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Today is Election Day Today is an anniversary for me, of sorts. Last year, November 3^rd fell on the day before Election Day. Although I had been out of town a lot last fall, I had managed to canvas a few times for Zohran Mamdani, who is now the mayor of the city in which my mother, my children, and I were born, a city in which I live, a city I so fervently love.

Eager to go out one last time to before Election Day, I signed up for a shift on November 2^nd. On Sunday November 1^st, my daughter Grace, my daughter, extended an impromptu invitation to join her to get out the vote for Zohran. We assembled with our fellow canvassers near the fountain across the street from Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza where we milled a bit, received our calling cards, and lists of registered voters and their addresses, and headed off towards Eastern Parkway.

It was a clear, slightly warm Sunday with an undercurrent of autumn cool in the air. Canvassing went smoothly enough for the first two hours of our “turf shift.” The last building on our list was a luxury apartment building in Prospect Heights on Washington Avenue about a half-block away from the main entrance to the Brooklyn Museum. The doors at the entrance of the building were open. Grace and I entered and waved to the doorman/concierge. He was working on something a few feet away from his desk but asked “Do you know where you are going?” he asked. We answered “yes.”

We took a quick peek our list of names and apartment numbers, and headed to the apartment on the highest floor, intending to descend by the stairs. In the other buildings, we had eschewed elevators in favor of stairs, But we had been walking for hours and this last building was 14 stories high.

Grace and know this Prospect Park neighborhood. Our family lived there for about four years when Grace was a primary school student. The first thing I noticed was how out of scale in relation to other residences on the block the building was. Both Grace and I noticed there was something strange about the building. We called it “a Scientology vibe.” There was no reason to imagine it was that, but, there was something—

After hitting the first home on our list, we descended the steep and large concrete stairs. I could tell apartments were lofts or loft-like. My daughter and I deduced quickly that rich white people lived there.

On each floor we saw at least one or two apartments with toddler’s boots, strollers, children’s soccer balls, tricycles and bikes lined up outside the apartment entrances. The ceilings were high, the units far apart from one another. We took signs of children as a good sign at first. Later, this aspect would haunt me a little. More on that anon.

If you have canvassed in New York City, you already know that most people do not answer their doors. It was a splendid Sunday afternoon, so, my kid and I were not surprised when residents weren’t home or chose not to answer their doors. But quite a few people in this particular 14-story building did answer. Not until the last door-knock was anyone menacing, but all were lukewarm and radiated disinterest. This contrasted sharply with our experience in the first four buildings. Any human being who came to the door was affable. One found the mother-daughter tag team aspect charming, and one or two wanted to chat a moment about life and the election. By the time Grace and I started hour three, I think we both felt a bit pumped. We had gotten some live bodies, reminded a few to have a voting plan, and we were glad to have pitched in for the worthy cause at hand.

Part 2, tomorrow

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MMS

November 3, 2026

Brian Devlin

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At the All Saints Day liturgy I attended yesterday, my priest gave a mighty All Saints. He invited us, the assembled, to think of a “saint” who had c…

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Four days ago the a White House Communications person posted a photo depicting twelve Catholic bishops praying in the Oval Office along with Donald Trump’s spiritual advisor Paula White. This comes a…

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At about 4 p.m. today white House Communications Advisor Margot Martin posted his photo of Trump being prayed over by ten Roman Catholic bishops. The bishop actually touching Donald Trump posted the …

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L>R Brett Kavanaugh, Leonard Leo

Catholic Integralism Brigade at D.C.’s Opus Dei Center.

Top L>R from top president of the Brett Kavanaugh fan club, Tratior Bill Barr, Leonard Leo & worst justice eve…

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Broads
Birds

Booze
Stigmata

Fedora on a tilt
Zucchetto

Trench coat in the rain
Belt of rope

Rat Pack
Lepers

Rapt Bobbysoxers
Forest dwelling converts 

Old Blue Eyes
Old brown cowl

My way
The w…

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On September 11, 2001 a little over 25 years ago, I began to write a poem about the attack at the World Trade Center in New York City. At about noon that day, after fetching children from school, duc…

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Fulton Sheen meets Snoopy and Lucy in a Mantilla. (AI image)

Note: As I continue to work on my examination of Magnifica Humanitas in which Pope Leo argues for the call …

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Fr. Michael Pflegler

This is case is, for me, a tough one to parse. I have biases.

On July 11, 2026, the Archdiocese of Chicago announced that they would remove Father Michael Pflegler pending an inves…

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Thoughts on Intro & Chapter One

I

In the introduction to Magnifica humanitas, Pope Leo XIV sets the stage for outlining, and to various extents justifying, the use of new technology to evangelize to an…

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Lens louse priests, televangelism (not just for Protestants), Opus Dei, Here comes everybody Catholici…

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Catholic Bishop Barron wallows in Trump’s Religious Liberty Commussion’ Spy Wednesday Week Easter Event

New Evangelization and Trump’s Religious Liberty Clown Car Commission

I’m interested in the p…

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I mentioned the beatified and soon-to-be-canonized Bishop Fulton Sheen earlier in this piece. Sheen is a fascinating figure, a major precursor patron saint and muse of “New Evan…

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Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone

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Salvatore Cordileone has militated for at least eight years—and likely much longer—to ensure than clergy abuse…

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1984 

"Watch out! She has a gun!" called out the philology scholar
    	working as a summertime clerk at Cité Universitaire
        in the 13th arrondisement where I’d come alone, looking 
        f…

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Who and why are SSPX

I’ve been thinking about the traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) and their problems with the Vatican quite a lot this week and how I’m not sure what to think! A bit of background for those who don’t know: this very conservative Catholic group, which has long been seen, even if on and off and to varying degrees, as schismatic by the Vatican, is preparing to consecrate four new bishops. SSPX, was founded in Switzerland in 1970, in opposition to the reforms of the 1960s Second Vatican Council. The group first broke with Rome in 1988 when its founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without the pope’s consent. Pope John Paul II excommunicated Lefebvre. But SSPX kept going, and growing. On July 1s, the Society of St Pius X plans to conecrate four bishops without Pope Leo’s permission. Liberal and moderate Catholics worry about this because the Traditional Latin Mass community is growing.

“Have the courage of your convictions.” (Why a Radical Roman Catholic feminist might look at SSPX with appreciation this week)

Like the Vatican, SSPX has a strong digital evangelization game. They are throwing a lot of money at optics, comms, and advertising. They have fans among the most powerful bishops —current USCCB president, Paul Coakley, Salvatore Cordileone Archbishop of San Francisco, William Lori Archbishop of Baltimore, Earl Fernandes Bishop of Columbus, former USCCB president, Timothy Broglio — to name just a few. Also, while the wealthy and powerful Opus Dei prelature, which has always walked a thin line when when it comes to being categorized as schismatic by the men in charge of the institutional Roman Catholic Church, and Trad/ TLM (Traditional Latin Mass) share many of the same political views and traditional religious orientation. Ironically, it is trad Catholicism — that is drawing all those 20-something finance bros looking for hot trad wives and women looking for godly husbands to that church in New York City’s “Greenwich Village.”

I need to start by confessing my biases. I detest traditional Catholicism. This is Mel Gibson’s church. I dislike the Traditional Latin Mass’s ramped-up bigotries, the ad orientem priest celebrating with his back to the assembled, their ultra right-wing politics, the Good Friday prayer for the conversion of the Jews, the glittery Vegas Elvis wedding chapel decor, the lack of a stirring homily, the rank bigotry, the yearning to go back to a time when women couldn’t vote and Black people had to use Black people’s water fountains. I detest the mantilla thing and veils in general for Christian women, the trad wife thing, the embrace of promiscuous brood mare spawning, TLM Catholics’ sheeple mindset, the extreme Catholic exceptionalism. This is a partial list. I could go on.

On the other hand, I disclose that I do love Latin, Church Latin, the Rosary, and the Jesus Prayer. I’m a sucker for incense and mirrors and a degree of baroque decor — as long as it does not radiate Vegas Elvis wedding chapel vibes.

Most of all I need to confess that I am rather appreciating the SSPX this week.

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Dear Readers,

Greetings, this piece is six years old. I dusted it off in order to link to it in my piece, not yet out, re: the Anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson.

Peace,

MMS

As one who observes or intera…

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