in MEN of God, who have vowed to fight on the front lines for Him. God bless you Fr. Z, and all priests of Christ who faithfully stand up for Him and His Church. We know Hello Kitty does not wear combat boots (literally and/or figuratively).

  7. Peter from Jersey says:

    Pope Benedict likes cats, perhaps not Hello Kitty though.

  8. The Cobbler says:

    True story: My dad keeps saying he needs to photoshop Hello Kitty’s face onto the helmet of Master Chief (and maybe switch out a grenade for a dog biscuit) and call it “Halo Kitty”. I’m not sure what that does to the validity of the laserbeams.

    [If I ever go back to playing Halo during workouts, I hope I won’t discover that as a skin for Master Chief. Brrrr! I, on the other hand, the Grunts….]

  9. everett says:

    Hopefully this is the first (and last) time in the history of the interest that hello kitty is tagged together with ecclesiology.

  10. John of Chicago says:

    Da Bears vs the Jets tonight; God’s in His Heaven–All’s right with the world!

  11. mrshopey says:

    DYK that Hello Kitty is actually a little girl dressed as a kitty?
    I am not sure Ian Mckellen would object, btw.

  12. Charles E Flynn says:

    In case you missed this recent clarification:

    From Hello Kitty is not a cat, plus more reveals before her L.A. tour, by Carolina A. Miranda, for the Los Angeles Times:

    Hello Kitty is not a cat.?You read that right. When Yano was preparing her written texts for the exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum, she says she described Hello Kitty as a cat. “I was corrected — very firmly,” she says. “That’s one correction Sanrio made for my script for the show. Hello Kitty is not a cat. She’s a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She’s never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature. She does have a pet cat of her own, however, and it’s called Charmmy Kitty.”

    I grew up with Hello Kitty everything and all I have to say is, MIND BLOWN.
    Hello Kitty is British.?Kitty is actually named Kitty White and she has a full back story. She is a Scorpio. She loves apple pie. And she is the daughter of George and Mary White.

    “She has a twin sister,” adds Yano. “She’s a perpetual third-grader. She lives outside of London. I could go on. A lot of people don’t know the story and a lot don’t care. But it’s interesting because Hello Kitty emerged in the 1970s, when the Japanese and Japanese women were into Britain. They loved the idea of Britain. It represented the quintessential idealized childhood, almost like a white picket fence. So the biography was created exactly for the tastes of that time.”

    [Hello Kitty… is not… a… cat. Wow.]

  13. anilwang says:

    I disagree. Real women don’t wear baby clothes unless they’re with children. Imagine The Little Flower in a Hello Kitty skirt.

    What you’re seeing in the Church is not feminization but infantilization. Replace Hello Kitty with The Smurfs and it would be just as accurate.

  14. Andrew D says:

    Father Z, if you have time, I have a question for you… I read and hear mixed messages on this one but I trust your advice. If (and I pray this won’t happen) the Traditional Latin Mass is shut down by the powers that be, is it o.k. to attend Mass at a St. Piux X chapel yet still financially support a Diocesan parish (I’d support the SSPX one too)? I fear that’s what’s coming and while I can’t stand the thought of having to go back to the Novus Ordo, I don’t want to be in disobedience to the Majesterium. Thank you.

  15. ckdexterhaven says:

    I’m just waiting for a blogger to tell us to calm down. Wearing Hello Kitty doesn’t mean what we think it means, it means the wearer is tough and manly. Or maybe they aren’t wearing Hello Kitty at all.

  16. Diane at Te Deum Laudamus says:

    Speaking of kitties – the Lions beat the Packers yesterday.

  17. Elizabeth D says:

    Grateful for the bird feeder update. If he is not going to be in Chicago or Malta he had might as well be here where he is loved.

    I am sure everyone saw the news that recently those responsible for Hello Kitty insisted that Kitty is not a cat but a little girl dressed as a cat. Some objected that they know better, because little girls do not have whiskers.

  18. FXR2 says:

    Fr Z,

    I agree, but?!?! http://www.oneinchpunch.net/2009/08/07/hello-kitty-darth-vader/

    fxr2

    [This is… just… wrong. Everything I understand about right and wrong, up and down, is being overturned over the last few…. How could you do this to me?]

  19. MouseTemplar says:

    Father, if you have a photo of Pope Benedict XVI in a Hello Kitty garment thingey, please, do not post it, OK? It would take more than espresso to bring me ’round…

  20. HeatherPA says:

    But…
    “Hello Kitty” is too fem for the Nuns on the Bus, isn’t it?
    I would imagine they would cringe at all the girly pink and glitter.
    They prefer rainbows.

  21. JesusFreak84 says:

    I died laughing at the photoshops….so wrong XD What’s happening to Holy Mother Church, however, at least in her human element…not funny :|

  22. The Astronomer says:

    Hmmm, I wonder what spiffy pink ‘Hello Kitty’ Spirit of Vatican II vestments would look like on +Archbishop Piero Marini if he were to become the new Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments? After all, to hear the Fishrap crowd tell it, the late Abp Bugnini’s protege is already a liturgical ‘superhero’ …..(I couldn’t resist, Fr. Z) [Listening to Rumor coeli, are we? o{];¬) ]

  23. Suburbanbanshee says:

    Au contraire. Hello Kitty is an anthropomorphic cat. (I forget the Japanese term for anthropomorphic animals, but there is one.) So she can have a pet cat who is a fully animal cat (neko), whereas she herself is an anthropomorphic cat in a cartoony way (nekojin, I believe is the term).

    There are of course also catgirls who look much more like humans with only ears and tails, or perhaps paws, but those are more for the teenage male demographic and are usually found in anime and manga for older people.

  24. Iacobus M says:

    Sorry, can’t deal with the cognitive dissonance – got to go detox . . . or something . . . I mean, Darth Vader?

  25. NBW says:

    Yes, I agree. Very sad. There is a fad (at least I hope it’s a fad) where grown men are watching “My Little Pony” they are called “Bronies.” You wouldn’t catch the LCWR bunch watching that show!

  26. drohan says:

    These are pretty hilarious. However, I think the true faithful in the Church are not going along for the ride. In our parish, the young families have dads and moms that act like men and women.

    Our priest is a strong man, holy and quiet, but strong in the faith. The students I chatechize know the difference between right and wrong, to the point that one of the girls was eloquently able to defend the priesthood against a protestant feminist attack.

    I think as the loony-tunes of the 60’s and 70’s start to die off, they will let off a final death shriek. And since many of these people are still in influential positions in the church, they will be even more hard to take. But the mystical body of Christ is going to win out. Who will be left of the leftist mainstream? No One. Why? Because the left has spent all of the previous half-century telling people that it doesn’t matter what you believe, just so long as you “aren’t hurting anyone else”. Remember all religions are the same. And the lefties have already left the church, leaving a smaller but more vibrant community. We will win in the end Fr. Z. We might not live to see it, but we (by that I mean faithful priests, religious, and laity) have begun to lay the solid groundwork for a new golden age of the faith. I believe it with all my heart.

  27. FXR2 says:

    Fr. Z,
    I am sorry for the disturbing image. We must all pray for Pope Francis, our Bishops and Priests. I know that the Church has turned the corner.When I pray the scriptural rosary I am always stuck by this verse. I don’t pretend to understand it, I just pray.

    And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother: Behold this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted.

    fxr2

  28. jflare says:

    OK, I’ll plead guilty to being waaaaay behind on my comics. I’m not sure which is scarier, really: The way these guys look…or the fact that I don’t recognize even half of them!
    Must say though, even without recognizing them in “normal…regalia…”, these guys don’t look terribly “super-hero-ish”.

    BTW, if Hello Kitty..isn’t a actually a cat..why the blazes does she call it hello KITTY and have a cat’s face????

  29. Pingback: Pinkos | The American Catholic

  30. Mariana2 says:

    Hello Kitty is not a cat? That explains Charmmy Kitty being “Hello Kitty’s cat.” You learn something on this blog every day!

    But Gandalf’s ring, Narya, depicted as a Hello Kitty ring….words fail me. Is nothing sacred?

  31. StWinefride says:

    Thanks for the update, Fr Z!

  32. LarryW2LJ says:

    The wussification of America. Ech.

  33. Who wants to start the website STOPDERATZINGERIZATION.COM ?

    Just sad…

  34. JesusFreak84 says:

    The Vader one actually fits, at least if you’ve seen Episodes II and III =-p Whiny, emo brat, of course he became a Sith!

  35. Andkaras says:

    I immediately thought of the quote from the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. “He doesn’t like being tied down–He’ll often drop in. Only you mustn’t press him. He’s wild you know, not like a tame lion.” I don’t think that even the witch would put up with this wardrobe.

  36. Genevieve says:

    But Father, but Father…

    While you’re drinking your espresso and taking in your fresh air, please pray for us who have no access to a Catholic Church other than through these hello kitty, pink, sparkly priests. It’s scandalizing the faith of me and my husband. How can I bring my children up in this church? How can I do it? Where else can I go? I know Who has the words of eternal life. But I feel desperate when I think about staying.

  37. Mike says:

    Genevieve: An Ave ascends on your behalf. Teach your children the true Faith, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and your family through the minefield.

    Your situation should impel every one of the rest of us laity, especially those in localities blessed with priests and religious who support the Magisterium, to pray for faithful vocations. Those of us so favored should be unsparing in committing time, talent, and treasure to promote the true Faith, anchoring our efforts in frequent reception of the Sacraments, frequent attendance at Holy Mass, and unstinting practice of the works of mercy.

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