Society

I went to San Francisco to document the homelessness crisis. What I did not expect was to witness the most blatant shoplifting I have ever seen. I was staying at the Holiday Inn, and just a short walk away was a Whole Foods. One morning around 8 a.m., I walked over to grab a breakfast sandwich. Before I even made it through the store, I noticed four different homeless individuals in different aisles stuffing bags with anything they could grab. It was not subtle. It was not someone slipping a sandwich into a coat pocket because they were starving. It was clear, obvious, brazen theft. Two security guards were stationed at the front of the store. Both were on their phones. They were close enough to see what was happening, but far enough away to make it clear they were not going to stop it.

The nuns were wrapping up their night prayer when I entered the chapel at Tyburn Convent. I couldn’t see them but heard their soft voices singing the last phrases of the “Salve Regina”: “O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.” Across the road in Hyde Park, an outdoor concert heaved. What was I doing, spending my Friday night here instead? I had come to see if the rumors of a “nun girl summer,” as it’s being called on TikTok, were true. Earlier this year, a video of two nuns discussing their ultimate frisbee skills went viral: “Sister, you are so good at that!” “Sister Miriam, you also are!

I don’t know if you remember that old saw: “Always speak ill of the dead.” I don’t recall being brought up with it myself, but a number of people apparently were. After the brutal killing of Ann Widdecombe last week we saw some fine examples of people following this rule. Peter Tatchell – a prominent member of the “be kind” brigade – took to social media to describe the death of Widdecombe in celebratory tones. He listed her crimes, such as her belief that marriage is a union between a man and a woman, and then ended his tweet by saying: “BIGOT!” As though final judgment had been passed down from on high.

As any Catholic master of ceremonies will tell you, it takes only the tiniest sartorial mishap to lend a Python-esque flavor to moments of the utmost solemnity. On July 1 the rebel traditionalist Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) created four new bishops in defiance of Pope Leo XIV during a five-hour open-air Latin Mass in a Swiss alpine meadow. The consecrating prelates wore dark-red velvet chasubles over scarlet-and-gold dalmatics with matching gloves. They descended from their thrones bearing sacred chrism. Afterward the new bishops stood in a row, miters perched on their heads for the first time. Liberal bishops wear stumpy headgear.

Has grace-and-favor accommodation now fallen from grace – and favor, too? In recent days, we have learned that both our head of state and our (likely) head of government are giving up the free homes that come with the job. The King has said he will not live at Buckingham Palace once major refurbishment works are completed next year. His heir has let it be known that he won’t live there either. The monarch is very happy living at Clarence House, just as his mother was when she became Queen in 1952. Back then, Winston Churchill formally advised the Sovereign that she had to move into the Palace. No modern prime minister would dream of telling the Sovereign where to sleep, least of all one who plans to follow his example. Andy Burnham has said that he will not live at No.

In the extensive coverage of this year’s July 4 celebrations in Washington, DC, it was often mentioned that 850,000 fireworks were detonated in the course of the evening. In fact, there were 850,001. For in addition to the extraordinary visual panoply on view there was a quieter but no less breathtaking detonation that day: the sobering 162-page report about the Smithsonian Institution issued by the White House’s Domestic Policy Council.