Where was the hand in the cloud? ...and when the Irish play the convicts, I will be rooting for the convicts

Another in a series of declining values...

A little over two years ago I posted the following over in my sidebar:                sidebar →

The Police State of Massachusetts is now imposing laws against nature. Massachusetts is by far the most un-Constitutional government of the State, by the State, and for the State than any among the the fifty that hold a star on the banner of freedom. It is run by Socialists and hypocritical so-called Christians…the worst among them are the Catholics who go to Church on Sunday and forget what they Prayed for on Monday. - Norman E. Hooben - "A proud Catholic proud of my Faith. A proud Catholic NOT so proud of my Church!" - July 16th 2008

The content may have lost the interest of the public at large and that's too bad.  But irregardless of my original intent with the posting a more important message should have echoed through the Catholic and Christian communities...and that message is in the postscript following my signature line.  It says that I still believe the basic tenets of my faith but the Church whose ruling body should be adament about keeping it's flock away from the wolves have joined the pack.  This concept is further exemplified in the following: ~ Norman E. Hooben

How Notre Dame Lost A Loyal Booster
Disregard of Catholic values yeilds loss of respect and loyalty
By Patrick Brady / Special To The Express-News San Antonio, Texas

Many of the great leaders of our country are familiar with Gen. Douglas MacArthur's words at West Point on athletics: “On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days and other fields will bear the fruits of victory.”

I believe there are great parallels in soldiering and athletics. Both require teamwork, courage, discipline and physical conditioning. They also require honor and, and perhaps most of all, they require obedience; obedience to lawful authority — commanders and coaches. Lack of any of the above and units fall apart as do teams — and so do universities.

I played on a Catholic high school football team known as the Fighting Irish and was a rabid Notre Dame football fan. I remember the cartoon of the Irish huddle looking skyward as a hand in a cloud X and O'd a game winning play. They were obviously God's team. My dream was to play football at Notre Dame but my abilities felled my dream. Needless to say I was ecstatic when the Army sent me to Notre Dame for graduate studies.

It was a great time. Christian values filled the campus and the team where players' graduation rates stood out. They never lost a game I attended. I knew the coaches, had a special pass to practices and played handball with Ara Parseghian. I was even allowed in the locker room, where I actually touched the famous sign slapped by all the Notre Dame greats before games: “Play like a champion today.” By graduation I was an irrational Irish football fan and my closet was full of Irish shirts, sweaters, even underwear.

Over the years, I lived and died as they won and lost. I developed an intense hatred for some teams who consistently beat Notre Dame, Miami in particular. Because Miami had some player disciplinary problems, one year the Notre Dame student body wore shirts emblazoned with “Catholics vs. Convicts.” I proudly wore that shirt but, alas, Miami still kicked our butt.

Then I noticed disturbing changes. This premier Catholic university was becoming un-Catholic and concurrently — the team began to lose. In my day, if the Michigan State coach had a heart attack (which he did) after a brilliant game-winning call in overtime, we would say God was punishing him; and when the Irish coach lost a game against Tulsa by inexplicably calling for a pass when a gimme field goal would have won, we would have wondered: Where was the hand in the cloud? And this Catholic campus began to fill with trash such as the “Vagina Monologues” and rumors of rape by an Irish player possibly causing a suicide.

Earlier they dissed, disobeyed, their lawful authority, the pope — the supreme voice for life on the planet — to honor the most pro-abortion president in history. As no journalist would allow the use of his paper to propagate fraudulent journalist values, no Catholic university should allow the use of its campus to honor those who defile Catholic values. Many Catholics were outraged.

My beloved university was a fraud. They were no longer what they said they were — Catholic. They can be what they want, but they ought not to lie about it. The final straw was when they hired a coach away from his team on the eve of its bowl game. Is that honorable? That's hypocrisy. Away with the sweaters and underwear, this soldier could no longer support such a university.

Now the former agony of frequent Irish defeats is ecstasy. And when the Irish play the convicts on Friday, I will be rooting for the convicts.

Retired Army Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady earned the Medal of Honor in Vietnam, where he flew more than 2,500 combat missions and helped rescue more than 5,000 wounded.