St. Michael Catholic Church-Weimar, TX

09/08/2026

The scammers are trying to use text messages this time, not just email. As usual, disregard any weird messages you get claiming to be from me, or from any priest. If there's something urgent, I'm not going to communicate through text message.

09/05/2026

I have recently seen a Catholic speaker whom I once respected say some troubling things which I would like to comment on. No, I won’t say who. But to talk about this, I want to back up and tell a similar story from further back.

Some years ago when I was on Twitter, I saw someone mockingly referring to his opponent as a “bleeding heart.” I noticed that this person had for his profile picture an image of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and I wondered to myself, “does that term have the origin I think it has?” And the answer was yes, the common usage of “bleeding heart” does indeed refer to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. So it is just a little blasphemous to derisively call someone a “bleeding heart.” I told him so, and he replied that a bleeding heart expresses an excess of sympathy and irrational action. I told him that’s the exact image of the mercy of Christ Crucified. He pardoned those who killed him, he does not give us what we deserve in justice, but he looks on us in mercy. He was mocked on the Cross for his misericordia, his “mercy-heartedness.” “He saved others, he cannot save himself.” The terrible irony of that interaction has stayed with me: this person had some affection for the image of the Sacred Heart, but expressed a disposition that was literally anti-Christ.

The new phrase that made me think of this interaction is “suicidal empathy.” This is a term coined by Gad Saad, a marketing professor to describe what he sees as a political and sociological problem. Saad believes that a culture that is too empathetic will be compromised and destroyed by aberrant influences, and that western culture must be hardened against such influences. It is on one level an argument against liberal democracy (which is how the United States is constituted), an assertion that we should not have freedom of religion or freedom of speech. This is a fundamental political problem. But more egregious, I see a religious problem.

Saad describes himself as an atheist, so he is not making a religious claim. So it grieves me when I see someone in Catholic media try to make this a religious claim. Because just like the term “bleeding heart,” “suicidal empathy” is blasphemous. In the gospel, Jesus Christ willingly and knowingly goes to the Cross to die for the sake of sinners. He dies for those who hate him, the very people who sentence him to death, scourge him, and crucify him. He has compassion for sinners, he takes upon himself the passion of the world (em-patheia). He tells us that if we would be his disciples, we must take up our cross and follow him. We must suffer and die at the hands of the wicked, for their sanctification. That isn’t fair. It isn’t smart. It is indeed self-destructive, it is “suicidal empathy.” “We proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

Human wisdom and human strength is to overpower and destroy your fellow man, to impose your morality, your politics with force. But the foolishness of God and the weakness of God is to love unto death, and nothing less. Human wisdom and strength crucified Christ. Divine foolishness and weakness suffered the Cross. The Resurrection confirms which of these forces is more powerful.

There is much hand-wringing over the preservation of a Christian society. But I am reminded of something Bishop Robert Barron said when he was made an auxiliary bishop. As an auxiliary bishop, he was given a titular diocese: Macriana in Mauretania. Every bishop must have a territory, and auxiliary bishops are given a defunct see as an honorific. And he said something to the effect that it serves as a good reminder, “sic transit gloria mundi.” Thus passes the glory of the world. Just as the diocese of Macriana no longer exists, a day may come that his home archdiocese of Chicago may no longer exist. We are in this world as pilgrims, destined for heaven. And it would be a sad error to gain the whole world but lose heaven.

Yours in Christ,
Rev. Chase Goodman

08/29/2026

I’m thinking of a bit of a homily b-side for this week. Wherever you go to Mass this Sunday, in the homily you’re probably going to hear St. Peter get beat up a bit for being both bad and wrong. There’s a lot of characters in the gospel who get beat up for that: Peter here, and when he denies Christ, John the Baptist’s father Zechariah, Martha, “Doubting” Thomas, the disciples on the road to Emmaus. Not to mention of course how often the Pharisees and Scribes get dogged by Jesus.

You can’t really walk away from that fact when it comes up in the gospel, it’s the literal words on the page. In most of these cases, Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, tells this person to their face “you are wrong.” And I think this has two dangerous effects on us. For one, it can give us a sense of schadenfreude. That’s a fancy German word for “delight in another’s pain or misfortune.” They got their comeuppance, and it’s a matter of divine retribution. There’s a big temptation to sit in that satisfaction and be hypocritical. I’m reminded of what Clovis I, the first king of France, famously said when he was first told of Christ’s Passion: "If I had been there with my Franks, I would have revenged his wrongs!" As Jesus said to the Pharisees in the gospel at Mass this past week, no, you are not better than your fathers who killed the prophets.

The second dangerous effect of people getting dogged in the gospel is that it can make us timid unto sloth. We like being right, but we fear being wrong. And so we stay where it’s safe. We can shake our heads at Peter or the Pharisees, but we aren’t going to risk being called out by Jesus himself. If you make fun of your teammate for striking out, the pressure is on when you’re at bat. So you stay out of the game. We often lack something noble that is present in all of these people who are chastised in the gospel: we lack courage. St. Peter’s defining quality in the gospel is his impetuosity: he doesn’t seem to do a whole lot of thinking before he acts. That leads to him doing or saying some things that are foolish or rash. But that doesn’t paralyze him.

Life is full of risks. Trying something new is a risk. Talking to a stranger is a risk. Speaking in public is a risk. Going outside your comfort zone is a risk. You might mess up, you might embarrass yourself, you might even be mocked for failing. But you’re alive. And you tried. And you’re learning. This is an important lesson that anyone involved in youth education or sports is very familiar with. You encourage children for their effort, you build them up as you correct their mistakes, you remind them that they aren’t going to be perfect at everything the first time they try. You watch babies learn to walk and talk, they stumble a bit, they don’t have the most crisp diction from the start.

And yet, we tend to forget that lesson as we get older. We stop trying new things because we are afraid to fail. I’m too old to learn Spanish, or how to cook, or to play an instrument. We want the results of being good at something, but we don’t want to deal with the pain of failure now. There’s a similar timid comfort we tend to get into with our faith. Someone like Peter, Martha, or Thomas may be wrong, but they give Jesus something to work with. They provide him momentum to direct towards the proper end. A far worse and quieter problem is a cold heart. I think of the rich young man who asks Jesus “what more must I do to obtain eternal life? I have [kept the commandments] from my youth.” His heart is on fire, but when Jesus tells him to sell his possessions, give to the poor, and follow him, his heart grows cold, and he walks away sad.

The rich young man can’t leave the security of what he knows, he is afraid to risk being vulnerable. Jesus then exclaims “how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven,” and this is about more than just having material wealth. I think it’s about how we stay within whatever we currently have and know, we won’t risk being vulnerable, or wounding our pride. Yes, Peter makes a fool of himself. But that is what Jesus uses to sanctify him.

Yours in Christ,
Rev. Chase Goodman

08/22/2026

Now that I’ve finished a poor runthrough of Magnifica Humanitas, I’m open to any other suggestions or questions I could address for a bulletin article or series of articles. I’ve got some ideas, but prompts are always helpful. Sometimes I feel like it’s a slog to read if I’m going on and on about one thing for two long. That’s why I try to keep my homilies tight.

For today, I’ve thought about a good question that I’ve gotten before: can I trace my priesthood back to the apostles? That is, do I know which apostle ordained the bishop who ordained the bishop and so on all the way to Bishop Cahill, who ordained me?

Unfortunately, no. But the story is still really intriguing, a weird historical/genealogical oddity that really brings the scale of time into perspective. In short, my ancestor of ordination is Cardinal Scipione Rebiba. I share this lineage with Pope Leo XIV, as well as every other pope since Clement XI, who was ordained a priest in the year 1700, along with pretty much every other Catholic cleric alive today.

Cardinal Rebiba lived in the 16th century and participated in the conclave which elected Pope St. Pius V. We know he was ordained a bishop in 1541, but it seems the letters pertaining to his ordination were lost in a fire. His biggest episcopal line comes from Pope Benedict XIII, who personally consecrated at least 139 bishops to send across Europe and into the Americas. So a lot of missionary bishops in the 1700s became the principal genetic line of priests to this day.

My priest friends and I joke about him a bit, because it really is quite remarkable that everyone goes back to one guy, 500 years ago, and we can’t go any further. I find it hard not to have a certain fondness for Cardinal Rebiba. By all accounts, he probably wasn’t a very pleasant guy. He most notably served as Prefect of the Office of the Holy Inquisition (now known as the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith), and his memorial describes him as an “inquisitor into heretical depravity, a most fierce fighter for the orthodox faith.” He lived during the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, he had been imprisoned once by Pope Pius IV. He lived during a crazy, tumultuous time in Europe, at a time when the pope had tremendous, immediate political power to imprison and execute his enemies, even on false pretenses. A time when countries were at war over doctrine. A rough time to be a cleric to be sure.

And yet I can’t help but feel a little romantic about him. On a purely human level, Cardinal Rebiba could have never imagined that he was ordaining the complete future of the Church. He couldn’t look ahead five hundred years and see all these priests who could point back to him. He could never know how the grace present in his life at any given moment would echo far beyond his life in a visible way. I see a beautiful sacramental sign in this. Our moral actions outlive us, they have a metaphysical weight to them that extends beyond the immediate consequences of those actions. The Latin Rite of the Catholic Church exists today in the way it exists today because of Scipione Rebiba. If not him, it would have been someone else, or many others. St. Michael’s and Ss. Cyril & Methodius exist as they do today because of Father Wayne Flagg, Msgr. Bily, Father Carolin, all the priests that came before them, the missionaries who came to Texas, going back to Rebiba. And Rebiba, through some forgotten line, all the way back to the apostles.

That line is lost to time, but I’m happy to say it will be revealed in heaven, along with the rest of the magnificent tapestry of human history which the Lord has seen fit to have us weave, under his direction. We cannot possibly fathom the temporal consequences of our actions, much less the eternal consequences. But it is a glorious joy to consider this simple sacramental sign. Four hundred thousand Roman Catholic priests today, all of them pointing back to this one man, a mere 500 years ago. What will be the consequences of your actions today?

Yours in Christ,
Rev. Chase Goodman

08/19/2026

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08/15/2026

Coming back to Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo spends most of chapter 5 talking about war. That’s a bit of a complicated subject, because pretty much none of us have anything to do with war directly. We may serve in the military, we may express political activism, but for the most part, our role in any particular war is, if I can be crude about it, the role of spectator.

We have a terrible tendency to treat war like just another sport, the team of good guys is going against the team of bad guys. Pope Leo is addressing world leaders in particular in this chapter, but we must also receive his teaching soberly; we have to realize the terrible cost of war, we cannot grow jaded to so much death. He says early on in this chapter that “peace is not simply one issue among others, but a prerequisite for the universal good and a test of the moral maturity of peoples.”

As a good Augustinian, of course he turns to St. Augustine of Hippo. Commenting on Psalm 84, “justice and peace have embraced,” St. Augustine says “There is no one who shuns the desire for peace, yet not everyone is willing to practice justice…But perform the works of justice, keeping in mind that justice and peace have embraced; they are not at odds with one another. Why do you set yourself against justice? Here, for example, is justice telling you not to steal, but you pay no heed; not to commit adultery, and you turn a deaf ear; not to do to others what you would not want done to yourself; not to say about your neighbor the things you would not want said about yourself… Do you therefore wish to attain peace? Then practice justice!”

Pope Leo offers this reflection from St. Augustine to call on us all to practice peace at every level. Everyone wants peace, at least for himself, but we are so often unwilling to practice justice consistently. The Scriptures themselves attest that peace cannot be separated from justice, from the common good of all men. If we talk about the social teaching of the Church, peace is inextricable. It would be hypocritical to have a society that apparently follows the social doctrine of the Church at home, while waging war abroad. Pope Leo does not call out any particular nations by name, but rather condemns war and certain practices in war, especially new practices made possible through the advancement of technology.

On that note, Pope Leo said something here that really excited me, and is likely to upset some people. St. Augustine, building on the work of the great Roman Senator Cicero, developed what is commonly called “Just War Theory.” The theory governs how a legitimate government should act before, during, and after war. A nation must only go to war as a last resort, for a legitimate reason, with reasonable assurance of success. In war, to put it simple, they shouldn’t commit war crimes. After war, the terms of peace must ensure both justice and lasting peace. The international order following WWII focused on criminal prosecution of high-ranking N***s, and the rebuilding of Germany as a legitimate liberal democracy, purged of the ideological poison of N***sm.

At any rate, what Pope Leo said that excited me is “Without prejudice to the right to self-defense in the strictest sense, it is important to reaffirm that the ‘just war’ theory, which has all too often been used to justify any kind of war, is now outdated.” I’ve been saying for years that JWT is outdated, for the exact reasons Pope Leo talks about. It assumes a war between two legitimate forces, in a conflict with discrete objectives. Berlin was captured, and the war was won in Europe.

But what are the terms of the forever war going on across the Levant? How is a war waged against what is more of a band of political partisans than the army of a legitimate government, like Hezbollah? How do you justly discriminate between military and civilian targets when the two are so often entwined? To say nothing of the technological challenges to Just War Theory, such as the use of drones. Pope Leo does not throw Just War Theory away, but calls for a reform, and above all else, redoubled efforts to peaceful resolutions rather than violence.

Yours in Christ,
Rev. Chase Goodman

08/09/2026

See You Soon!

TODAY'S THE DAY!!! Kid's games, Car Show, Bingo, great food, cold drinks and live music! Let's picnic!!! 🍗🍰🎸

08/08/2026

I’ve been away this week for the “Amazing Parish Leadership Summit.” I’m writing this article at the end of the last day, after a couple of hours of playing in the arcade with my nieces and nephew. I of course need more time to process the conference, but it was good. I am usually terribly cynical of all programs, especially programs I suspect to just be a bunch of search-engine optimized buzzwords with a coat of church paint slapped on top. But I am quite impressed with the Amazing Parish program, and with the sessions we had. I’ve got big hopes for the future.

But for now, I want to reflect a bit on one of the talks, in part because it relates to Pope Leo’s Dignitatis Humanae (you aren’t getting away that easily), and because the talk affirmed my priors. I love when a speaker affirms my priors, especially when a chaired professor of Harvard business affirms my priors. Dr. Arthur Brooks spoke to us about his “Leadership and Happiness” class that he teaches at Harvard, which I suspect is his go-to topic when he speaks at seminars, on podcasts, or in his books. There’s many things he said that I could speak of, but most interesting I think would be a defense of boredom.

Perhaps the most common complaint I hear about the Mass, even as quick as my Mass can be, even as hard as I try to preach well, is that Mass is boring. Or that prayer is boring. Thanks be to God that you have the opportunity to be bored! I earnestly mean that. Dr. Brooks’ talk was a wake-up call to me. I have can have entire days where I am never bored. And yet, my days, my weeks are boring, because I accomplished nothing. I do not lack for entertainment for a minute of my day, if I don’t want to. I am surrounded by so many rectangles that can offer me entertainment of some kind. I never have a chance to be bored when I’m cycling through a couple apps all day long, or half watching a video while also playing a video game. I insulate myself from any chance to be bored. And that’s a terrible shame.

We earnestly need to be bored. Boredom engages our brains in a way that incessant consumption of media does not. Boredom engages our creativity. Boredom is extremely difficult, and, well, boring, but incredibly rewarding. I do my best thinking when I am in my holy hour, or in the shower, or otherwise not connected to a rectangle. When you are at prayer, you are not being entertained. There is no way of scrolling away from what is going on after suffering 8 seconds without an innovative stimulus. You are understimulated, and your soul cries out to you “I’m bored!” Endure it. Be bored. It’s good that you are here. It’s good that you are bored.

Boredom is the start of many a good thing. You quell boredom by pulling out your rectangle and sedating your brain. But absent of that sedation, without an external stimulus, your brain produces an internal stimulus. Scientists call those stimuli “thoughts.” And it is a truly marvelous thing if you happen to have a thought, perhaps about God, during prayer. I don’t even mean that sarcastically, boredom can be the start of some marvelous prayer and insights. Let your boredom lead you where it will.

Guide your boredom with a gentle push in the right direction, the Mass is full of those opportunities. Read the scriptures, read the prayers of the Mass, think about what’s going on. Bring a journal, write some of those thoughts down. If something doesn’t make sense, write down a question to ask me! Grow to love a particular story or image in our faith, my goal in preaching is often to try to give you something to appreciate and pray with. Deeper insight and love of God won’t happen when you are doomscrolling on your rectangle. But if you are bored? If you are craving something to refresh, and instead you spend a substantial amount of time with God, contemplating God? Yes, I think your faith will grow deeper if you can just tolerate being a little bored.

Yours in Christ,
Rev. Chase Goodman

08/01/2026

It’s been a minute, but I would like to take this opportunity to make another appeal for charitable giving. First, I would like to thank the St. Michael School Building Club for building the Blessing Hutch by the sidewalk in front of the rectory office. I would like to encourage everyone to feel free to donate nonperishable food and hygiene products to place in the hutch for anyone in need. I’m happy to say there has been good turnover of the items placed in there.

Also, as I have mentioned before, I disburse charitable funds for the Weimar Ministerial Alliance. The good news and the bad news is, again, that I’m out of money. I can offer up to $350 per household every six months. For the sake of accountability and transparency, our preference is to keep this aid limited to assistance with utility bills. I have also helped with rent, car payments, or hotel rooms, but these needs are typically more difficult to validate. I prefer to write a check to the City of Weimar or Fayette Electric, or to another such company that provides an itemized bill. Under no circumstances do I write personal checks or give out cash. Typically, people will bring a bill to the parish office, I will make a copy of the bill, and write a check to the company for what I can offer at that time.

We have a balance to keep the checking account open, but we can’t afford to offer assistance to anyone at this time. As the money has dwindled, I have budgeted out smaller increments to help more people, but we’re about broke now. I hope, with your support, we won’t have to turn people away for assistance.

The Weimar Ministerial Alliance is organized as a non-profit in the state of Texas; we are not a federal 501-C, but we do have tax-exempt status in the state of Texas. We are able to offer giving statements for the tax purposes of our donors upon request. We do not have any fund-raisers, we do not have any income of any kind other than charitable donations, and we do not have any administrative costs beyond renewing our non-profit status and buying new checks. If you give to the Ministerial Alliance, that money will go to the needy.

The Ministerial Alliance needs money, and I can guarantee it will be spent locally on those in need, and nothing else. If you wish to contribute to this end, checks can be made out to “Weimar Ministerial Alliance.” You can drop them off at the Church office, or in the collection as you please, just make sure the check is made out to the Ministerial Alliance. Your support in this apostolate is greatly appreciated. In the words of St Paul, “The whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Galatians 5:14)

Yours in Christ,
Rev. Chase Goodman

07/25/2026

In Chapter 4 of Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo considers the vulnerabilities that rapid advances in technology create in society. To quote Doctor Ian Malcom from Jurassic Park, “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.” There is a terrible temptation to get caught up in the potential of a sn*******ng new technology, without considering the direction the momentum is taking us. I think of the discovery of nuclear fission, and how the first and primary application of this tremendous discovery in energy production was as the most terrible weapon ever made. And for the past 60 years or so, that weapon has quietly threatened to drive mankind to an extinction event. Just because it CAN be done doesn’t mean it SHOULD be done.

This is a social encyclical, and Pope Leo always brings it back to the good of society, the common good, the good of communion. Truthful communication is necessary for men to live in harmony with one another. He notes that although digital platforms and AI systems have increased the capacity for communication and participation in political dialogue, these tools also often contribute to disinformation at an accelerated rate. He emphasizes that “the quality of public communication depends directly on social trust and, in turn, shapes it.” He says that truth of facts is rational, requiring verification, cross-referencing of sources, and responsible argumentation (not massaging data), but also a relational thing, built through a shared pursuit of what is good, rather than “winning” at any cost. It’s subtle, but I see a political restructuring in what Pope Leo writes here; focus less on domination and more on the common good. Your neighbor is not your enemy, you need to be open to the good of communion with him.

Like all papal encyclicals, Leo references his predecessors over and over. He draws on Pope John Paul II, who warned that “once the idea of a universal truth about the good, knowable by human reason, is lost, inevitably the notion of conscience also changes.” We have a moral crisis largely because we have a crisis of truth. And that is not a matter of “those people out there” rejecting universal truth, we all, in our own ways, like to exempt ourselves from Truth. It’s the air that we breathe. Drawing upon Pope Francis, Leo warns about the dangers of law that becomes hollowed out from its moral basis in the truth. “What is law without the conviction, born of age-old reflection and great wisdom, that each human being is sacred and inviolable?” A society that enforces law without understanding their basis in truth, a society that becomes indifferent to the truth “leads, slowly but surely, to a descent into totalitarianism.” Law removed from truth becomes slavery; we see this critique of the Pharisees by Jesus throughout the Gospel.

All that is to say that those who manage digital platforms and means of communication have a tremendous amount of power, for good or ill, over culture, and how we apprehend and seek the truth. And each of us who participate in the digital forum are formed by our participation, and contribute to it. To the extent that we have power, we must use that power for the common good, and that begins and is sustained by being rooted in the truth. We have to both be aware and cautious of how we are being formed by disinformation, not contribute to it ourselves, and to humbly and earnestly seek honest dialogue towards the truth. The alternative is to become enslaved by the totalitarianism of lies.

Yours in Christ,
Rev. Chase Goodman