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The situation created by Traditionis Custodes and Bishop Michael Martin’s implementation of it in Charlotte grows increasingly untenable. A few hundred miles away, a newly installed bishop has just demonstrated how differently Catholics attached to the Traditional Latin Mass can…
— Mark Lambert (@sitsio) September 27, 2026
And…
Who hasn’t been there ? pic.twitter.com/6gWGnsPGRT
— MedievalistMatt (@medievalistmatt) September 27, 2026
And… something I’ll never know but I love and appreciate. It’s for this that we do what we do, right?
This angle gets me, where he’s just kind of standing there soaking it in, then sees his daughter and smiles, then instantly melts into tears … whew. Hell of a run, 35. pic.twitter.com/e52ChdCHXV
— Zack Pierce (@ZPathletic) September 26, 2026
White to move and mate in 2.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
Taking a pawn en passant is normally an optional move. But in this case, thanks to Zugzwang, it’s mandatory and leads to mate:
1. f2f4! g4xf4 e.p.
2. Rh4##
1. f2-f4 . . g4×f4 (en passant)
2. R-h4#
Oh I like this puzzle.
f4. Then the en passant capture by the G pawn is the only legal move. Then rook delivers the killing blow on h4.
I am saving this one.
f4 gxf3 e.p.
Rh4++
I guess JV will be going into the Hall as a Tiger.
Then, probably a future coaching Little League.
P-f4, Pxp (en passant, forced)
R-h4++
White to move and mate in 2
1. f4 g4xf3 forced
2. Rh4#
Assuming both Bishops Martin and Menjivar are still in place five years hence, anyone want to bet what the vocation numbers will look like at that time?
According to their respective diocesan websites, Charlotte (546k RC’s) shows 33 seminarians while Wheeling-Charleston (110k RC’s) shows 15, but those are largely from the previous bishops…
Of course the more likely outcome is that in the meantime Martin is removed… and made Archbishop of, say, Chicago; while Menjivar is “promoted” to an “important” see… say, Rapid City ;-)
We were lucky in Houston to trade for JV at the deadline in 2017, he was crucial to winning our first World Series – trashcans notwithstanding. Great career and future HOFamer. Re: the trashcan incidents, Manager AJ Hinch and GM Jeff Luhnow were the fall guys in that episode, it was really Carlos Beltran (who brought the idea from the Yankees) and bench coach Alex Cora who orchestrated it. Jose Altuve continues to get booed wherever he plays on the road, despite not participating in the cheating. A Catholic and very humble family man…. Well, that’s baseball.
As an illegal immigrant, Bishop Menjivar cannot be persecuted by the Church, it would destroy its virtue signaling.