Oh, I did refer to the "rosary nazis" who attempted to force their standards on the rest of my parish. Like it or not, the term "soup nazi" has entered our vocabulary, and these rosary guys were every bit as obnoxious as the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld.

I have seen many, many instances where "devotional Catholics" have been unbelievably obnoxious in their insistence on their particular devotional cult. The Divine Mercy devotions and the Medjugorje silliness are two that have been very popular lately, and there are thousands of other loony Catholic cults. The Guadalupe devotions have been around long enough to lose some of their looniness, but some devotees can be as obnoxious and aggressive as my rosary nazis. Now, there are some who are gentle and serene and kind and exemplary in the practice of their devotions; but there are many whose devotional practices are obnoxious, irrational, and aggressive. Those people give Catholics a bad name.

Many of these groups want to take over churches after Mass for their particular devotions - excluding everyone else in the congregation and demanding that all others leave. The official policy is that the Mass is complete in itself, the official prayer of the entire church; and no other devotional services should be held in connection with the Mass - not even Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. Those things are encouraged at other times, but not in connection with the Mass.

But we don't really know what the problem was in mg's church, because she has presented all of the hysteria and outrage and indignation and none of the facts. Not the first time that's happened. My words are strong, but there's a reason for that - mg is in a habit of stirring things up with little factual basis.

-Joe-