Malcolm Muggeridge. “The coming of Jesus into the world is the most stupendous event in human history. . . . As it is, belonging to a civilization which began with the birth of Jesus some two thousand years ago, and reaching the conclusion—to me inescapable—that whatever is truly admirable in the achievements of the succeeding… Read More Fiat Lux. Into History Comes the Light
Originally published here Oct. 3, 2021. By Gary Potter. “The Enlightenment” is the name by which are known both an intellectual movement and an historical period usually considered as having begun in the 17th century and reaching their height in the 18th. However, insofar as ideas spawned by the movement — ideas about God, authority,… Read More The Enlightenment Is Not Over
“Never be discouraged, and no matter what fault you happen to commit, say: Though I should fall twenty times, or a hundred times a day, I will arise at every fall, and pursue my course. What does it amount to, after all, that you should have met with some accidents on the way, provided you… Read More St. Francis de sales’ on the Great Battle
If Frank Sinatra’s music, which I obviously enjoy, entertains and only rarely is, in a sense, contemplative or thought-provoking (e.g., The album Watertown), Joni Mitchell, whose mid-to-later recordings which I have been listening to lately, tends to reflect a more serious or at least more interesting perception of the world and cultures along with music… Read More Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Joni Mitchell
He Talks About His Experience and thoughts throughout that long period. His reflections are his own. CNS: Now 92, Monsignor Kasteel has witnessed some of the most consequential moments in the modern history of the Catholic Church, including the Second Vatican Council, the 2005 conclave that elected Pope Benedict XVI, and decades of change inside… Read More Monsignor Karel Kasteel has worked in the Vatican for 70 years. Served 8 Popes.
Conversion to Truth, while totally fulfilling, is never a light matter (Jn. 14:6; Mt. 11:28-39), because the Truth is the Cross, and the Cross is no picnic. “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” — Jn. 16:33 Jn. 15:20,21 “Remember the word that I said to you,… Read More Converts who take root learn fast that the Church and the Cross are one.
Musk will lead a Pentagon study alongside Palmer Luckey, the 34-year-old co-founder of defense technology company Anduril Industries, and Newt Gingrich, the 83-year-old Republican former House speaker AFP – Tech billionaire Elon Musk will make a return to officially advising US President Donald Trump’s government by co-leading what the Pentagon called a study on the… Read More Elon Musk to advise Trump government on the future of warfare.
Updated. Can there be any doubt Carlson and Candace are friends or admirers of the pseudo scholar who scribbles Big Books faster than the speed of thought? As if brilliance in error equals good and true judgements! Have you noticed that Carlson, Jones and certain Big Trads won’t even breathe the name of this website… Read More Crazy Carlson: Utterly Indifferent to Der Fuhrer
“Someone said, drink the water, but I will drink the wineSomeone said, take a poor man, rich folk don’t have a dime Go fool yourselves if you will, I just haven’t got the timeYes you can drink the water (yes you can drink the water)But I will drink the wine Someone gave me some small… Read More Time Out: Favorite Son, Bad Boy Brother Frank
And why others leave it for the same. From his masterpiece, Witness 1952: “I see in Communism the focus of the concentrated evil of our time. You will ask: Why, then, do men become Communists? How did it happen that you, our gentle and loved father, were once a Communist? Were you simply stupid? No, I was… Read More Whittaker Chambers: Why men become Communists for moral reasons…
Aldous Huxley on the Technocratic Dictatorship seeking to be born. “…democracies will change their nature; the quaint old forms—elections, parliaments, Supreme Courts and all the rest—will remain. The underlying substance will be a new kind of totalitarianism. All the traditional names, all the hallowed slogans will remain exactly what they were in the good old… Read More Aldous Huxley on an Emerging ‘Scientific’ Dictatorship…
Marriage, children and grandparents. The reason men have always, when necessary, fought and died to protect the women they love is not only romantic or sentimental. It is, rather, because, in her mystery, woman carries the future. She is that sacred gift who sustains a people and life itself. To encourage women to join the… Read More She Carries the Future
“In the context of Christian liturgy, a canticle is a psalm-like song with biblical lyrics taken from elsewhere than the Book of Psalms, but included in psalters and books such as the breviary. — Wikipedia. St. Paul says, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly: in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in… Read More The Gift of Canticles for One Another
Updated. One of the Grand Architects of the Iraqi War which sent hundreds of thousands of Iraqis into the Afterlife loves the Pope. The atheist Manipulator par excellance and host of the Leftist podcast The Rest is Communism, I mean Politics! —loves Leo XIV because Campbell is the great cynic and he perceives Leo, rightly… Read More Alastair Campbell Loves the Pope
“As scientists study nature, they observe that certain things happen with astounding regularity. One of the things that happens regularly is that living things always come from other living things. Scientists have known this for many years. In 1858, a German scientist by the name of Rudolph Virchow stated it like this: “Every cell arises… Read More Pasteur showed that life only comes from life. The Law of biogenesis.
See also, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and a New World Order. Our complex theological predicament, which only the hierarchical Church may, in time, formally adjudicate, appears to be here to stay — until the Parousia. By Stephen Hand. 2015. If Francis and Cardinal Kasper have taught us anything over the past few years, it’s… Read More John XXIII, Benedict XVI and Francis. 2015.
+ Kissinger’s final warning and the Antichristic: “Prepare now for ‘superhuman’ people to control Earth…Kissinger’s co-authors, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and longtime Microsoft senior executive Craig Mundie’s bracing message, warning that AI tools have already started outpacing human capabilities so people might need to consider biologically engineering themselves to ensure they are not rendered… Read More Closer to Midnight? The Signs and Wonders of Elon Musk.
9/30/26. Updated. Is there more reason to beware? Sacred Scripture says “The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with lying signs and wonders” —2 Thessalonians 2:9. Blessings to those who are helped. They receive gifts despite the means which in the hands of men like… Read More They will make the blind to see and the lame to walk…
Saint Alphonsus Liguori on the “ordinary” and sometimes daily sins of people who consider themselves blameless, innocent. “The whispering tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.”—James 3:6… Read More Gossip, Whisperers & Detraction: “Triple Murder”
The whole spiritual life is dominated by the Cross. And as the Cross is the central point in the history of the world, so it is the central point in the history of every soul. The Cross gave us life; it will imprint upon our souls the traits of the most perfect resemblance to Jesus;… Read More The Cross. Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen. 1954.
Note: What to make of this. Our (former SSPX!) priest and I both appreciate some of Thomas Merton’s writings, as you might know, but our stance is critical, not naive or magisterial in any left-wing sense. That is the approach this website takes towards many thinkers on many subjects: take the wheat and leave the… Read More Merton’s Criticisms of Easter Liturgy. Circa 1968.
Site Summation – updated – Chat Gpt Catholic Critique presents itself as “Christian World View & Analysis,” edited by Stephen Hand. Its stated purpose is not formal teaching but the sharing of opinions, interpretive principles, excerpts, reflections, and outside resources judged helpful in spiritually challenging times. The site repeatedly frames itself as Catholic, Christ-centered, culturally… Read More Catholic Critique — Alphabetical & Topic Index
Steven Shaviro in his interesting book No Speed Limit writes, “Science fiction takes up certain implicit conditions of our personal and social lives, and makes these conditions fully explicit in narrative. It picks out “futuristic” trends that are already embedded within our actual social and technological situation. These trends are not literal matters of fact,… Read More Accelerationist Thinkers, Short-sighted Capitalists and Marx
Are modern smartphones and algorithms destroying our capacity for deep thought? In this video essay, Dr. Ryan Topping breaks down the science of attention, addresses 3 myths of the digital mind, and provides 4 practical, tactical skills to master hard books and rebuild your focus.
In her biography of G.K. Chesterton published in 1943, Maisie Ward tells of this remarkable trait of the great convert and Catholic apologist: “(He) liked everybody very much, and everything very much. He liked even the things most of us dislike. He liked to get wet. He liked to be tired. After…[a particular period of]… Read More G. K. Chesterton and The Eternal Thank You
+ John Paul II on the most decisive confrontation and “history’s last lap.” Karol Wojtyla (St.JPII) wrote, “A non-Catholic philosopher once said to me: ‘You know, I just can’t stop myself reading and rereading and thinking over the first three chapters of Genesis.’ And indeed it seems to me that unless one does so reflect… Read More Popes St. John Paul II and St. Pius X on the AntiWord
Hard Sayings. “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience [in suffering in Him] and comfort of the scriptures might have hope” of redemption. — Romans 15:4 John 15 18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the… Read More More Terrible Times to Come for Many Christian Families.
Is Zohran Mamdani the tip of the spear we’ve seen too often in history? Rori Stewart and Alastair Campbell gush for the Socialist (see below). Of course they would. Who are his big money backers? Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote, “Modern society is hypnotized by socialism. It is prevented by socialism from seeing the mortal danger it… Read More The Lessons of Mao’s Cultural Revolution
“One day Dostoevsky threw out the enigmatic remark: “Beauty will save the world”. What sort of a statement is that? For a long time I considered it mere words. How could that be possible? When in bloodthirsty history did beauty ever save anyone from anything? Ennobled, uplifted, yes – but whom has it saved? In… Read More One Word of Truth. Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
The Last Waltz – The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down: Levon Helm leads The Band through a passionate take of the Civil War-inspired song, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”.
Anti-Catholicism Today. The Tuam Dead Babies and Magdalene Laundries Whoppers. Brendan O’Neill,EditorSpiked Online. And more. For proof of the maxim that ‘A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on’, look no further than the Tuam 800 dead babies story. Courtesy of a modern media that seems more interested in titillating readers… Read More The Dead Babies and Cruel Nuns Whoppers
‘The desert in the city’, I repeated over and over to myself, looking out of the window, my thoughts reaching to the distant origin of this word ‘desert’ which had been laid on my heart at the best moment of my life. I thought back to nights in the Sahara, to the sand-dunes, to all… Read More The Desert in the City. Carlo Carretto.
+ If any one says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. —1 Jn 4:20 Admitting when we’ve done something wrong can be difficult. Dec 10, 2023 5:07 PM EST By Morgan… Read More Why Some People Just Can’t or Won’t Apologize
Simple acts of charity can leave a lasting impact on both the giver and the recipient. Furthermore, they highlight the human connections that charity fosters, strengthening relationships within communities. By understanding personal accounts of charity, readers can develop a deeper appreciation for altruism and its role in enhancing personal and collective well-being. —Blissful balance Generosity… Read More Simple Acts of Charity
“What earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden and even considered harmful.” —Pope Benedict XVI, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the occasion of the publication of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, July 7, 2007. “The Holy… Read More The Sacred Deposit of the Faith. No Substantial Evolution of Meaning.
Archbishop (Blessed) Fulton J. Sheen
Only illness at home could make me late posting this. Raymond Arroyo is joined by Fr. Gerald Murray, priest of the Archdiocese of New York, and Robert Royal, editor-in-chief of TheCatholicThing.org, for a very special edition of The World Over from St. Louis, Missouri on the occasion of the Beatification of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.… Read More A Blessed Day for the Church!
Preaching to the infirmed, disabled and those who care for them at one of Catholicism’s most iconic shrines, Pope Leo XIV said that “no human law should ever make you lose the certainty of your dignity.” National Catholic Reporter Pope Leo XIV celebrates Sunday Mass at the field alongside the Sanctuary of Our Lady of… Read More From Lourdes, Pope Leo issues stark rejection of France’s assisted dying law
“Hegel is the ideological nexus where the Gnostic scientific dictatorships of Nazism and Communism intersect.” — Phillip and Paul Collins, The Ascendancy of the Scientific Dictatorship. “We must … worship the State as the manifestation of the Divine on Earth” —Hegel Note: contrary to Hegel’s extreme secularist nationalism and ideology, the Church in modern times… Read More Hegel, the Idolatry of the State, and the Cunning of [his] ‘Reason’.
It is not without significance that Divine Mercy Sunday Follows Easter. For Mercy is the fruit of Easter. And Jesus came not to call the righteous but sinners into his kingdom (Luke 5:32). He came “to seek and to save that which was lost”. Mercy is the revelation of the very heart of God and the Good… Read More Nihilism and the Divine Pity
“The doctrine of the Faith which God has revealed is not proposed like a theory of philosophy to be elaborated by the human understanding, but as a divine deposit delivered to the spouse of Christ to be faithfully guarded and infallibly declared…. That sense of the sacred dogmas is to be faithfully kept which Holy Mother Church… Read More Not Proposed Like A Philosophical Theory
