Who is "Paschal Baute?"

I am Galileo, restricted to my home the last 8 years of my life by the authority of the Roman Catholic church for saying that the earth was not the center of the universe.

I am the German Catholic member of the Nazi SS whose pastor gave the names and addresses of Jews living within our parish to the government, and whose church offered no guidance and therefore allowed me to be absolutely certain we in our Nazi party were on “God’s side.”

I am the oriental child of twelve years of age who spends 18 hours a day sewing Nike shoes for $1.40 per day wages in sweat shop conditions.

I am the third world woman whose husband beats her regularly and whose parish priest has no guidance but to pray for him. No, I live in Eastern Kentucky, and whenever I talk of leaving or abuse, my minister tells me that is NOT God’s will for me, that I must love him for Christ’s sake.

I am a wounded healer who has not always been guided by the better angels of our nature (Lincoln) and who needs God’s grace at every moment.

I am the Catholic mother of a daughter sexually abused by a priest twenty years ago who just now got a verbal apology from the bishop and who still cannot attend Mass or believe in God. I have six personalities and can’t throw away anything for fear of offending somebody.

I am one of the countless unknown persons, Jewish, Islamic, or Christian who was abused or killed by official Catholic or Protestant authority that was convinced it was doing God’s will.

I am, incredibly, a spark of divine life, light and fire, called and enabled to transform my world including my own darkness.

I am every forgotten soul who died without any remembrance by famine, war, pestilence, disease, accident, or political or religious persecution.

I am the lucky husband of a wife of 35+ years and the lucky father of three children and lucky grandfather of three.

I am, as of today, the lucky survivor of prostate cancer that already metathasized to lymph nodes, still astonishingly alive almost twelve years later.

I am everyone I ever met, learned from, listened to, been moved by, and I am at times sometimes too passionate for my own good, but I will not give up my (and that of our “over-the-hill” gang) ecstasy in downhill skiing, love of sailing, playful fun with others and quiet stillness with Mystery.

I am the recipient of the gift of faith and so many graces that I cannot count or even know of, who can never be grateful or humble enough for the incredibly undeserved gifts I have received.

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the
Mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.” –Albert Einstein.
“A man should share the passion and action of his time
in peril of being judged never to have lived.” O.W. Holmes, in Seekers
"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." Albert Einstein.

"A human being is part of the whole called by us the universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest, a kind of optical illusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires, and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty." --Albert Einstein