Jesus, We Don't Need No Stinkin' Jesus!!
It's all the latest craze

As I was watching some of the news reports of President Ford being brought to lie in state at the Rotunda in the Capitol Building, the Chaplain of the US House of Representatives, Father Daniel P. Coughlin said the opening prayer. I noticed that when he was done, the good father failed to finish said prayer with "through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen", and with the requisite Sign of the Cross.

And I've also remember that Cardinal Egan of New York repeatedly failed to do the very same exact things at the multitude of inter-faith prayer photo ops, post 9-11.

And so did the President of the University of Notre Dame before a game this past season (to a smattering of boos). As well as some bishop up in New Hampshire who said the invocation at a NASCAR event up North. As of late, whenever a Catholic cleric is on TV saying any given prayer, Jesus is forgotten and the Sign of the Cross is almost an embarrassment to them.

Can someone kindly tell me what the hell's going on?

Well, I think I do have this Father Coughlin mystery figured out. It turns out he was responsible for supervising the liturgical renewal called for by the Second Vatican Council as it was to be implemented in the parishes of the Archdiocese of Chicago. That explains much.

In 1984 Coughlin took a year long sabbatical, during which he studied Eastern and Western religions. That explains even more.

In 1995 he began working as Vicar for Priests of the Archdiocese of Chicago under Joseph Cardinal Bernardin. That explains it all.