EPH–3 / THE GNOSTIC ART OF DERRIDADAISM

The excursion into the preposterous sends us back with renewed pleasure to the actual.

– C.S. Lewis, Essays Presented to Charles Williams

I. DA BACKGROUNDER. Some years ago the TH2 had the mischance of tuning in to a radio station, to one of those pretentious “Arts and Culture” programs on the CBC, Canada's Fabianist broadcaster. It was covering an interview with an artist influenced (read deceived) by the deconstructionist movement. The hour was late, the body weary, TH2 was in bed, ready to sleep and enter into his own dreams, which are very deconstructionist–like in their imagery. Though TH2 forced himself to stay awake to listen to what this person had to expound on his so–called "art". Why? Unknown. But TH2 must confess that he is periodically mesmerized by the proponents of this movement, in their seriousness and insistence of the “truths” of this philosophical abomination that has stunted so many intellects in the last few decades.

II. DE MAN WAS A NAZI. The interviewee was discussing his "art" in relation to controversy that, in hindsight (assumingly), had sounded the death knell of deconstructionism. It had to do with the discovery of pro–Nazi articles written during the Second World War by Paul de Man (1919–1983), the academic who introduced deconstructionism to the United States, later being its one of its most famous champions after his emigration to America (the articles were published in 1987). One article in particular, entitled The Jews and Contemporary Literature, described how Jews were a contamination to the field of letters, as “polluted and harmful”.[1] It was inspired, of course, by de Man’s sympathy to Nazism, previously unknown to his groveling minions. One would figure that the discovery these articles would have signaled the end of deconstruction’s popularity and influence, at least in the US. Not so. Deconstructionism, a gnostic heresy particular to egomaniacal latte–sipping pseudo–intellectuals, still today thrives in the university system.

III. DA BUFFOON. TH2 will not here submit an elaborate discussion of the extravaganza that resulted therefrom as it has been already documented.[2] Rather, the focus will be on, firstly, the buffoon who was appropriated air time on the radio in particular and, secondly, the nihilistic precepts of deconstructionism in general as it relates to art. The "artist" in question (name not remembered), judging by the tonality of his voice, was obviously confounded by the debacle. One might have figured that de Man’s Nazi past coupled with the self–referencing meaninglessness of deconstructionism itself would have made him re–evaluate his own ideas on the purpose of art. Not so. Though dismayed, this wannabe–Dali spoke of how his "art" attempted to represent the tragedy. TH2 cannot remember what form of art employed, nor does he wish to remember. Nonetheless this "artist" seemed unfettered, disinclined to relegate deconstructionism to where it belongs – in that gigantic garbage bin with all other failed and transient philosophies that have hoodwinked and stolen so many minds over the last two–hundred years. For the very first principle of deconstructionism itself not only disallows absolutely the translation of texts[3] (i.e. of the word which re–presents) – including the fact that it attempts to demonstrate the meaninglessness and incommunicability of ideas to others through grammar by using that very grammar itself ! – but also the physical representation of realities which is part and parcel to art and the artist. Deconstruction cannot and does not permit art. It only makes for a solipsistic graffiti, a “creation” without a referent, without correspondence with the “other.” It engenders a kind of “art for art’s sake” in extremis.

IV. DA LIMITS. This obtrusive fact was evidently of no interest to the artist under review. He kept on talking as if his art really represented the controversy surrounding the de Man affair. Why? Because he cannot escape, no matter how hard he tries, that borderline, that circumscribed aspect, that quantitative finitude, which the artist must presuppose to effectuate his job. The frame which delimits the painting, the curves and lines drawn on a piece of paper which denote the human figure or the landscape, the carving of a piece of granite into a segmented and particularized shape by the sculptor – all of these limit, a word which the deconstructionist despises. Once again there is that ancient and incontrovertible principle, affirmed by realist philosophers, that deconstructionists cannot avoid: matter is the condition of limitation. Thus, to pretendedly avoid this, the deconstructionist avers that the signifier (whether it be grammatical sign or a work of art) is self–referencing. When the writer writes or when the artist renders, he is not referring to that which is outside the self and the world. Nothing is signified but the self.

V. DA KING OF DECONSTRUCTIONISM. Let us read what the "creator" of deconstructionism, Jacques Derrida (1930–2004), had to say about art:

"If... one were to broach lessons on art or aesthetics by a question of this type (“What is art?” “What is the origin of art or of works of art?” “What is the meaning of art?” “What does art mean?” etc.), the form of the question would already provide an answer. Art would be predetermined or precomprehended in it. A conceptual opposition which has traditionally served to comprehend art would already, always, be at work there... In order to think art in general, one thus accredits a series of oppositions (meaning / form, inside / outside, content / container, signified / signifier, represented / representer, etc.) which, precisely, structure the traditional interpretation of art. One makes of art in general an object in which one claims to distinguish an inner meaning, the invariant... through which... one would try to see or restore the true, full, originary meaning... When a philosopher repeats this question without transforming it, without destroying it in its form,... its ontological interrogative structure, he has already subjected the whole space to the discursive arts, to voice and the logos."[4]

Here we come to the kernel of the issue, which is not so much artistic as metaphysical in aspect. Notice Derrida’s configuration of questions in parenthesis: “What is...”, or his utilization of the words “predetermined” and “precomprehended”. Derrida wrote in the context of being, of the ontological, of that which structures, orders and thus limits. These, he said, must be destroyed, annihilated. A philosophical digression is needed challenge this contention.

Da new Jacques Derrida doll

VI. DA METAPHYSIC. What M. Derrida wished to obliterate is the traditional metaphysical notion that says that all of our knowledge presupposes an ontological provision, that all intelligibility we have of ourselves and the universe we live in is rooted in being. Grammatically speaking, what is meant by the being of the thing? Is the thing we see in the world just crude matter? Do we say “it is what it is” and nothing else? That there is no intrinsic principle that resides “behind” or transcends reality? That effectively we live in an unstructured, random and chaotic world? If being is taken in this acceptation then, when we say “being”, it can only, in a grammatical sense, be a noun. Basic grammar tells us that a noun is a substantive, it refers to a person, place or thing, and that is all. Taken in this sense, the being of the thing is solid, static and immovable. When we speak or write our knowledge of a thing in a grammatical form, i.e. when we employ symbols sequenced in the form of a language which sets up a relation with an–other (and hence order and limits), being cannot be expressed in a substantive sense because this would make the physical existence of the thing equal to our symbolical representation of it. As common sense tells us, the sign, whether it be symbolical or graphical, is universal, it denotes the many with the one. If our symbolic representation of reality was no different from that reality itself it would necessarily follow that man is not really distinct from the world, that understanding (the mind) is not really distinct from the thing understood (the world). But an art form cannot be without matter. But this is immaterial to deconstructionists, and it is also the spectacular error of all aprioristic philosophies.

What da hek ?

VII. DA GRAMMATICA. It therefore follows that being must involve some action and hence, grammatically speaking once again, being can only be communicated by way of a verb participle. A verb is an operational word, it relays the actualization of a doing of some–thing. The participle fuses the noun and verb, as it were, so as to make it kinetic, to ascribe functionality to it. The participle does not mean that the thing (noun) or action (verb) exist in dissociation to each other. Rather, the very definition of participle means a participation or involvement of the action as be–longing to the thing. Now when we say that being is a participle, a doing of a thing, we mean a cutting down and through the external–physical properties of the thing to the very actuality of its doing. Not a doing as meant by material transformation or physical movement. For this is the great oversight of modern philosophy which thinks that being is becoming. Instead, we mean a being in actuality, a that which acts. And when the excavation is completed we arrive at being as being. We say that “things are”, “it is”, “to be”. The formula being=is is disclosed to us and we have arrived at the mystery of existence, we halt and ponder the mystery of the logos. St. Thomas: "since being properly signifies that something actually is... a thing is, in consequence, said simply to have being... and this is precisely each thing's substantial being. Hence by its substantial being, everything is said to have being simply."[5] Therefore, when looking for that first principle we must consider being as being which establishes order in the world. A principle is that upon which the ordering of things is governed or directed. Order implies a before and an after, anteriority and posteriority, above and below, and so forth. To negate this is to say that there is no structure and thus order in the world – and this is what the deconstructionist wishes to effect in grammar (or "art") and to believe in actuality.

VIII. DA ETYMOLOGY. Now when Derrida posited “What is art?” he is also submitting a proposition, an apprehension or conceptualization of some–thing. What follows from such a question is a judgement, which results in the affirmation of negation of the initial apprehension “What is art?” The “is” in the question means that the answer can be only resolvable within being. The basic form of all propositions is as follows: SUBJECT is PREDICATE. The subject (that which is perceived, given a signified meaning), is joined to the predicate (the formal definition of a specific way in which the thing is known to act) by the copula is. In other words, the verb is unifies the subject with the predicate, pronouncing their identity. This is not merely a conjoining or juxtaposition of grammar itself. The words we write and speak, including the graphical imagery we render, do not encounter reality like a concatenating veneer, like sheet of wallpaper on a wall. Grammar is actually interconnected with, and goes through to, the real. We could in effect say that the is is in the world but not of the world, pointing behind reality, to that which transcends it. The operation is transitive, not destructive. We do not say “What is artness?” Conversely, we utilize hard, real–world and exacting phraseology and say “What is art?” We do not say “Nietzsche is deadness”. We say “Nietzsche is dead”. Recall: the prefix de in means “from”, “down” or “away” from some–thing, used by deconstructionists in a way inclined to destroy and entrap all within the mental self (meant in the context in which TH2 is speaking). The solution, rather, would be to consider the prefix trans, meaning to go through or across the thing or the real world itself (again, matter is the condition of limitation), so as to change and be directed to the origin, to the first principle, and to dwell in the aura of the logos. Grammar hits and entrenches into reality head–on, so to speak. If not, all of our judgements would be groundless, subjective.

Da abominable deconstructionist architecture

IX. DA PROPOSITIONS. To M. Derrida, however, this was a fiction. The very submission of the proposition “What is art?” contains the germ of the disease. Grammar itself is inherently flawed. The is in the proposition, and the ordering that results therefrom, places a limit, it restricts and thus hinders what he thought to be art. He considered art to therefore be “predetermined or precomprehended”, meant in a necessitarian context. Perhaps this is because Derrida refused to highlight that there can only be three types of propositions. They are: the self–evident, the postulate, and the demonstration. The self–evident proposition asserts that “things are” or “it is” or “to be” without antecedent knowledge, the truth of the existence of some thing, in itself and as a distinct ontological unit from man, is apprehended with certitude as soon as the proposition is understood. The alternatives are as follows: one says that the proposition is a postulate, a hindcast of what things could have been (past) or a prediction of what they may be (future). Yet this type of proposition is unproven, it remains an idea in the mind, uncorroborated by reality. This then leads to the next proposition: the demonstration. A demonstration, however, always refers to that which is behind itself for validation, continuing backwards ad infinitum unless an initial, objective principle is affirmed as self–evident. If not, again, all judgements would be baseless. It therefore follows that the question “What is art?” is not (as a proposition which assumes that the answer is only answerable within the context of being and order, limit and logos) in any way inimical to art.

Da kitch art

X. DA EVIL PURPOSE. Irrespective of the abovementioned, the deconstructionist continues with his textual and artistic diarrhea. For the rallying call of this band of deluded gnostics is this: “The horizon of absolute knowledge is the effacement of writing in the logos.”[6] Logos is the chief word that the deconstructionist abhors.

XI. DA END OF DA WOR(L)D. The author of an excellent book which exposed the fallaciousness of the deconstructionist movement, also gives an excellent portrait of the fundaments involved with this philosophic contagion which has overrun not only university departments, but also political agendas, the mass media and, sadly, even architecture. He writes that deconstructionism is:

"An end–of–the–wor(l)d theory. The parenthesis in wor(l)d is meant to accomplish several things. It implies not only that word and world are reversible terms but that the relation of one to the other is... upside down. The word doesn’t reflect or represent the world; the word contains the world, and not the other way around... The writer, the reader and the larger community are blotted out at one stroke, and all that’s left is a succession of misleading signs, a parade of words beyond the power of humanity to control them. It is a paradox in keeping with the paradoxical sound of its name that deconstruction declares ‘logocentrism’ the enemy. For deconstruction itself is centered on the relentless study of the logos – the Greek term for word, speech, discourse, and thought, but also, in The Gospel According to St. John, the word made flesh, the engendering word, reason incarnate, the rational principle presumed to exist in the universe."[7] [TH2 emphasis]

XII. DA HEIDEGGER INFLUENCE. Getting back to the de Man affair that so intrigued the aforementioned "artist", there is one important factor that should not be disregarded. Although one can trace the deconstructionist movement back to the mental emanationism of Kant, and perhaps even further back to the “mental qualities” of Ockham, we still find a more immediate influence on these latter day gnostics in the writings of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger (1889–1976). There is no question of the direct association between Heidegger’s philosophy and Derrida’s deconstructionism.[8] More than any other thinker in the last century (including Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico–Philosophicus) Heidegger had fought so hard against the logos in language. In his book Being and Time, the reader is constantly stifled by his constant word fusions via the use of hyphenation, of his almost incomprehensible grammar that has incited many of his critics to correctly ascribe his work as the circumlocutions of a gnostic. A gnostic he certainly was, but with an added feature. It can be said that Heidegger, by attempting to reconstruct a new language of being, by squeezing and pulling sequences of words, by straining and placing the sentence into that incessant state of Germanic tension (echoes of Luther are here), and by attempting to dissect and disassemble the logos as it were, thought, as do the deconstructionists, that the barrier or the limit could be decimated, that reason, speech, and the Word could somehow be torn asunder, deconstructed. Read the words of the calamity as inaugurated by Heidegger: "After the primordial phenomena of Being–in–the–world has been shattered, the isolated subject is all that remains, and this becomes the basis on which it gets joined with ‘a world’."[9] Hence the ground is made fertile for the deconstructionist perversion. There arises the seeming possibility of the meaninglessness of language. In his updated commentary of Heidegger’s thought, a popular (and very arrogant) literary critic made an accurate observation that is of pertinence here:

"In the final analysis, the Logos proclaimed by Heidegger, the Word through which Being is, is like a valedictory twin of the Logos which speaks dawn in the Johannine Gospel. It was, as for so many master spirits and makers in our age of the “afterword”, not new gods who were waiting at the crossroads, but the old God in all his unacceptable durance. Heidegger wrestled against that meeting. The vehemence of that bout is the measure of his stature. And of his defeat, as a thinker, as a human person."[10]

Da Nazi philosopher Martin Heidegger

(aka "the quiet Luther" by TH2)









XIII. DA GNOSTIC EFFLUENT. These points are brought into the discussion because deconstructionism, though a mere game of linguistic free association, has its roots in the writings of questionable characters with dubious intentions. The evidence is plain that Heidegger was a Nazi, and there is a concordance between his philosophy and Nazi ideology.[11] Thus it was really no surprise to learn that de Man, the viscount of deconstructionism in the United States, was swayed by Nazism. What is pathetic, however, is the attitude of the "artist" interviewed on the radio. One would assume that, in the recognition of de Man’s past, but also in the realization that deconstructionism is a subspecies of Heidegger’s gnostic ontologism in close association to Nazi ideology, that he would admit to the sinister aspects of deconstructionism. TH2 heard no indication of this, just overly flamboyant dialogue laced with an egotism beyond gauging. Like all of de Man’s advocates, his “criticism” was evasive, packed with irrelevant and petty excuses. What is comical, but more so tragic, is that Derrida himself, a Jewish academic, seemed not to be too concerned with the Nazism involved. He quotes and references Heidegger as if he was some sort of intellectual messiah.[12] Moreover, this also applies to the whole post–modernist current itself of which Heidegger has left his indelible imprint. All dissociate man from his action, the word from the deed, the idea from the actuality, the mind from the world. Semiotics, structuralism, Lacanism, Gadamerism, Foucaultism, Habermasism – all of this gnostic effluent screams across the sky in popularity like a shooting star and soonafter evaporates like a shallow pond in a desert. The consequence: inexperienced and impressionable minds are deceived by their mentors and will live to repeat their errors. TH2 laughs at the pomposity and imbecility, but really he should weep.

More of da abominable deconstructionist architecture

XIV. DA DA DA. Deconstructionism is in many of its aspects akin to the Dada movement that originated in Switzerland during World War I (ironically, both Joyce and Lenin were in Zurich in 1917). Thus the term Derridadaism has recently been used to characterize M. Derrida’s various cerebral concoctions. If we recall, the dadaists, like the deconstructionists, randomly selected words and ideas in their creations of poetry and prose. No borders designated, no limits imposed, just play and purposelessness. The unspoken first principle for art and literary composition is that there are no such things as limits. All is permitted. And if you have the misfortune to peruse a deconstructionst text, you will find broken off sentences, strange symbols and signs, crossed out words, discontinuation in elucidation, purposefully strange spatial presentations of text and images, and other manifestations of esoterica so as to make it appear that the writer has broken through and extended beyond the limit and the logos. This, in truth, is a wretched descent into illogic and sophistry as just the tangible reality of the piece of paper that the deconstructionist writes on has already delimited his discourse. The existence of the Logos is indisputable and unassailable. Again: matter is the condition of limitation. Focusing only upon the sign entrapped within the mind is just a form of escape from reality. One must, instead, approach reality head on and go through it, look behind it so as to know.

XV. DA CONCLUSION. This so–called philosophy – deconstructionism, this seditious excursion from common sense and right reason, should continually be castigated as to what is in its essence: gnostic nihilism.

NOTES / REFERENCES

1. This article (translated into English) is given in D. Lehman, The Signs of the Times, Deconstruction and the Fall of Paul de Man (New York: Poseiden Press, 1992), pp. 277–278 (Appendix).

2. See R. Kimball, Tenured Radicals, How Politics has Corrupted our Higher Education (New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1990), pp. 96–115.

3. Cf. J. Derrida, The Truth in Painting (The University of Chicago Press, 1987 [1978]) where the translators G. Bennington and I. McLeod write that the translator is put into an “uncomfortable position”, but considering deconstructionism itself, the task is still a “saintly one”[!]. Also: “translation is in fact the death of translation. Yet Derrida’s work calls for translation” (pp. xiii–xiv). They point the gun at their own heads. Why even translate the work when the very philosophy they concede to discounts translation?

4. Ibid., pp. 21–22.

5. Sum. Theol., i, q. 5, art. 1, ad. 1.

6. J. Derrida, Of Grammatology, trans. G.C. Spivak (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976 [1967]), p. 26.

7. Lehman, op. cit., pp. 41–42.

8. G. Steiner, Heidegger (The University of Chicago Press, 1989), revised edition, pp. 5, 10, 152.

9. M. Heidegger, Being and Time, trans. J. Macquarie and E. Robinson (New York: Harper & Row Pub., Inc., 1976 [1926]), pt. I, div. I, ch. VI, p. 250.

10. Steiner, op. cit., pp. xxxv.

11. See H. Ott, Martin Heidegger, A Political Life, trans. A. Blunden (London: Fontana Press, 1994 [1988]), pp. 133–260; V. Farias, Heidegger and Nazism, trans. P. Burell and G.R. Ricci (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1989[1987]), passim; W.E. Hughes, “The People Versus Martin Heidegger”, First Things, December 1993, no. 38, pp. 34–38; Steiner, op. cit., pp. 116–126; and R. Safranaski, Martin Heidegger, Between Good and Evil, trans. E. Osers (London: Cambridge University Press, 1998), passim.

12. See "Heidegger and the Question" In: Of Spirit, trans. G. Bennington and R. Bowlby (The University of Chicago Press, 1989 [1987]), passim. Here we have at first glance what would expected to be a disapprobation by Derrida of Heidegger and his Nazism. Contrariwise: the text is replete with the typical gnostic circumlocution of the deconstructionist – forced abstruseness, pointless digressions, inexplicable phraseology.

CULTURAL TRIBALISM UNLEASHED

The brotherhood of men without the Fatherhood of God would make men a race of bastards.

– Fulton J. Sheen, Life of Christ

I. There is a recently issued brief in The Spectator (UK) where the author, Melanie Phillips, discusses the Mohammedan–inspired murderer of 13 military personnel at Fort Hood, namely Nidal Hasan. She writes: "It turns out that fellow students of the army psychiatrist... had complained to the faculty about his anti–American propaganda – but were too afraid to file a formal complaint for fear of being accused of prejudice". Further: "no one filed a formal, written complaint about Hasan's comments out of fear of appearing discriminatory". Her conclusion: "It seems that multiculturalism kills".

II. The Spectator brief was a cue.

III. In the late 1990s – during the pre–9/11 era – I wrote an review of a fairly good book entitled: The Menace of Multiculturalism: Trojan Horse in America, by Alvin J. Schmidt (Praeger Publishers, 1997, 211 pp.). The multiculuralist worldview, with the false claim of a social panacea to which its proponents believe it fosters, is now more than ever exposed to be a pernicious ideology that foments only civilizational breakdown – of a once superiorly singular Western civilization, that is; not "culture", which is a term that generically appertains to any society, malevolent or benign. Given this, TH2 figured it would be warranted to post the aforementioned book review (follows next).

IV. Most conservative commentators in North America have now come to acknowledge that the agenda of the radical Left has permeated into the very foundation of the infrastructure of Western culture. Deconstructionism, situational ethics, nature worship, paganism, nihilism, historical revisionism, biological determinism, the politicization of all aspects of personal and public life – such worldviews and others have formed into an ideational superstorm that rages against the bastions of civility and common sense. Family and social life, government and business, the judiciary, universities and the entertainment industry, the media and art – all have been poisoned. Although the origin of this crisis can be traced back much further in time, it can more immediately be fingerprinted to have burgeoned during the 1960s Antinomian Revolution.

V. In the thirty or so years since, the response to this crisis has effectively been silence. Politicians, companies large and small, the churches, administrators and educators have increasingly submitted without protest to the demands of a left–liberal elite. The new elite are not liberal in the sense of classical liberalism, where freedom was kept in check by assuming truths. Rather, modern liberalism proclaims total relativism in matters moral and epistemological, often euphemized with the word pluralism. Now that the young radicals of the Sixties have surpassed middle age, they effortlessly disseminate these relativisms as they wield positions of immense power and influence.

VI. It is this crisis in culture that the American sociologist Alvin J. Schmidt addresses in his book. Schmidt, a former Canadian of German extraction, provides a dauntless assault on what he believes to be the chief cause of the decay in American society, viz. multiculturalism. It “is a leftist political ideology that sees all cultures, their mores and institutions, as essentially equal. No culture is considered superior or inferior to any other.” Except Western Judaeo–Christian culture, that is. The celebration of non–Western cultures, says Schmidt, is really a disguised attempt to supplant the Western value system. In all aspects of American society, multiculturalists are imposing an ideology which discourages the recognition and judgement of people based on qualification and ability. Rather, race, gender and ethnicity determines one’s worth in society.

VII. Schmidt contends, quite convincingly, that multiculturalism is rooted in neo–Marxist ideology, whose purpose is to instill anti–American sentiment into the population. Other cultural commentators have made this observation, noticing that the Marxist rhetoric of a violent “class struggle” has been transposed to areas other than class. The struggle is now more politic, it unhurriedly works within institutions, it influences policy making, and is perpetuated by focussing on racial and gender differences. It is my personal theory that this process of quiet interpenetration has a striking similarity to the notion of “passive revolution”, as advocated by the Sardinian Marxist Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937). Gramsci said that social change would come not by direct revolutionary confrontation, but by the gradual influx of insurrectionist principles into an already operating cultural matrix. Thus Schmidt’s use of the term “Trojan horse” is an apt analogy.

VIII. Schmidt states that antagonisms between variegated communities are heightened by multiculturalism’s emphasis on “diversity”. The politicizing of differences between various cultural groups does not promote intra–national harmony. Rather, it partitions cultures into uncompromising units of self–assertion. Physical endowments, state in life, or feelings about the world are the factors that empower the citizen. Properly – so goes the argument of those naive, multiculturalism should encourage unity in a pluralistic society by highlighting similarities between various cultures, promoting common ground for a productive public discourse that acknowledges the limits and benefits of each; and likenesses should be made preponderant (in actuality, however, differences between groups are exacerbated). But oil and water do not mix. Theocratic Islamism and democracy, for example, are mutually exclusive units. The divisiveness associated with “group identity”, states Schmidt, merely fosters cultural tribalism. The days of the American melting pot have ended. America has travelled, he writes, “from Melting Pot to Boiling Pot”. If the situation does not turn around, Schmidt forecasts that the ruinous effects of multiculturalism will pilot the U.S. to a condition of chaos and brutality comparable to that of the former Yugoslavia.

IX. Schmidt speaks of the euphemistic absurdities of “politically correct” vernacular. He underscores their consistent vilification of the Christian belief system. He identifies their omission of Western cultural achievements from educational curriculums. He demythologizes multiculturalism’s one–sided portrayal of aboriginal peoples (which is silent about, for example, their slavery, destruction of the environment, cannibalism, human sacrifice). He denounces Afrocentric revisionist history. He unabashedly comments on the vulgarities and health consequences associated with polymorphic sexual activity. Many other insights are provided which prove devastating to those enamoured by half truths and politicized descriptions of the contemporary cultural condition.

X. As a former Canadian, Schmidt has especial concern for the Quebec sovereignty problem. His view is one of sheer pessimism. He sees the dilemma as starting from the very beginning when in 1763 the British issued the Royal Proclamation Act, permitting the French language to have equal status with English. The federal government’s policy of bilingualism is, states Schmidt, “a basket case”. After the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s, Canada’s “bilingualism problems with Quebec were exacerbated when it adopted a pro–multiculturalist posture in 1971.” More recently, the “distinct society” status conferred upon Quebec is “unrealistic”. No solution can be found since “inevitably Quebec will secede”. Schmidt’s bases his prediction upon the assumption that the survivance and unity of a country are dependent upon a single language. He also sees Quebec separation as primarily beneficial for Canada. However, Schmidt fails to mention – or does not know of – the multilingual Swiss federation, formed many centuries ago, as a case which challenges his own stance. His unilinguistic stance is valid, but it only goes so far. I would argue deeper and say that morality (as intimately connected with religion) sustains a country. As falls morality, so falls society. It is the lesson of history.

XI. Another concern is Schmidt’s contention that English is the best of all languages in Western civilization. He opines this on the fact that the Magna Carta, Habeas Corpus, and the American Declaration of Independence, amongst others, are composed in English. He acknowledges the dangers of linguistic determinism, yet his justifications otherwise still do not preclude the assumption that language alone (English in his case) determines whether a society will be freer and more democratic. This, I believe, is a dubious argument. I do not understand why Schmidt fails to recognize the monumental importance of Latin and its fostering by the Catholic Church, be it reflected in, say, the Summa Theologica of St. Thomas Aquinas or, going back to ancient Rome, in Cicero’s Orations. For that matter, until 1918 all international treatises were first written in Latin.

XII. Schmidt’s book is more of a compilation of facts and figures rather than systematic philosophical analysis of the culture wars. He does not delve into the origins of America’s cultural crisis, though he is acutely aware of the signs of the times. Nevertheless, his work acts as an excellent supplement to such works as Robert H. Bork’s Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline, which is a more thorough examination of the American cultural crisis, even with relevance beyond America’s borders.

BLOGGER TAKES ON MOLOCH WORSHIPPERS

Do you remember Sr. Donna Quinn (on left in photo)? Late last October this nun was in the news after the discovery of her malevolent role as an abortion "clinic escort". Yes, the news made the blogs for a day or so, but the story has seemed to fade away. Almost forgotten.





Not so for my American friend Al at his excellent blog Is Anybody There? He's making waves at Sr. Quinn's order, the Sinsinawa Dominicans, and the sisters are starting to do cartwheels.


TH2 breaks things down in a timeline:


OCTOBER 23: LifeSite News reports that Sr. Donna Quinn is volunteering as a "clinic escort" at an abortion mill in Hillsdale, Illinois. LINK

OCTOBER 24: Al reports the story on his blog, wherein he states: "I am familiar with Sinsinawa & how much they are anything but faithful Catholics. So to hear how supportive her prioress is doesn't surprise me. It does sicken me, however. So to answer Steve Jalsevec's question, she is representative of what things are like at Sinsinawa, not an aberration. The few elderly faithful nuns who still wear the habits are the exception, sadly. The sound you hear is their founder, Venerable Samuel Mazzuchelli, OP, turning over in his grave up in Benton, WI." LINK On this same date Al writes a letter on the matter to a local newspaper, the Telegraph Herald, in Dubuque, IA.

OCTOBER 26: Al was contacted by the Telegraph Herald. He states: "I was contacted by the TH on Monday 26 October to confirm I sent it."

NOVEMBER 2: The Sinsinawa Domincans issue a "Public Statement" on their website, apparently reprimanding Sr. Quinn. LINK

NOVEMBER 3: Three things happen on this date: (1) LifeSite News reports on the reprimand LINK; (2) Al's letter is published in the Telegraph Herald LINK. On its publication, he states: "I was surprised that it took that long to publish it as a letter is usually appears within 3-4 days after I have been contacted in the past. I suspect that they contacted Sr. Patricia over at Sinsinawa to get her reaction, but I can't confirm that"; and (3) During the evening Al gets a phone call from the Sinsinawa Dominicans. You have to read Al's retelling of the conversation that ensued. LINK

NOVEMBER 5: LifeSite News reports that Sr. Quinn is still "defiant following rebuke, but stops abortion escorting" LINK

NOVEMBER 6 [TODAY]: Al updated his post: "I was told by the Dominican that called me Tuesday night that a statement from Sr. Patricia was sent to the TH & would appear in Wednesday's edition. That statement, which was the same 1 as they put on their website, finally appeared in today's Letter's to the Editor."


TH2 humbly asks readers to drop by at Al's blog and give your support to this great Defender of the Unborn.

God be with you, my friend.

[UPDATE / NOVEMBER 9]: Al has just posted a thorough analysis on this case. His conclusion: "I think it is pretty clear that Sr. Donna is not the exception to the rule but a prime example of the mindset of the Sinsinawa Dominicans (a few of the elder nuns excepted) & what I have shown you is only the tip of the iceberg. It is clear that the Sinsinawa Dominicans do not think that protecting the unborn from being murdered by abortion is either a human rights issue or an social justice issue. If it was as important as they claim it is then they would not be so silent on the issue." READ HERE.


TH2 Note: To clarify, the "Sister Patricia" that Al mentioned on November 6 is not the same person as Sister Patricia (alter ego/LarryD) from Acts of the Apostasy (see comments).

UNDER PSYCHEDELIC SKIES DO BABYBOOMERS ARISE

Here is a report issued on November 4, 2009 by Spero News:

[TH2 analysis in bolded square brackets]

Elder Catholic clerics arrested at Seattle protest

Two Jesuit priests and three nuns, aged 60–81, were arrested on an American navy base on November 2, as they took part in an anti-nuclear protest. [let's see... sounds right, T–40 years equals 20 and 41, respectively... pretty well within the hippy–babybooming range]

Fr. Bill ["Birkenstock"] Bischel, SJ, 81, from Tacoma, Washington; Sr. Susan ["Solaris"] Crane, 65, of Baltimore, Maryland; Sr. Lynne ["Enneagram"] Greenwald, 60, of Bremerton Washington; Fr. Steve ["Kumbaya"] Kelly, SJ, 60, of Oakland, California, and Sr. Anne ["Morning Star"] Montgomery RSCJ, 83, of New York, were arrested at Kitsap-Bangor Naval Base near Seattle [on the west coast? what a shocker!]. They allegedly entered the Base illegally in the early hours of All Souls Day [shouldn't they have been napping?], the day on which Catholics pray for the souls of the departed [excepting these geniuses], with the intention calling attention to the existence of the Trident weapons system. [Ya, dudes, stuff like, um, protesting against abortion is soooooo not groovy for us religious these days.]

After climbing through the perimeter fence [aided by an electronic lift chair from "The Scooter Store"], they made their way to the Strategic Weapons Facility–Pacific (SWFPAC) where they were able to cut through the first chainlink fence [with a modified version of "The Clapper"] surrounding SWFPAC, walked to and cut the next double layered fence [after taking a break to smoke a joint], which was both chain link and barbed wire [ouch! don't get your "Depends" caught], onto the grounds of SWFPAC. They then walked onto the grounds [after snacking on some munchies], holding a banner declaring, 'Disarm Now Plowshares: Trident: Illegal + Immoral'. [read: This is the daaawwwnnning of the Age of Aquarius...] Then they hammered on the fences [with their canes] around SWFPAC and scattered sunflower seeds throughout the base. [so as to rid the base of the spirit of the Military-Industrial Complex]

The group were arrested by military police [hooray!], handcuffed [excellent!], hooded [wuuunderful!] and allegedly held face down on the wet ground for four hours [...at last, one with the Earth]. They were then taken for questioning by Base security, FBI and NCIS [cool guys]. They refused to give any information [to "the Man"] except their names [written in the Book of Life?], and were cited for trespass and destruction of government property, given [some Geritol], a ban and bar letter and released [back into the wild.]

In a joint statement, the group stated: "The manufacture and deployment of Trident II missiles, weapons of mass destruction [Mass destruction alright], is immoral and criminal under International Law and, therefore, under United States law. As US citizens [not foremostly as specially consecrated ones by God] we are responsible under the Nuremberg Principles for this threat of first-strike terrorism hanging over the community of nations, rich and poor. Moreover, [there's more?] such planning, preparation, and deployment is a blasphemy against the Creator of life [i.e. Gaia], imaged in each human being."

[LINK TO FULL ARTICLE]

Simply pathetic.

All lampooning aside, pray for these poor souls.

[Read Fr. Richtsteig's excellent commentary thereof... LINK]

RON ROLHEISER: BORDERLINE DWELLER

TH2 is very suspicious of any priest who formally presents himself without clerical garb. Thus we introduce Fr. Ron "the borderline dweller" Rolheiser, "speaker, columnist and author". His "weekly column appears in more than 65 Catholic newspapers worldwide". He's one of these liberal priests whose politically–correct–non–judgmental–never–taking–a–real–stand writings are everywhere, but hardly anybody knows who this guy is. Sort of like those obscure bureaucrats that run the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops – nobody knows who these people are, but their impacts on an unwitting Catholic populace are pernicious. An situational analogy would be Franz Kafka's book The Castle, where the main character K. is forever thwarted and obstructed by an indifferent bureaucracy. You get the idea...

Accordingly, let us peruse and dissect a recent column by Rolheiser where he attempts to perform a balancing act between "conservatives" (i.e. authentic Catholic orthodoxy) and "liberals" (i.e. dissenters, heretics, apostates, etc.). The article is entitled: "Conservatives and Liberals – We Need Both" (September 6, 2009 / LINK).

[TH2 analysis in bolded square brackets]

The late Malcolm X [you gotta be kidding me] was raised a Christian but [here we go...], at one point in his life, became a Muslim [i.e. he was attracted to the revolutionary violence of Mohammedism as manifested in the "Nation of Islam", learned whilst in prison, from an anti–Semitic racist Mohammedan convert]. However, both in his own mind and in his ministry, he never ceased being a Christian [really, I don't see a previous life of criminality as being expressive of the Christian ethic; he hated religion as a youth]. He used to carry both the Koran and the New Testament with him [big deal, I carry a Rosary and a pack of smokes]. He felt the need for both [the Rosary and Bible alone will do me just fine]. Here's how he explained this [no, here's how you justify historical revisionism and cultural relativism because, in the psychological subsurface, you are ashamed of the singularity of authentic Catholic beliefs and really do not believe in objective truth]:

"Most of the people I work with need the hard discipline of Allah [i.e. fatalism, rigid moralism] in order to get some order into their lives, particularly their religious and moral lives. Later, after they have the essentials more in hand, will be the time for the more liberal love of Jesus." [what a load of crap]

What Malcolm X brilliantly [i.e. ridiculously] juxtaposes here is the tension that perennially exists between prescribed discipline and personal maturity, between the letter of the law and its spirit, between conservatives and liberals. And he affirms that we need both: prescribed discipline and personal maturity, law and spirit, conservatives and liberals. [And how was this "tension" balanced and manifested in the life of Malcolm "X" Little? With his hatred for the civil rights movement? His delight in the assassination of JFK? His oh–so–wonderful consorting with the pygmy Communist dictator Fidel Castro? His racial segregationism?]

Sadly today this kind of voice is rare on both sides of the ideological spectrum. Liberals [heroes, with just minor faults] and conservatives [villans with unredeemable faults], both in the church and in society, tend to demonize and hate each other and to lack basic respect, empathy, understanding, and even civility towards each other [i.e. fair and objective criticism from conservatives are taken as personal affronts since liberals have no reasoned responses for counterargumentation; hence liberals resort to insult, vilification and diversion]. Each side has its own truth [again, a euphemism saying that there is no real truth] and, unlike Malcolm X [as sanctified by Ronny], cannot see the need for any other truth. Allow me an example: [do I have to?]

In church circles today, conservatives and liberals would agree that things are not ideal [only liberals are idealists, conservatives are realists], that there is a need to do things differently. However they have very different visions of what the problem is and how it should be addressed.

Conservatives tend to focus on the lack of fundamentals. They see a whole of generation of Christians emerging who have never been essentially catechized, who lack a basic understanding of what constitutes Christian identity and what makes for proper religious and moral boundaries. Hence they insist strongly, sometimes to the point of a near intolerance [notice the nonchalant, standard pop–up vilification], on clear identity, on proper boundaries and distinctiveness from others, and on rules and regulations, with a corresponding impatience and (often) anger against anyone who challenges this view. [Oh, Ronny, like so many liberals – and even some conservatives who are so afraid of being "uncharitable" – you focus on the anger and overlook the argumentation, based on solid reason, that makes the anger justified, which is an emotional response to some apprehension – and this is the ruse used by the likes of you to disregard and disqualify conservatives. St. Athanasius may have been a vehement writer – and excellently so – but he was also correct.]

Liberals, on the other hand, focus on something else [Yes, they concoct preposterous situations and worldviews and maintain themselves by perpetually inventing a "crisis"]. When they look at the church today they see the most educated, literate, and theologically discriminating group of believers that have ever existed in the 2000 years of Christian history [Really? If so, and if they believe, why has Mass attendance radically declined in the last four decades?]. Thus, their insistence, often just as strong and as bitter as that of the conservatives, is for an apologetic and an inclusivity that goes directly against the call for the harder boundaries and the clearer lines of identity so desired by the conservatives. [By "inclusivity", do you mean acceptance, assimilation and (even) the endorsement of homosexualism, womyn priests, gnostic heresies?] Liberals see the millions of persons who feel alienated from their churches (e.g., the second most numerous religious group in the United States today is made up of ex–Roman Catholics) and argue that what is needed to melt these hearts and attitudes is not clearer catechesis or more tightly–drawn boundaries, but a renewed emphasis on precisely the gospel of love, wider inclusivity, and personal maturity over rules.[On this matter, TH2 could care less about what people "feel" and this emotionalized definition of "love". This is sentimentalism and feelings are transient. What about reason and truth? Truth is extraneous to man, not a function of man. Truth is, and however you "feel" about it does not change the fact that a truth is a truth.]

And both are right [i.e. once again, nobody's right, truth is what you feel, not what is]. In essence what we see in the tension between conservatives and liberals in the church and society today is the tension that Malcolm X tried to resolve for himself by carrying both the Koran and the Gospels around with him. We need to also carry with us both some conservative principles and some liberal ones. [As a Catholic priest, which "liberal ones" would you suggest? Abortion? Euthanasia? Antinomianism? Nihilism? Pagan nature worship? Oprah? Self–help books? Hollywood? New Age esoterica? Socialism? Contempt for the middle class? Revolutionism? And are you saying that Malcolm X advocated conservative principles? Buddy, from which planet in the western sector of the Andromeda galaxy were you born?]

There is a need today to strongly define identity and lay out clear boundaries [which you, as an obvious relativistic borderline dweller, have a lot of trouble doing]. Experience is showing us that we often lack the personal maturity and inner–strength [to] live out a gospel of love, without rules. To come to grips with many of our weaknesses and confusions we need the discipline of law, the clarity of a catechism, and the exclusivity and protection that is captured in the original meaning of the word seminarium [OK, fine]. But that isn't all we need. [here we go again...] To live out our faith in a way that, in the end, respects God's universal love for everyone and respects our own persons, we also need hearts that are not ghettos and a religion of freedom and personal maturity. [zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...] We need both conservatives and liberals.

But given the present polarization both in the church and in society [i.e. given the end result of 45 years of liberal/leftist–actuated heresy and apostacy], we are not going to move easily towards empathy, understanding, respect, and civility towards each other. Each side is so convinced that God is on its side of the importance of its own vision, and its own critical place in history, that it can only see the other as insincere, ignorant, self–serving, as threat, as someone to be fought in God's name. [...and what "side" are you on Fr. Ron? Or do you refuse to take sides? The latter seems to be the case as you appear to be a relativist? But I thought you were a Catholic priest? Have you not read the widely disseminated statement of His Holiness?: "We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires." I guess not, for this is too "intolerant".]

But the real truth is that we need each other [Diversion. We need Christ first, Who is the Truth, the transcendent, and His Holy Catholic Church, with Peter as its head. You are employing the liberal trick of overemphasizing the community of people, immanentizing things down to the spirit of the world, making man primary and Christ secondary, when it should be the reverse. Forgive my stupidity, but TH2 always thought that a Catholic priest first and foremost loves and serves Our Lord]. Liberals need conservatives; conservatives need liberals; society and the church need both. Conservatives rightly look to roots and they, [zzzzzzz...] rightly, see that today our roots are anything but strong and nourishing. Liberals rightly look at maturity and [zzzzzzzzzzzzz...] they see, rightly, that we are anything but mature and big–hearted. Perhaps, in imitation of Malcolm X, we might all walk around carrying both a catechism and the Gospel of John, both in our pockets and in our hearts.[zzzzzzzzzzzzz... zzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzz... zzzzzzzzzz... zzzzzzzzzzz... zzzzzzzzzzz... zzzzzzzzzzzz... zzzzzzzzzz... zzzzzzzzz... zzzzzzzzz... zzzzzzzzz... zzzzzzzzzzzzzz...]

...Uh? Eh? Oh ya... some advice, Fr. Ron: Relax. Have a cheese sandwich. Drink a glass of milk. Do some bloody thing. But please stop writing, re–evaluate and seriously ruminate upon those words of Our Lord in Revelation 3:16.

VIETNAM EMBASSY CONFERS "UNCLE HO" AWARDS

This is one of the "top stories" today issued by the Vietnam News Agency (VNA):

Uncle Ho’s moral example followers honoured

The Vietnamese Embassy in China hosted a ceremony on Oct. 31 to honour seven units and 23 individuals who achieved outstanding results in studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s moral example.

The activity is of great significance, aimed at encouraging and increasing progressive models amongst the Vietnamese community in China .

Vietnamese Ambassador to China Nguyen Van Tho said the “Studying and following Ho Chi Minh’s moral example” campaign helped raise awareness of officials, Party members and the public about how to live and study following Uncle Ho’s moral example.

Each individual should build his/her own moral standard and a suitable lifestyle, practising thrift, combating waste, improving the sense of discipline and determination to fulfill assignments, he said.

Since the campaign was launched three years ago, more than 150 individuals and 30 units in the Vietnamese community in China have been honoured for their performances.

Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969): Communist revolutionary, deemed a political god in Vietnam.

Past Recipient of the "Uncle Ho" Award

Barbarella

Here we see Barbarella with the Communist North Vietnamese, praising their great revolutionary cause. Apparently, this is the reason why Barbarella is so much loved and honored by the Vietnamese government. One wonders, however. If democratic Western capitalism and imperialism are so evil, and if Vietnam has now for a long time been a Communist country, why has Barbarella yet to take up residence in the luxuriant metropolis of Hanoi? Hmmmmmm...

BVM–1 / THE "BRONX MIRACLE" REVISITED

I'm hard to convince, see. But I saw it.

–James Sheridan/Witness in crowd
14 November 1945, Bronx, NY

[ATTACK MODE: OFF]

I. BACKGROUNDER. On October 29, 1945, in the very heart of the metropolis, shortly after World War II ended, a nine–year old boy from the Bronx in New York claimed, at a vacant lot, to have seen, spoken to, and prayed with, the Holy Mother of God. It was reported to have been a daily occurrence, lasting until mid–November. Thousands flocked to the scene. The poor, the wealthy, the sick, soldiers, celebrities and religious attended. Miracles and cures were proclaimed. Yes, the event was covered by Catholic periodicals [1–2]. But it was also chronicled in local periodicals, like the Bronx Home News [3–6], the New York Journal – American [7–15], the New York Post [16–17], the New York Herald Tribune [18–19], and the New York Times [20]. The story made national headlines [21–25], with coverage also in Time and Life magazines [26–27]. Life coined the occurrences as the "Bronx Miracle". Not after the alleged apparitions ended, but while events were transpiring, news of the affair made its way north to Canada [28–30] and then to Europe and beyond. By Christmas of that year the story was dead and more or less forgotten. The New York archdiocese did not investigate the matter. It was not until the late 1990s that this case was examined in detail by University of Notre Dame professor J.T. McGreevy [31], with a couple of newspaper articles in the following years [32–33].

II. Never heard of the "Bronx Miracle"? Neither did TH2 until one late night a couple of years ago, when I came across video interview, conducted in 2003, with the very same boy mentioned in this underreported case related to Our Lady. His name is Joseph Vitolo.

Young Joseph Vitolo and the covers of Time and Life magazines in which the "Bronx Miracle" was reported.

III. TIMELINE RECONSTRUCTION. Below is a day–to–day reconstruction of events, based on information gleaned from periodicals, including the video interview with Mr. Vitolo (see below).

DAY 1 / Monday October 29, 1945: After dinner young 9–year old Joseph Vitolo, Jr., nicknamed "Jo Jo", departed his home at 3194 Villa Avenue to play with children in the area. The spot, just 70 or so meters away his home, was adjacent to a rock ledge/hill, nearly 5 meters in height, on the west side of the Grand Concourse roadway. About 20 children were present. Joseph knew at least five of them: John Bruno (9), Anna Ronca (8), Enid Brown (age unknown), and the Nocerino sisters, Rose (9) and Jeannette (7). The children were looking at something and praying. Joseph did not see anything. One girl told him to "pray like you mean it". Upon praying the Our Father and/or Hail Mary, a lady appeared. Joseph became greatly unnerved, but the she told him not to be afraid, identifying him as "Joseph", not by his nickname. He calmed down. The lady told him to pray. She also gave the boy a candle, reportedly unseen by the other children. The lady requested him to return to the same place at the same time (7 pm) the next evening. The other children saw the lady but did not hear her speak. Joseph explained his interchange with the lady to the children and rushed back home to tell his parents of the incident. His father, Joseph, Sr., did not believe his son, and proceeded to give him "a slap". In a later report, his mother, Theresa, is quoted: "I didn't know what to say. My Joseph has always been a good boy and goes to church. He never lies to me" [28]. Mrs. Vitolo encouraged him to return to the spot. Indeed, Joseph returned and once again the lady allegedly appeared. Joseph began to tremble. At this appearance the lady said she would return to the same location for the next sixteen consecutive nights. [No information was found by this author regarding what happened immediately after Joseph's alleged second encounter on the same day].

DAY 2 / Tuesday October 30, 1945: Hearing about the incident, people in the immediate area attended the site, carrying Rosaries and votive candles. These candles were placed on the ground in the shape of a cross. Passing motorists noticed the gathering of people and stopped to check out this happening near the intersection of the Grand Concourse and Van Cortlandt Avenue in the Bronx. Parishioners at St. Philip Neri Church, located a few blocks to the south on the Grand Concourse, were in attendance. Prayer and prostrating persons at the site were reported. The "sick" were arriving [9]. It was at this time that someone living nearby the Vitolo residence notified the press of the goings on. For this and remaining nights, at 7:00 pm, Mr. Vitolo stated that he would pray an Our Father, a Hail Mary, a Glory Be... and then Our Lady would allegedly appear (Video 1, 5:23+). To him, it seemed that the appearance of the BVM lasted 5 to 10 minutes per evening (Video 1, 8:37+). However, he further states that observers "clocking" him at 55 to 60+ minutes. Young Joseph was immovable whilst in prayer with the BVM. Many witnesses claimed that that, excepting a center–situated votive candle, the remainder suddenly blew out.

TH2 Note: Pilgrims attending the site at the Grand Concourse, praying at shrine, located on an elevated rock formation. Notice the solemn, downward–looking faces of the ladies in the foreground. Much suffering there. Many mothers who lost their sons during the war came to the shrine. Wounded soldiers requested that Joseph visit them at the local veterans hospital. He did, lifting their spirits.

Dated: November 12, 1945 / Corbis.

DAY 3 / Wednesday October 31, 1945: A small altar was built at the site by Joseph and volunteers during the afternoon. Pilgrims placed votive candles thereon, in the shape of a cross. According to McGreevy [31, p. 409], on this evening "Joseph claimed that the lady had asked him if he knew Bernadette; he replied 'no'. Then she told him that Joseph must do as Bernadette did. Some in the crowd 'made no secret of their scepticism' but quieted when, once again, the candles on the ground mysteriously blew out". A newspaper article reports that more than 500 people gathered at the site on this (third) night [4].

DAY 4 / Thursday November 1, 1945: According to McGreevy [31, p. 409], at "7:00 p.m., a weeping Joseph clambered up the ledge with only his mother, Theresa Vitolo, and a sister, also Theresa". One report said that 3000 persons were in attendance [16].

Original Corbis Caption: "Woman who fainted while watching nine year old Joseph Vitolo pray in a vacant lot in the Bronx is carried into a nearby house by her sailor husband and a bystander. Woman was reported to have suffered a heart attack. She was taken to a hospital after prayers by Vitolo".

TH2 Note: Notice the lazy guy leaning against the wall in the background. Hey, buster... give'em a hand!

Dated: November 14, 1945 / Corbis.

DAY 5 / Friday November 2, 1945: This evening the makeshift altar was illuminated by 35+ votive candles. Of what transpired, one article relates: "Joseph approached with Robert Porras, 16, by his side. Robert said he intended to study for the Roman Catholic priesthood. Joseph said he saw the vision as he knelt in prayer... He said he asked whether his friend Robert should become a priest. 'She [the lady] said if he will study hard, and go to church and pray and be cleansed of all his sins, he can become a priest... She told me [Joseph] the people should build a church here', he added" [28]. The Associated Press further quoted Joseph as saying that "she would be back tomorrow". The apparition allegedly occurred while "persons of all ages, degrees of piety, curiosity and scepticism looked on"[24].

DAY 6 / Saturday November 3, 1945: "Miracle" claimed by mother of crippled child [5].

Original Corbis Caption: "John Pace, a soldier back from overseas, brings his sister, Caroline, to the Vitolo home to beg Joseph to pray for her. Left to right are Ann Pace, John Pace, holding sister Caroline, and Joseph Vitolo stands on a bed praying."

TH2 Note: This is an extremely heart–wrenching photograph (notice Caroline's face). I sure hope that, in whatever way, the little pumpkin's suffering was alleviated.

Dated: November 12, 1945 / Corbis.

DAY 7 / Sunday November 4, 1945: No information obtained. Likely, by this time Joseph was being escorted to the shrine site. His cousin, Frank Rufino or his "godfather", would carry him there just before 7 pm. This was because of the requests of the assembling crowds, wanting Joseph to touch them, grabbing pieces of his clothing, cutting off pieces of his hair, and so forth.

DAY 8 / Monday November 5, 1945: People from outside New York were making pilgrimages to the shrine. The site was monitored continuously to prevent desecration. At around this date Joseph stopped going to school. From this time onward he was effectively confined at his home, praying over a steady flow of visitors on a daily basis. "Lines of people, mostly sick people or those escorting sick people, squeezed into his family's small dilapidated home on Villa Avenue each evening. Neighbour Joseph Castaldo tried to keep order: 'Only one person can talk to him at a time!... Don't crowd or push – he'll see you all' ". [31] Crowd attendance for this evening was estimated at 8500.

DAY 9 / Tuesday November 6, 1945: No information obtained. However, it was probably at around this date or soonafter that, firstly, Cardinal Spellman dropped by for a visit and, secondly, young Joseph was taken to see Monsignor Sheen at his broadcast studio in Times Square (see below).

TH2 Note: Joseph being carried to, or back from, the shrine (likely by his cousin and/or godfather, Frank Rufino). This had to be done because the crowd wanted to touch Joseph, kiss his hand, cut pieces of his hair, pull buttons from his clothing, etc. In the video interview, Mr. Vitolo describes himself as being "happy" in the anticipatory minutes leading up to his alleged meetings with Our Lady at 7:00 pm EST.

Date: 1945: Day not specified / Corbis.

DAY 10 / Wednesday November 7, 1945: No information obtained.

DAY 11 / Thursday November 8, 1945: No information obtained.

DAY 12 / Friday November 9, 1945: Attendance estimated at 20000 [6].

DAY 13 / Saturday November 10, 1945: No information obtained.

DAY 14 / Sunday November 11, 1945: No information obtained.

DAY 15 / Monday November 12, 1945: No information obtained.

TH2 Note: Joseph praying at the shine on the 15th night of the alleged apparitions. In the video interview, Mr. Vitolo states that Our Lady's height was about the same as his own at the time. Notice that young Joseph is not looking up or down, but nearly straight ahead.

Dated: November 12, 1945 / Corbis.

DAY 16 / Tuesday November 13, 1945: And area of four blocks circumscribing the site was monitored by police, blocking traffic therein. The shrine spot itself with cordoned off with ropes. People said the Rosary and sang hymns. The shrine itself now had 200+ candles, hanging Rosaries, with emplacements of flowers and religious statues. "Joseph tossed carnations to members of the crowd. Women suffering from hysteria were pulled from the crowd by police and driven to nearby Fordham Hospital" [31, p, 410]. Crowd attendance was estimated at 15000 to 20000 [17, 18, 31], arriving by foot, cars and buses [29]. "I won't tell you what she [the lady] told me, he [Joseph] shouted at reporters... 'She told me not to tell'. 'Shut–up Jo–Jo', his sister ordered'. Beyond that, the boy refused to talk" [30].

DAY 17 / Wednesday November 14, 1945: Crowd estimates were in the range of 25000 to 30000 for the final night of Our Lady's alleged appearance [20, 24, 25, 29]. People were arriving from Philadelphia, Jersey City and Canada. There was much anticipation, especially because Joseph had said that the BVM promised the occurrence of a miracle. Three accounts of what reportedly eventuated around, at and after 7 pm are now quoted:

(1) "The night began like the previous nights... But the crowd was larger and almost 100 policemen were detailed to handle it. Joseph, led by [Frank] Huffino [name misspelled, should read Rufino], pushed his way to the altar which was decorated by a statue of the Virgin Mary and 56 candles. The crowd sighed as he reached the altar... Joseph began praying. Many echoed his words. A group of girls began singing softly and the rain increased its constant patter. 'He isn't getting wet', someone whispered, and it was passed through the crowd... Then, near the end of his prayers, a photographer used a flash bulb. 'That's when Jo–Jo got mad', Huffino [again, Rufino] said later. 'he didn't like that'... James Sheridan, 44, said 'I'm hard to convince, see. But I saw it. It was there on the side of the building. I saw the virgin's figure, just as plain as anything'. 'Did you see the sky?' asked Mrs. Julie C. Murphy of Manhattan. 'I tell you the clouds just opened up and I saw an angel's head with butterfly wings. Everyone around me saw it. The crowd was in a panic' "[30].

(2) "Joseph was again carried to the shrine, this time surrounded by his six brothers and sisters. A priest led the saying of the rosary and several hymns were sung. A steady rain made the view from the apparition site a sea of black umbrellas. Some in the crowd speculated that Joseph was not getting wet. One hundred policemen kept order. The well did not appear, and Joseph denied ever having promised that a well would appear. A break in the rain when he finished praying led to cries of excitement, even as photographs show a more raucous, perhaps skeptical, segment toward the back of the crowd... [Afterward] Joseph returned to his house, and family members refused to let him answer the questions of reporters, although one photographer caught Joseph hurling a bouquet of flowers at a persistent cameraman. Joseph's sister, Theresa, addressed the press after the final evening. She insisted repeatedly that the Virgin had told Joseph: I'm not coming anymore. I did my work and I do not want you to answer any more questions' "[31].

(3) "As elevated trains rattled overhead and photographers' bulbs flashed, 25,000 persons stood praying in the mud of a vacant lot... watching Joseph Vitolo, Jr., pray at an improvised altar on the crest of a bluff... on the sixteenth day, he said she [the lady] was to show him a miracle, perhaps the appearance of a miraculous spring. The crowd saw no miracle but several invalids claimed their condition had suddenly improved... 'Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee...' chanted the swaying crowd in unison. The boy knelt before his altar... 'Look, look,' spread a rumor through the lot. 'He is not getting wet. The rain does not touch him'. But those who were closest could see the rain glistening on his dark hair and new blue sweater as he knelt in the mud... Yes, he said, he had seen the Blessed Virgin again."[25]

TH2 Note: Crowd (total) in attendance estimated at some 25000 to 30000 on the last night of Our Lady's alleged appearance.

Dated: November 14, 1945 / Corbis.

IV. VIDEO INTERVIEW. This interview of Mr. Vitolo (in 2003, he was 66 years old at the time), was conducted by Paula Gloria (Tsakona) of The Concordia Foundation. Some internet searching evidenced that, despite her enchanting voice, Ms. Gloria is a couple of french fries short of a Happy Meal, as her website endorses an admixture of conspiracy theories and gnosticism[34]. Nevertheless, the interview was performed respectfully, with the exception of a few howlers (e.g. Vitolo is misspelled as "Vitello" in credits). Ms. Georgia is the principal questioner. Occasionally you will hear a male voice posing questions. Both interviewers are off–screen. The interview is to be found on YouTube, in two parts, each lasting approximately 30 minutes. TH2 embeds them below. Video and audio is subgrade quality in some parts. Audio loss occurs for approximately two minutes in Video 1 (between 9:44 and 11:21). Summaries for Videos 1 and 2 are respectively in the notes below [35–36] for any reader unable to spend a full hour watching.

VIDEO 1 [duration=28:02]

VIDEO 2 [duration=32:21]

V. REPORTED APPEARANCE OF BVM. According to the video interview, Mr. Vitolo states that Our Lady appeared "very human" (Video 1, 5:23+). Her height was, allegedly, not much taller than his (as a boy), about 5 feet.

(1) Clothing/Apparel: She was dressed in blue at her first appearance (October 29). But later, following a specific question on the matter, he states that that she also wore pink and black (Video 1, 22:40+). The McGreevy article [31, p. 406], indicates somewhat differently, attesting that she "dressed first in white, then in blue, then in black". When young Joseph returned to the rock ledge for the second time on the first evening (on the insistence of his mother), Our Lady was said to be holding a batch white roses and wearing a crown. Nonetheless, Mr. Vitolo states she wore a different color every night. One report, referring to the third or fourth night of the alleged apparitions, indicates that the "vision was not dressed in white with a rose on her breast as she had been the other nights, Joseph said, but 'she wore a pink gown, had a gold crown on her head and red shoes trimmed with gold on her feet' "[28]. Regarding the last night, a newspaper quotes young Joseph as saying: "She had lots of stars around her head... and she was dressed all in blue"[21]. However, in the video interview Mr. Vitolo is quite insistent that, on the last night of her reported appearance (November 14), Our Lady wore all white with a gold Star of David. It is this image on the last night – emphasized by Mr. Vitolo – by which Our Lady wished to be remembered. This likeness is rendered in the painting situated behind Mr. Vitolo in the video interview (see image of painting below).

(2) Voice: Mr. Vitolo is almost at a loss for words in characterizing her voice, i.e. "it was so beautiful, I couldn't describe it", more at it sounded like "music from heaven" (Video 1:, 22:40+). Recall that young Joseph was afraid when he first saw the lady but, after hearing her voice, "ìt calmed me down".

(3) Olfactory: Mr. Vitolo also indicates a pleasing odour when the BVM was present, a "beautiful smell", acknowledging the word "perfume" as a descriptor (Video 2, 21:20+).

VI. "OUR LADY OF THE UNIVERSE" PAINTING. The artist who painted this image (see below), from Connecticut, was retained by Fr. John Santyr, the priest who later married Joseph and his wife, Grace. Joseph reported that, in 1945, a Jewish woman , after receiving "some kind of grace", left a statute of Our Lady with a gold Star of David on its chest. Joseph said that was how the BVM appeared on the final night and asked that the painting be rendered as such. In 1996 the painting was meticulously examined as there were claims its colors had "shifted" [31, p. 432]. Results of this examination are unknown to this author.

TH2 Note: This is the painting seen behind Mr. Vitolo in the video interview. Now known as "Our Lady of the Universe", the title "Our Lady of the Concourse" was originally conferred right after 1945. This is because the BVM reportedly appeared adjacent to the Grand Concourse roadway. Notice the emanating Star of David and the gold band around Our Lady's head. Also interesting (not referred to in the descriptors assessed here) is the crescent moon under her feet. Traditionally, the crescent moon symbolizes Our Lady's triumph of perpetual virginity over pagan fertility cycles and, also, her role in cosmic events (cf. Revelation 12:1).

VII. REPORTED MESSAGES/WORDS SPOKEN. According to Mr. Vitolo (Video 1, 5:23+ / Video 2, 29:29+), the main message the BVM communicated was to say the Rosary and pray "for peace in the world". When the sound returns at 11:21 in Video 1 (audio loss begins at 9:44), we hear Mr. Vitolo saying that, for the first 4 or 5 nights, the BVM answered requests by pilgrims. The video is unclear (because only the tail end of the conversation is captured), but it seems as though Joseph was given envelopes with questions latterly submitted to the BVM, that she allegedly answered. Other than those abovementioned newspaper quotations attributed to the BVM (relayed by young Joseph), no other message was found by the author.

VIII. THE MISSING BEAD. In the video interview, Mr. Vitolo makes reference to an enigmatic statement that Our Lady allegedly voiced to him (see Video 2, 21:51+). For the record, TH2 has transcribed this exchange on the most mysterious episode associated with the alleged apparitions:

Mr. Vitolo: ...and the bead is still there.

Male Questioner: Well, talk about that. What happened?

Mr. Vitolo: Our Lady's beads broke one of the nights there...

Male Questioner: Well, talk about before... what did she have... [inaudible]

Mr. Vitolo: Well, not rosary beads. They... they were blue, blue beads.

Male Questioner: So she appeared with the rosary. [error, Mr. Vitolo did not say this]

Mr. Vitolo: They were blue. They weren't white. They were blue beads... and the beads broke. I couldn't... I couldn't move. I must of... stopped me for some reason... and, ah, Our Lady stooped down, picked up all her beads, and she says to me: "One bead", she says, "Joseph, we can't find".

Paula Gloria: She said... she said that to you?

Mr. Vitolo: One bead... Scholars, priests... all these people... they tried to figure out what that meant.

Male Questioner: Like she purposely left it there, huh? Right?

Mr. Vitolo: [Acknowledges]... and then when she left the last night, she didn't say goodbye. She just left like she was coming back the next time. So I feel that she might come back. She might come back get that bead. Maybe I'm the bead. She's going to come and... I don't know.


Now immediately does this question comes to the fore: Were the beads mistakenly broken or were they broken intentionally? If the former, then it implies that Our Lady had "fumbled" in some way – but this would be beneath the immense grace and dignity of the BVM. Definitely, if this was the case it would be a blaring red flag indicating that something was rotten in Denmark. If the latter, if the beads were purposefully "broke" for a reason – then the alleged comment made by Our Lady would require further inquiry. Still, it would not necessarily authenticate the apparitions per se as divine or even, speculatively speaking, demonical. What is confusing is that Mr. Vitolo said that the beads "broke", but this statement infers that the beads were somehow interlinked, as in a Rosary. But Mr. Vitolo states that they were not Rosary beads. If they were not connected, then how can a bead or beads "break"? I have found no further information on this episode. Rather than just reading the exchange as quoted above, readers would gain greater appreciation by viewing this segment, discern and then judge for themselves.

IX. REPORTED CURES. Various cures and healings were claimed during the period of the reported apparitions. Sporadic mentions are given in newspaper articles. However, no medical confirmations or other information was found by the author to authenticate these claims. It is interesting to note that Mr. Vitolo claims that Our Lady gave him two "gifts": healing by touch and the ability to tell the "personality" of someone by looking at them (Video 2, 19:14+). He further claims that she gave him a Miraculous Medal that cured others but, over time, got lost in the "shuffle" (Video 2, 3:01+).








Caption from Life magazine [27] on claimed cure: " 'He's cured my boy's paralyzed finger', says Mrs. Phillip Miller. Joseph touched child's hands."












X. NOTABLE PERSONS INVOLVED. Either directly or indirectly, some prominent persons were involved with, or associated to, the "Bronx Miracle" at the time of the reported BVM appearances, or in later years. They included:

Monsignor Fulton Sheen (1895–1979): His radio broadcast studio at the time was located in Times Square, just 15 kilometers southwest of the Shrine site. Sheen closely monitored the happenings. One day during November 1945, Joseph was taken to meet the Monsignor at the studio and related the story of his visions. According to McGreevy [31, p. 410], "Sheen gave Joseph a dollar bill after the interview and told him to have lunch at the automat." The automat! I am surprised to hear that a man known for his immense charity would send a poor little guy to a vending machine for lunch. I mean... come on. Perhaps it was a more meaningful gesture in those days. TH2 has never came across any mention of this incident in Sheen's writings.

Cardinal Francis Spellman/Archdiocese of NY (1889–1967): The Big Cheese, the "Chairman of the Board" (more so than Sinatra, see below) – Spellman had a run in with Sheen in later years (sending the latter to Rochester, NY) – had, according to McGreevy [31, p. 410] "arrived at the house late one evening in a limousine and chatted privately with Joseph for a few minutes". Spellman arrived with "a retinue of priests".[32] The archdiocese did not formally pronounce upon on the matter, and its newspaper only advised caution.[2] Logically, the decision not to open up an investigation (apparently, records not available) was likely connected to a determination made by Spellman. This is a deduction based on the assumption of the Cardinal's jurisdictional powers, not reported facts. He was also in Life magazine just a few months after the reported occurrences. Indeed, he upstaged Joseph and made it on the front cover of the January 21, 1946 issue.

Bella Dodd/Ex–Communist Catholic Convert (1904–1969): Member of the Communist Party of America (CPUSA), expelled therefrom in 1949. Later convert to Catholicism, baptized by Fulton Sheen in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York in 1952. In the aforementioned video interview (Video 2, 7:10+), Mr. Vitolo indicates that, ailing and in a wheelchair, she came to see him, telling of Communist infiltration into the Catholic Church and concern for the welfare of her son. Reportedly, Dodd also spoke similarly to Alice von Hildebrand.[37]

Frank Sinatra/Glorified Lounge Lizard (1915–1998): It was rumored that "Ol' Blue Eyes" visited the Vitolo residence sometime during the visions. Image is from a 1945 publicity shot. According to a 2002 interview, Mr. Vitolo states that he "just saw the back of him"[32]. Sinatra is said to have brought a statue of Our Lady as a gift (see image juxtaposed, located in Vitolo home).

Lou Costello/Comedian (1906–1959): The radio/film comedian of "Abbot and Costello" fame is also claimed to have dropped by the Vitolo household to check things out. Facts are unclear about his attendance. If Costello did not visit, a newspaper article in 2002 indicates that he "sent a small statue encased in glass"[32] to the Vitolo residence.

Eleanor Phelps/Actress (1907–2001): A film and television actress who, according to IMDB, starred as the character "Charmion" in Cecile B. DeMille's Cleopatra (1934). Phelps also appeared on one episode of the depressing TV show Kate & Allie as late as 1989. Mr. Vitolo, in the video interview above (Video 2, 7:10+), mentions meeting Phelps, a "very beautiful" woman that lived a "sumptuous" life. Reportedly, at the shrine Phelps heard Our Lady tell her to "amend" her ways. Phelps converted thereafter, according to Mr. Vitolo. There is some evidence for her conversion as Phelps, based on the aforementioned IMDB link, appeared as an "Old Woman" on three separate episodes of The Catholic Hour in 1967. TH2 could find no photo of Phelps on the internet.

Joe Valachi/Mobster (1903–1971): A New York mobster from 1930 onwards. Thug, murderer, Mafia informant and likely mentally insane[38]. Mr. Vitolo, in the video interview (Video 1, 14:11+), mentioned that he had a crush on a girl as a boy, but it never worked out between them. He footnotes that this same girl later married the son of Joe Valachi. Just an interesting factoid.

XI. REACTION OF MEDIA / INTELLECTUALS. The general reaction at the time by newspapers covering the alleged apparitions was scepticism, which is expected and understandable. However, not much effort was done to substantiate or refute certain claims. For example, articles repeatedly claimed that the BVM promised Joseph that a water spring would miraculously appear at the site. Mr. Vitolo made it explicitly clear in the video interview (and in other written reports) that the BVM never told him about the emergence of a spring (Video 1, 22:40+).









Life magazine [27] had the following captions for these two photographs, respectively: (1) "A paralyzed invalid is carried from the lot to a waiting car. Joseph had failed to help him"; (2) "Converts dig in the mud where Joseph prayed, still convinced that there must be a well there".








One of the most loathsome responses from the media of the event came from Time magazine. An air of condescending amusement bleeds from the opening sequence of the article: "Once upon a time there was a little boy whose parents were very poor. They lived in The Bronx, in a drab backwash of a great city. Joseph Vitolo Jr., nine years old and small in the underfed fashion of the poor, was the 18th child (nine still living) of an immigrant Italian who makes a little money working on an ash truck, and a fat Italian mother who helps buy food by cutting flowers out of cloth."[26] Notice: "Once upon a time...", i.e. a fairy tale; "...an immigrant Italian who makes little money working on an ash truck", i.e. contempt for a man with a humble occupation; "...a fat Italian mother", etc..

A couple years after the event, R.W. Marks wrote a book on hypnosis. He briefly comments on the occurrences, hardly in a scientific fashion, with that same contempt exhibited by Time: "The son of an Italian garbage collector set blasé New York agog in the fall of 1945... Joseph [Vitolo] was automatically assumed to have saintly magic of the great touchers... So great was the hypnotic effect of the situation that the crowd soon began to create its own 'miracles'."[39] No information is presented to evidence that the crowd produced its own miracles.

Another criticism of the "Bronx Miracle", void of objectivity, came from the pen of the notorious anti–Catholic bigot Paul Blanshard (1892–1980, see adjacent photograph), who discussed it in The Nation – a magazine that today is still run by radical left wing nut jobs [40]. Blanshard, a lawyer and an exemplar of that kind of secular humanist slug whose lifeblood consists in attacking Christians, saw Roman Catholic conspiracies everywhere. Most notably, this joi de vivre anticatholicus was given in his book American Freedom and Catholic Power (1949).

[ANOMALY DETECTED / RESET / ATTACK MODE = OFF]

XII. THE PROMISED "MIRACLE" ON NOVEMBER 14, 1945. In the 2003 interview (Video 1, 22:40+), Mr. Vitolo spoke that the BVM told him that "something wonderful would happen" on the last night of her appearance. Furthermore, he states that, as he was taken back to his home (after alleged apparition on that night), persons in the crowed exclaimed "look look look". He said the "sky opened up", but saw nothing else. Over the years, various persons in attendance in 1945 have told him that they saw Our Lady ascending upward after the alleged opening up of the sky. Mr. Vitolo said he did not see the latter.

TOP: Low oblique Google Earth image of shrine site and area. BOTTOM: Comparison of aerial photo of subject area on February 18, 1954 (earliest available) versus modern shot acquired from Google Earth. Historical image acquired from United States Geological Survey (USGS). Click images for larger size and greater clarity.

Now whether or not persons in the crowd saw the Blessed Virgin ascend, or angels transiting skyward, is impossible to demonstrate. However, by examining past atmospheric and astronomical conditions, a little scientific check can be done on the phrase "the sky opened up". What does this phrase mean specifically? An opening up of the starry celestial dome into "heaven". But, again, this cannot be assessed scientifically. Perhaps a parting of the clouds aloft? One witness to the event said "the clouds just opened up" [30] – and this can be examined scientifically, i.e. whether or not clouds were present at the time.

Historical Atmospheric Data: An examination of historical weather records held at the National Climate Data Center (NCDC) at Asheville, North Carolina, shows that one of the closest weather stations to the relative to the Shrine site was located in Central Park, NY (approximately 10 to 14 km to the southwest). Copies of the original data record for November 1945 is embedded below. In addition, surface weather maps for the time are archived by the U.S. Daily Weather Maps Project of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).[41] These, too, are embedded below, for the period November 13 to 15, 1945.

TOP: Weather records at Central Park, New York station for November 1945. BOTTOM: Surface weather maps for contiguous United States on November 14 and 15, 1945. Click images to enlarge.

Rainfall and Cloud Conditions: The weather maps, by giving a birdseye view of atmospheric conditions across the continental United States, show that a generally eastward moving cold front had traversed across the northeast U.S., including the New York area, from November 14 to 15, 1945. Behind this cold front was a linear band of precipitation, in the form of rainfall (denoted with grey shaded areas). The black circular dots on the map, comprising part of the "station model" for a particular location, indicate 100% coverage of the skydome by clouds, i.e. overcast conditions for the New York area. The climatological station report for the Central Park weather station shows that, on November 14, rainfall occurred (column 4, denoted with "R", 0.24 inches) and 10/10ths the sky was covered by clouds (i.e. overcast skies, column 10). Accordingly, the historical weather record is consistent with claims by witnesses of rainfall and clouds on November 14, 1945.

Illumination/Visibility Conditions: But now the following question arises: If it was dark between approximately 7 and 8 pm EST on November 14, 1945, how could the cloud deck (allegedly said to have "opened up") have been "seen"? The latitude–longitude of the Shrine site is about 40o53' N / 73o53' W. For this location on November 14, 1945, sunset would have occurred at 4:38 pm EST. The end of civil twilight would have eventuated at approximately 5:08 pm EST (determined from computations by the United States Naval Observatory, USNO). So, indeed, it was dark at the time. Accordingly, if the cloud deck was able to have been visualized, illumination sources need to be identified. The two main sources of illumination, then, would have been the moon (if present in the celestial dome) and artificial lighting.

A check, again, with the USNO, indicates that, for the subject site – between 7 and 8 pm EST on November 14, 1945, the moon was existent above the horizon, in the southwestern sector of the sky, with 72% of the lunar disc illuminated. The geniuses at the USNO have also created a computer program to synthetically generate what the moon would have looked like on that night (see embedded image). However, the moon was very low in the sky, just a mere 3 to 5 degrees above the apparent horizon. Given that the Bronx is an urban center, buildings likely would have blocked direct lunar light emanations, dependent upon surface configurations of the terrestrial background (see close–up aerial image immediately below). Moreover, as evidenced above, skies were overcast, and thus lunar light would have been diffuse at best. However, Life magazine gives this comment: "As Joseph was carried home, tired and nervous, the moon suddenly came out in the western sky, casting a blue light over the people and the lot. 'A miracle', sighed the converts in the crowd"[27]. Could this, then, have been when the sky "opened up"? It suggests a break in cloud cover to allow a surface observer to see the moon. Perhaps it was the when the clouds broke at this time, in a darkened sky, that a contrastingly bright astronomical object gave the appearance of a sky that "opened up". This statement is not a negation of a miracle, but simply an opinion on meteorological conditions.

LEFT: Synthetically-generated image of moon as it appeared on the evening of November 14, 1945. RIGHT: Close-up of subject area from February 18, 1954 aerial photograph.

The most likely source of significant illumination would have come from man–made sources throughout the New York area (street and building lights, etc.). Even in 1945, the sky above "city that never sleeps" was extraordinarily bright at night. Today this is called "light pollution" (a stupid phrase). There is an illumination condition, particular to cities, called "cultural lighting", where light originating and emanating upwards from urbanized areas is reflected back to the land–surface by the base of a cloud cover. If a night is cloudy, an observer at the outskirts of a city can very often see the cloud base.

All that these cloud, precipitation and astronomical data evidence is that atmospheric and illumination conditions at the Shrine site, on November 14, 1945, were conducive to allowing a surface observer to visually resolve the cloud deck aloft between 7 and 8 pm EST. No more. No less. Ignoring the aforementioned comments on the moons appearance as reported by Life magazine, the term "the sky opened up" implies a quick separation of discrete cloud elements, but this is not what happens if one, say, on a cloudy day, looks at the clouds. One can see clouds move, develop and dissipate, but this transitioning is slow and gradual. The phrase "opened up" suggests rapidity and/or instantaneousness. Circular "holes" in cloud decks have been observed and analyzed in the scientific literature[42]. They are called "hole–punch clouds" (see photographs below). But again, this condition develops gradually and thus cannot explain the apparently fast speed to which the "sky opened up".

Photographs of hole–punch clouds, a rare meteorological phenomena. Note that streaked clouds within atmospheric holes have the semblance of an "angel". One newspaper article indicates that witnesses saw an "angel".[30]

XIII. MIRACLES AND SCIENCE. It should not be forgotten that, with no inconsistency to Catholic theology, God does use natural phenomena, however anomalous, to effect His miracles. Very likely, for example, it was a optical meteorological effect that made the solar disc "dance" at Fatima. For this, see the groundbreaking book by Fr. Stanley Jaki [43]. To be sure, such comparably strange atmospheric phenomena have been recorded in the scientific literature to as far back as 1887[44]. Any scientific explanation of a miracle is, obviously, secondary to the miracle as such. But the "materiality of the miracle" cannot be relegated as irrelevant. Why? Because the material manifestation of alternating atmospheric colourations at Fatima on October 13, 1917 is what prompted many skeptics to religious belief. Had they not physically observed that unusual atmospheric condition, they would have figured Lucia, Jacinta and Francisco to be frauds. How could three simple sheppard children, who knew nothing of science, predict such a thing unless told by Our Lady? Although secondary, the materiality of a Church–approved miracle must nevertheless be affirmed, otherwise a negative or (even) Manichean view of the material world arises. Indeed, prudent genius that she is, the Holy Church utilizes scientific experts to aid in the substantiation or refutation of claimed miracles.

XIV. LIFE AFTERWARD. Things have been quite difficult for Mr. Vitolo since 1945. In the years immediately following, kids teased and mocked him, calling him "St. Joseph". People were persistently pestering Joseph, wanting to talk to him and ask questions. At 7:00 pm every night he, along with his mother, would say the Rosary at the Shrine (the plot of land was eventually purchased by friends, and a grotto was built/maintained). Sadly, his mother, along with at least one sister, died in 1951 – quite tough for a 15–year old boy. Arrangements by a religious brother allowed young Joseph to attend a parish school, however he never graduated from high school. Priests from St. Philp Neri Church, Joseph's parish, were ambivalent about the whole affair and kept their distance. There existed also an Italian–Irish antagonism in the area and Joseph, of Italian descent, had to deal with the suspicions of Irish–descended persons and priests. Though this tension diminished in the ensuing years. He tried the seminary a couple of times, but it turned out that the priesthood was not for him. McGreevy [31, pp. 425–426] further relates: "He worked at a race track, a 'political' job, as an assistant at an advertising agency and on an assembly line... Most of the time he lived at home, caring for a sick father... and praying each evening. Attendance at the shrine dwindled during the 1950s... [and] Joseph says, 'I had a dry spell', and his interest in the shrine flagged... His father finally died, and there were angry disputes with family members over who would keep the house. Joseph moved to Manhattan for a time, and for a span of several months refused to visit the shrine." In the video interview (Video 2, 11:50+), Mr. Vitolo is reluctant to explain why he left the Shrine, for "personal" reasons. This response is completely understandable as his privacy must be respected. But there is more to the story...

XV. THE PADRE PIO CONNECTION. Mr. Vitolo's wife Grace was from Boston (now deceased). She first came to know Joseph in 1961, but in the few years previous she learned about a certain Italian priest named Padre Pio (Francesco Forgione, 1887–1968), now a world famous saint (beatified in 1999). Grace began writing letters weekly to the saint. She was aware that Pio never read these many letters, however one of his assistants did, and invited her to Italy. Grace went for 3 months and managed to get confession from Padre Pio three times. During one confession, Padre Pio reportedly said to her that the name of her future husband would start with the letter J [31, p. 428]. In the video interview (Video 2, 16:23+), Mr. Vitolo said that, instead, Padre Pio said "Joe".

XVI. A MYSTERIOUS WOMAN. Now jump a few years ahead to 1961. Back in Boston, Grace came to know, at St. Leonard's Church, Carmella Indrisiano. It was through Mrs. Indrisiano that Grace came to know a certain Catherine Passananti (1894–1978). McGreevy [31, p. 429] further discusses: "She suffered through an unfortunate marriage and abandonment by her husband. Her religious life took on an added intensity... Catherine began having visions of Jesus while praying before the Blessed Sacrament and soon developed a life wholly centered on prayer, the keeping of a spiritual diary, and various errands requested by Our Lord." Monsignor Donato Conte has written about Passananti, who is associated with the Secular Institute of the Seven Daughters of the Church [45]. McGreevy continues [31, p. 429–430]: "Catherine and a friend traveled to the Bronx in 1945 to see Mary after reading about the apparitions in the newspaper. Catherine did not speak of her visit for many years, but in 1961 she surprised her friends... by saying that she must visit 'the boy' in the Bronx. When Catherine and two companions arrived at the shrine in the Bronx, they discovered that Joseph no longer lived at the family home and that he had abandoned the daily saying of the rosary at the shrine. Joseph says that that at precisely that point he felt a curious pull, 'like a magnet', to take the subway from Manhattan to visit his home. The second time he visited he saw an old woman dressed in black outside the front door. It was Catherine; she told Joseph that 'Our Lady wants you to return to the shrine' ". Mr. Vitolo relates this episode in the video interview (Video 2, 14:40+). It was at the Shrine, in 1961, that Joseph Vitolo met his soon to be wife, Grace, and to this day he has resided at 3194 Villa Avenue, The Bronx, New York.

XVII. CREDIBILITY OF MR. VITOLO. From all the information that TH2 has examined, Mr. Vitolo appears to be a good and loyal Catholic. He loves Our Lord and Our Lady, respects the Pope, he prefers Holy Communion on the tongue, he prays the Rosary at 4:30 am every day at the Shrine, he works in a hospital and helps people, and, despite the difficulties of his life, is very accepting (even jovial) about his circumstance. In Video 2 at 26:10+, he says: "I got nothing nothing nothing". When asked: "How could life be better for you now?", he answers: "It's too late", and then laughs. One other important point to mention: Mr. Vitolo/The Shrine "do NOT accept nor solicit financial donations". This has always been the case since 1945.

IMAGES BELOW ARE OF SHRINE AS IT EXISTS TODAY

WEBSITE LINK: "OUR LADY OF THE UNIVERSE" SHRINE

TH2 does not pronounce his view on this matter and leaves readers to decide for themselves.

If there are any readers of this article who had some connection or experience related to the "Bronx Miracle", or have gone to the shrine, TH2 would be interested in what you have to say – especially on the "missing bead" episode. Please feel free to comment, whether a believer or not, whether unsure or critical of the happenings in 1945.

NEXT STOP: Southeast Asia

NOTES / REFERENCES

1. J. Porcelli, "Mary in the Bronx", Catholic Worker, December 1945, vol. 12, pp. 1–2.

2. "By the Way", Catholic News, November 17, 1945, p. 8.

3. "Boy's Story of Seeing Vision of Virgin Draws devout to Spot in West Bronx", Bronx Home News, October 31, 1945, pp. 1–2.

4. G.F. O'Brien, "Nightly Throng of Devout Reaches 500 as Boy Claims Third Divine Visitation", Bronx Home News, November 1, 1945, p. 2.

5. G.F. O'Brien, "Miracle Created Through Bronx Boy, Mother of Crippled Infant Declares", Bronx Home News, November 4, 1945, pp. 1–2.

6. "'Vision' Scene Attracts 20,000", Bronx Home News, November 13, 1945, p. 1.

7. "Boy Claims 3rd Vision of Virgin", New York Journal – American, November 1, 1945, p. 3.

8. "Friends Believe Story of Vision" , New York Journal – American, November 2, 1945, p. 3.

9. "Bronx Shrine Draws Sick", New York Journal – American, November 3, 1945, p. 3.

10. "'Vision' Returns to Faithful Boy", New York Journal – American, November 6, 1945, p. 6.

11. F. Coniff, "Faithful Believe in Miracle of Bronx lad's Vision", New York Journal – American, November 9, 1945, p. 15.

12. "Boy Waits Last Visit of 'Vision' ", New York Journal – American, November 14, 1945, p. 1.

13. "'Miracle Vision' Due Tonight", New York Journal – American, November 14, 1945, p. 3.

14. "Bronx Lad's Faith Unshaken Despite Failure of Miracle, New York Journal – American, November 15, 1945, p. 1.

15. "Boy 'Sees' Blessed Virgin Last Time", New York Journal – American, November 15, 1945, p. 4.

16. "3000 Crowd Bronx Lot as Boy Reports 4th Vision", New York Post, November 2, 1945, p. 10.

17. I. McDonald, "15,000 See Boy at His Shrine", New York Post, November 14, 1945, p. 3.

18. "Boy's Story of Seeing the Virgin Draws 20,000 to Lot in Bronx", New York Herald Tribune, November 14, 1945, p. 23.

19. "Church No Stand on Story of Vision", New York Herald Tribune, November 15, 1945, p. 25.

20. "30,000 WATCH BOY PRAY; Bronx Youngster Says He Say 'Vision of Virgin' in Lot", New York Times, November 15, 1945, p. 21.

21. "Nine–Year–Old Boy prays to Vision of Virgin Mary", The Evening Independent (St. Petersburg, FL), November 15, 1945, vol. XXXIX, no. 15. LINK

22. "25,000 Watch as Boy Waits Vision of Virgin", Los Angeles Times, November 15, 1945, pp. 1–2.

23. "Family Censors Boy's Story About 'Miracle' ", The Hartford Courant, November 15, 1945, p. 6.

24. "Boy, 9, Claims to see Virgin Mary Nightly", Pittsburgh Post–Gazette, November 2, 1945, p. 2. LINK

25. "25,000 Pray in Rain Waiting for Miracle", Pittsburgh Post–Gazette, November 15, 1945, p. 2. LINK

26. "Shrine in the Bronx", Time, November 26, 1945, vol. XLVI, no. 22, p. 25. LINK

27. "Bronx Miracle", Life, November 26, 1945, pp. 38–39. LINK

28. "Thousands Flock to See U.S. Boy Who Saw Vision", Toronto Daily Star, November 2, 1945, p. 11.

29. "Boy Expects 17th 'Vision'; 20000 Await Bronx Miracle", Toronto Daily Star, November 14, 1945, p. 19. LINK

30. "Devout See Winged Angel But Medium is Plenty Mad", Toronto Daily Star, November 15, 1945, p. 32. LINK

31. J.T. McGreevy, "Bronx Miracle", American Quarterly, vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 405–443. In addition to some of the articles noted herein, including the video interview with Mr. Vitolo (see main text), other information on this case was garnered from McGreevy's article. He states (ff. 2) that "I have interviewed Joseph Vitolo about his experiences on three occasions, and we have spoken informally at Shrine events and several times over the phone. The dates of my formal interviews are 23 Mar. 1996, 7 July 1996, and 13 Nov. 1996." It should be subnoted that in 2008 McGreevy, a history professor, was appointed to Dean of College Arts and Letters at Notre Dame by none other than John Jenkins, the apostate.

32. P. Duffy, "The Boy Who Saw The Virgin", New York Times, December 22, 2002, Section 14, p. 1. LINK

33. B. Twomey, "Do You Remember? Young Boy Claims Seeing Virgin Mary", Bronx Times, February 2008. LINK

34. Website link for The Concordia Foundation. Paula Gloria broadcasts her gnostic/esoteric philosophy at Rabbit Hole Central TV. Topics covered include 9/11 conspiracy theories, "spirituality", "mind control" and "exotic technologies". Her website and blog can be found here. Her Twitter feed is here. Her YouTube channel is here. She describes herself as a "Public Access TV Producer and Charity Director".

35. Video 1 Summary (duration=28:02): 0:00+ Mr. Vitolo sitting on chair in home / Painting of BVM in background / Family life / Circumstances of first encounter with BVM on October 29, 1945 / Mentions father / 3:07+ Many children saw BVM (only) on first day / Kids praying at vacant lot / Girl told Joseph, 9 years old at time, to pray intently, then he saw BVM / Mr. Vitolo's nickname was "Jo Jo", but BVM called him "Joseph" / Scared when he first saw BVM, but became calm after hearing her voice / 5:23+ Appearance of BVM, "very human" / BVM requested that Joseph come to same place for next 16 consecutive nights at 7 o'clock / BVM asks to pray the Rosary and for "peace in the world" / Upon returning home and retelling incident, Joseph's father gave him "a slap" / More and more people attended lot in next few days / Joseph would pray Our Father–Hail Mary–Glory Be... and then BVM would appear / 6:55+ Neighbour notified New York Post, story widely disseminated / More and more people attended shrine as days went by, "thousands" / Pilgrims grabbing Joseph, wanting pieces of his hair / Sick people and soldiers at shrine / Joseph went to Veteran's Hospital, as wounded soldiers wanted to see him, made them happy, uplifted / 8:37+ Joseph only person to see BVM after first night / Would touch people, pray for them, and cures occurred / Figured that each appearance of BVM lasted 5 to 10 minutes, however others "clocked" duration, with time ranges of 55 to 60+ minutes / He could not be moved during apparitions / 9:44+ No sound, audio–video problems / 11:22+ Audio back / Envelopes with messages from pilgrims to Joseph, with requests to BVM, for first 4 to 5 nights, BVM answered pleas / Mothers crying for sons MIA during war / Discussion of bond between mother and child / Saw much sickness and suffering / People would come to Vitolo home, put Rosarys around young Joseph's neck, he would pray over them / Mentions newspaper coverage: NY Daily Mirror, NY Post, NYT, Life and Time / P. Duffy, reporter from NYT (today) said to Mr. Vitolo that event dominated news / Friends in Italy wrote to Vitolo family at time after learning about event in news / 14:11+ Joseph "never felt special... different" / Often asked BVM to help him, but found that others (instead) would be aided / Nothing easy for Joseph afterwards, struggled / Mentions gangster Joe Valachi / Joseph's wife is from Boston / Went to Benedictine seminary to become priest, did not work out, left to get job / Account of woman at shrine, asking BVM to get nephew in fire department / 17:33+ On first night of reported apparition, about 20 boys and girls saw BVM, between ages 7 and 10 / Mr. Vitolo still attends shrine today, sometimes to meditate, not always to pray / Asks things of BVM, sometimes she says "no" / Recollection of Mary Winters, Irish woman, who challenged BVM at shrine to cure her cancer–ridden sister, a Dominican nun – statue at shrine turned "all blue", sister was cured thereafter / Mentions Kitty McDonough, apparently say BVM during times of reported apparitions / Had 2 sons, both priests, one left priesthood / 22:40+ Appearance of BVM: voice sounded like "music from heaven" / Wore different color every night, including blue (first night), pink, black / Last night BVM wore white with gold Star of David / Mr. Vitolo emphasizes that the white–gold star colors on last night is way BVM wanted to be remembered / BVM said that "something wonderful would happen" on last night of her appearance / Mr. Vitolo denies claims of "wells", as erroneously reported in newspapers (see below) / BVM never said goodbye to young Joseph on last night / Last night people in crowd said "look look look", Mr. Vitolo said "sky opened up" / Throughout years persons in attendance (in 1945) reported to Mr. Vitolo that they saw BVM ascending into sky / 25:35+ Mr. Vitolo's work at hospital / Likes to be around elderly and sick people / Never lost his faith, we have to "do good" and "build up the graces" [END]

36. Video 2 Summary (duration=32:21): 0:00+ Mr. Vitolo says that we must pray for Pope / Many people come to shrine at end of May / Jewish man saw 10 Commandments and Star of David at shrine, did not realize shrine was Catholic, eventually converted, Mr. Vitolo is his godfather / Annunciation discussed / In 1945 BVM gave Joseph the "Miraculous Medal", resulted in conversions, medal eventually lost in shuffle / Feels that he is an "instrument" / 4:15+ Joseph's brothers and sisters did not have the faith, brothers were in WWII / Tempted to leave his home–shrine, but "can't leave shrine" / Discussion of priest who came to him for money, questioning leaving priesthood / Said Devil is getting into Church / 7:10+ ailing Bella Dodd spoke to Mr. Vitolo / Mr. Vitolo states that Our Lord is cleaning up His Church / Mentioned case of actress Eleanor Phelps / People need love and care / Says Catholic Church from Judaism / Our Lord is merciful and forgiving / Our Lady loves us all / 11:50+ Mr. Vitolo gets up at 4:30 am to pray at shrine, prays for all who have come to shrine, living and deceased / Praying at shrine over years to present day was not requested by BVM, but by people he knew at time / One day an Irish lady from Boston was looking for Mr. Vitolo, had message for him to return to shrine (at time he was living in apartment in Manhattan, which he could not afford) / Personal reasons why he left shrine for a short time, but Mr. Vitolo unwilling to discuss, situation was "very involved" / 16:23+ Met wife, Grace, at shrine / First visit at shrine, Grace heard "this is your home" / Grace, previously, traveled to Italy to see Padre Pio, saw him 3 times, bilocator said she would marry a man named "Joe" / 19:14+ Mr. Vitolo discerns two gifts he has received: (1) healing by touch, (2) determining the "personality" of a person upon looking at them / Speaks of Padre Pio coming to his house (in "dream", see below in this para.) / People go to Hell because they do not love God / Expresses personal view that we can do our Purgatory here on Earth / Mentions "blue beads" that dropped during one apparition and commented upon by BVM / Further discussion of helping people, comment on his help to an AIDS patient / "I know these things happen but I don't understand why" / Interestingly, Mr. Vitolo comments on "zealous" and "fanatical" people at shrine / 26:10+ Holy Communion on tongue, kneeler / Reflecting on the difficulties of his life since 1945, contrasted with those who were helped by BVM, Mr. Vitolo complains in a humorous way: "I got nothing nothing nothing" / More humor: Interviewer questions "How could life be better for you now?", Answer: "It's too late" [laughs] / Just wants his daughters to be happy / Mentions Padre Pio's appearance to him in dream / In another dream his sister–in–law, Mary, thanked him for his prayers, woke up by phone ringing, niece on other end called to say that Mary just died / 29:25+ Miscellaneous: stigmata, prayer to Our Lord and Our Lady, alright to speak normally to them, enjoyment of Mass / While at Mass in Florida priest walked down from altar to say that he had to speak with Joseph, priest returned to altar and completed Mass – afterward priest spoke with Mr. Vitolo (vague on what was conveyed by priest) / Last appearance in November 1945 of BVM briefly mentioned, her message being to say the Rosary and pray for "peace in the world" [END]

37. cf. B. Dodd, School of Darkness (New York: P.J. Kennedy & Sons, 1954).

38. cf. P. Maas, The Valachi Papers (New York: HarperCollins, 2003). Originally published in 1968. This book was also made into a film of the same title in 1972, starring Charles Bronson (1921–2003), produced by Dino De Laurentiis (b. 1919).

39. R.W. Marks, The Story of Hypnotism (New York: Prentice–Hall, 1947), pp. 149–150.

40. P. Blanshard, "Roman Catholic Science II", The Nation, May 22, 1948, no. 166, pp. 574–576.

41. In 1945, atmospheric observations, measurements and recording came under the auspices of the then named US Weather Bureau, under the Department of Commerce.

42. J.R. Kinney, "Hole–in–Cloud", Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, vol. 49, 1968, p. 990; H.M. Johnson and R.L. Holle, "Observations and Comments on Two Cloud Holes over Miami", Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, vol. 50, 1969, pp. 157–161; P.V. Hobbes, "Holes in Clouds: A Case Study in Scientific Amnesia", Weatherwise, vol. 38, 1985, p. 254–258.

43. S.L. Jaki, God and the Sun at Fatima (Pickney, MI: Real–View Books, 1999).

44. See S. Alexander, "Remarkable Optical Phenomenon", American Meteorological Journal, vol. III, no. 10, 1887, p. 486. Compare also J. Mintern, "A Kaleidoscopic Sun", Meteorological Magazine, vol. 58, no. 685, 1923, pp. 10–11. Moreover, the account of the stationary sun in the Old Testament (Joshua 10: 10–13) can plausibly be explained by a meteorological phenomenon. See D. Camuffo, "A Meteorological Anomaly in Palestine 33 Centuries Ago: How did the sun stop?", Theoretical and Applied Climatology, vol. 41, 1990, pp. 81–85.

45. D. Conte, A Dove of God, Catherine Passananti (Vatican City: Vatican Press, 1998). A document by Pope Pius XII on the Secular Institutes is found at the Vatican website. LINK

MSS / No. 14

JUMP ! FORGET YOUR BLOODY TEA AND CRUMPETS AND JUMP !

LINK



Thank you Our Lady of Walsingham.
Glory be unto thee.

MSS / No. 13

TH2 informs me that he is still locked in transit. I don't believe that for a minute. He's a slacker. So, as usual, I have to fill in and compensate for his laziness.

Because TH2 is the so-called "producer", he has "instructed" me to release my film. Harrumfph! I am an arteeste and do not like to be told what to do. But unfortunately he supplies the money and I must comply.

Accordingly, put on your headphones, turn up the volume and enjoy the show.

Until next time, Catholic peoples... thank you for your cooperation.

PRELUDE TO A HISTORICAL ECHO.......[STOP]

[START MESSAGE]

I am in the process of time travelling, but have been experiencing some technical difficulties. Consequently, I have had to shut down the time machine. The chronometer shows that I have stopped at T–38 years, sometime between 4 to 7 October 1971. The location readout indicates a landing approximately 22 kilometres east–southeast of Naples, Italy.

This dispatch is being sent forward in time to 2009 to let you know that very soon, once the flux capacitor is repaired, I will recommence my temporal transit to the scheduled destination, and send out a historical echo in the form of a report posting.

In the meantime, I am pinging the sights and sounds as recorded by the external camera mounted on the hull of my transportation vessel. Note that there may be some time delay and visual interference in this transmission.

See you in 1945.

TH2

[END MESSAGE]