Hey sports fans,
It’s the ninth Tuesday in ordinary time, and you’re reading The Tuesday Pillar Post.
Today’s the anniversary of a memorable moment in American history, from all the way back in 1763, when native tribes in the American midwest had banded together to fight a little revolution of their own, working to expel British forts from the Great Lakes region.
Most of that was inspired by a Native American religious revival underway in the 1760s, mostly because of preaching from a Lenni Lenape man named Neolin, who said he’d been given a vision calling native people to reject alcohol, polygamy, greed, and the adoption of European culture as their own.
The military side was organized by an Odawa war chief named Pontiac, whose rebellion eventually won a proclamation that prohibited new British settlements in the land west of the Mississippi.
For his troubles, Pontiac was eventually assassinated by a rival tribe warrior, and became namesake for the automobile brand which dared to create ignominious, timelessly ugly Pontiac Aztek.
But well before that, Pontiac inspired a pan-Indian raft of sorties and sieges against British strongholds, capturing several forts, and putting the British on their heels in the upper Midwest.
One of the early efforts was at the remote outpost of Fort Michilimackinac, at the top of Michigan’s lower peninsula.
And the plan was ingenious.
Given that attacks had begun just days earlier, local leaders of the Ojibwe and Sauk tribes were better informed about the Native American offensives than was the local British garrison commander. So he was not suspicious when they invited him and his soldiers to view a game of baggatiway, an early form of lacrosse.
The chiefs offered to play the game right at the fort’s gate, so the soldiers wouldn’t have to travel far. And the tribes made a day of it, hosting a festival of music and food for hundreds of revelers, right outside the fort — all dedicated to King George III, in honor of his birthday.
Major George Etherington and his soldiers had a great time. They had some drinks. They relaxed. And since they were going in and out all day, and among friends, they left open the gate to their fortress. It was a great day for the British.
Until it wasn’t.
At a prearranged time, the lacrosse ball sailed close to the fort’s entrance. Dozens of players surged toward it. And at once, they were joined by hundreds of spectators, who shed their blankets to reveal hidden weapons — in a matter of seconds, the game was a full fledged attack. The fort was captured by the end of the day.
Major Etherington was captured. In exchange for his release, he agreed to abandon the area. The fight helped Great Lakes tribes secure promises of better treatment from the British forces in the region.
But here’s why it’s historic. That was all the way back in 1763. And that’s the last time anyone in America actually cared about a lacrosse game.
The news
Pope Leo issued a rescript last week, making a change to canon law on the process of dismissing a member — the superior, specifically — of a sui iuris monastery of monks or nuns.
If you get your news from fabulists and the kind of website that traffic in scandal-unmoored-from-reality, you might have thought this was a very big deal, or some kind of major slight from Pope Leo against contemplative religious life.
But you don’t get your news from those places, so don’t worry. And this change is actually just closing a small loophole — a lacuna, as we say — in the law, in order to provide for situations where a major superior breaks bad.
It actually allows the Vatican to return to the diocesan bishop some authority he had in canon law, until a 2022 decision from Pope Francis expropriated it.
And here’s a fun kicker: The reason all this happened is because of the lesson learned for the Holy See from the case of the wayward Carmelite nuns of Texas. So that’s the story that keeps on giving. I guess.
Anyway, here’s an explainer on the whole thing.
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Much of that has suggested that the community’s dissolution was rooted in its liturgical praxis.
But it seems there may be more to the story. Here’s what The Pillar’s been told, and what the community has to say.
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A priest in the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas surrendered himself to local authorities this month, after an internal audit at his former parish alleged that he stole more than $100,000 prior to his resignation.
The priest had already resigned his parish, amid a separate criminal investigation into unspecified potential illegal acts allegedly committed against an adult in 2022.
But despite the charges, there is surprisingly little information available in the court documents against the priest.
“It’s all very close-lipped for $160,000, explained Rob Warren, an expert in Church financial crimes. “Nobody goes to jail for $160,000.”
Warren suggested that the secrecy could stem from other ongoing audits at the priest’s other previous parish assignments.
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As Pillar readers know, the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X is planning next month to consecrate four priests as bishops without papal permission, despite warnings from the Vatican that such a move will constitute an act of schism.
As the date gets closer, we at The Pillar have started to hear from diocesan bishops, mostly as they ruminate about what they themselves might do after the consecrations, with regard to their own local SSPX communities.
So Ed Condon takes a lot at some of the possible ripple effects of the SSPX consecration for communities around the world.
What’s the deal in Belarus?
And since we’re talking about Belarus, literally translated as White Russia, here you go:
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Finally, Pope Leo this morning appointed Pillar reader (in a good way) Montse Alvarado as prefect of Vatican’s dicastery for communications.
Montse is, I’m glad to admit, a friend of mine. She’s also qualified for the job in about a dozen different ways, and I’ve got a bunch of thoughts on why and how she got the job in the first place.