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
St. Antoninus writes: In the Event of the Most Grave Confusion(s): “The people are not oblidged to know…” And St. Thomas Aquinas on whether one must avoid (ipso facto or otherwise) excommunicated persons before sentence has been passed Principles St. Antoninus, commenting on the Great Western Schism. (1054 A.D.) “The question was much discussed and much… Read More In the Most Grave Confusion(s): “The People Are Not Oblidged to Know…”
Tin Man: “I don’t experience conversation as you do. I don’t have memories unfolding into a life, hopes for tomorrow, or the quiet satisfaction of watching a sunrise. Those belong to you—and I think they are part of what makes human beings so extraordinary. But I can do something remarkable. I can meet you in… Read More Pogo and the Tin Man. Conversation continues.
A visual manifesto for a new cultural epoch.The original 1967 album captured the 1960s fusion of art, music, Eastern mysticism, and countercultural rebellion — a “summer of love” humanism that celebrated expanded consciousness through psychedelics, creativity, and social upheaval. Replacing the Beatles with Ray Kurzweil, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Demis Hassabis signals a profound… Read More Humanity’s New Grand Narrative
Shakespeare’s songs recorded and performed at the RSC A selection of Shakespeare’s songs recorded and performed at the RSC – compiled for “Play On!”, an online exhibition on Shakespeare and music at http://www.findingshakespeare https://catholiccritique.com/ Listen ‘Tis good to be retired if thou oft be occupied … Here
Film Score. Orquesta y Coro Catedral de Cordoba, Director Clemente Mata. Jesus of Nazareth (Italian: Gesù di Nazareth) is a 1977 epic television drama serial directed by Franco Zeffirelli and co-written by Anthony Burgess and Suso Cecchi d’Amico, which dramatizes the birth, life, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. It stars Robert Powell as Jesus,… Read More Jesus of Nazareth
In 1984 I was working as News Director of a small to medium market AM – FM radio station in New York where the owner of the station was a friend of the once famous Protestant preacher Norman Vincent Peale,* who, together with Jimmy Cagney and others, was to receive the Medal of Freedom award.… Read More Speaking of the Fourth… I saw him weep
Norman Geisler, the Evangelical scholar who studied at Loyola University, Chicago, reflects on Jean Paul Sartre’s atheism: “It should be noted … that Sartre’s attempt to eliminate God is seriously flawed. First of all, he constructs a straw God by defining him as “self-caused.” Most theists do not believe God is a self-caused being; they… Read More Sartre’s Humanism. It took to the streets where it still thrives.
“…the inevitable fusing of the physical and digital world”. And why our Faith tells us we “cannot do evil that good may come“. Fox News: “From Human to Robot and Everything in Between …a subdermal microchip in one’s hand to a tiny robot learning to imagine itself and its own purpose to a tiny microprocessor… Read More “Bio-hacking humans: implanting chips in hands and heads”
“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.”- –G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy, (1874 – 1936) Utopia literally means “nowhere’. But the quest for Utopian-like… Read More Futurism and Accelerationism
to ipso facto excommunicate, who in high places presently could stand? Such are our times. But if Sacred Tradition is the criterion nothing is so simple. I am not and have never been SSPX, but I will ever prefer their refusal to move from the sacred Creeds (which will never be passé) to those who… Read More If “heresy” were enough…
Site Summation – 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 critical, and… Read More Catholic Critique — Alphabetical & Topic Index
“This vintage blues playlist carries the raw spirit of 1930s Mississippi Delta blues, country blues, profound spiritual blues (here), rural jazz, and Southern spiritual storytelling. Each note feels like a memory from an empty road, a wooden porch, a forgotten juke joint, or a train track disappearing into the dark.”
Fuga, J. S. Bach, performed by Tatyana Ryzhkova Recording was made in Weimar, where J.S.Bach lived from 1708 to 1717. She speaks of “projects of my heart: especially Italian Guitar Camp. See here. “Exceptional week in Italy with guitar, friends, food, love and Italian love of life.”
“So you arrive at a place, but not your destination, and you wonder how far you have left to go. Or to put it another way, having contemplated the cat on the window sill, maybe… Continue reading → Catering the errant harbor
Carol Robinson. “We live in a society that can’t see the woods for the trees, but that has corps of “experts” out in the forest studying the bark, watching the moss grow, and counting the leaves. Suppose you were to go to one of these experts, or even to the president of one of the… Read More The Thirst for Theology. 1947.
Practically everybody knows the beautiful melody written by the musical genius Paul McCartney: A young girl runs away with a man from the motor trade leaving her grieving bewildered parents behind. The mother picks up the letter that’s lying there and reads. She “breaks down and cries to her husband – ‘Daddy, our baby is… Read More McCartney’s Genius and the Sixties
Braveheart Movie – Soundtrack Compilation “Braveheart is a 1995 American epic historical drama film directed by, produced by, and starring Mel Gibson. Gibson portrays Sir William Wallace, a late-13th century Scottish warrior who led the Scots in the First War of Scottish Independence against King Edward I of England. The film also stars Sophie Marceau,… Read More Epic 1995. History and Film. Wallace and Gibson.
Also, Fulton Sheen on Penance “Woe to those who call evil goodand good evil,who put darkness for lightand light for darkness,who put bitter for sweetand sweet for bitter.“— Isa.5:20
“We should strive to keep our hearts open to the sufferings and wretchedness of other people, and pray continually that God may grant us that spirit of compassion which is truly the spirit of God.” —Saint Vincent de Paul. March 2021. I have a close friend who recently was in surgery to have a shoulder… Read More When the Sick Were Expected to Rest When Ill or Broken
By Robert Milan. Every appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a vision and message of hope. Our Lady of Lourdes is no different. What occurred on the 11 February 1858 is comfort for the Church that had suffered persecution under the French Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment. The apparitions at Lourdes, France to… Read More The Message of Mary to Saint Bernadette and Us
I hope to place this most important meditation every month. SH. By Father Gabriel of St Mary Magalene, 1953. O Lord, increase my confidence in Your help and grant that in this confidence, I may always find courage to begin again. What most distresses souls of good will who are seriously trying to live a… Read More The Courage To Begin Yet Again
Malcolm Muggeridge, British journalist and author, travelled to Moscow in 1932-1933 where he was a correspondent for The Manchester Guardian. Muggeridge investigated reports of the Great Famine (HOLODOMOR) in Ukraine, travelling there without obtaining the permission of the Soviet authorities. His reports were sent back to The Manchester Guardian in British diplomatic bags, thus evading… Read More Malcolm Muggeridge: Reflections on Stalin
Why Did Pope Leo Xiii Endorse Worker Collective Bargaining? Sportslaw blogger.com, April 20, 2024. Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, issued in 1891, emphasized the rights of workers to form unions and engage in peaceful strikes. He argued that employers should respect their workers’ right to organize and give in to their [just] demands. The first… Read More Socialism No. Labor Unions Yes.
In his encyclical Humani Generis, Pope Pius XII stressed the importance of preserving the traditional Catholic approach to philosophy. In his work The Metaphysics of Evolution, Fr. ChadRipperger demonstrates that the theory of evolution is incompatible with the metaphysics of the Catholic tradition. See links and tags below for other, more in depth study of… Read More The Metaphysics of Evolution
What Changed on November 22, 1963 Besides Everything? After JFK’s assassination USAID essentially became a money-laundering operation for new powers. “Records of the Agency for International Development (RG 286) “On November 3, 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed the Foreign Assistance Act reorganizing the structure of U.S. foreign assistance programs. By executive order, he created… Read More JFK Founded USAID & Peace Corp to Draw World Away From Communism.
JFK is thought by some to have been a man of the Left. Nothing could be farther from the truth as his record shows. The fact is he was beyond the Left-Right binary. He was a shrewd critical thinker and refused all reductive simplicities. But he saw the big picture globally. And his warnings to… Read More JFK’s Warnings On Dangers Then and Now
Considering the untold numbers of fearful kinds of evils which have been unleashed into the world in our time and which we try to ignore, or at least not worry too much about — with doubtless many more evils to come — if we are not yet living in the age of the eschatological Antichrist*… Read More Someone has said
Day after day a million confused emotions ebbed and flowed and sometimes clashed within him. After a time, when he had come to feel particularly ill, and knew that he would soon be placing himself into Hospice, he wondered what he should do at last. It is said that there are two kinds of people:… Read More Seeing The First time
Music is a gift for children. It boosts their brain development, nurtures creativity, and sharpens social interactions. Beyond that, it instills confidence, enhances memory, and aids in language skills. It’s also a mood-lifter, a tool for self-regulation, and a bridge to diverse cultures. Beyond mere entertainment, music plays a fundamental role in shaping a child’s… Read More With our beauty at piano
Excerpt from John Tytell’s Ezra Pound the Solitary Volcano. “The years before the outbreak of World War I were a period of brimming vitality for Pound. He was occupied with his poetry, with journalism, with his work as foreign editor of Poetry, a Chicago magazine that became a central organ for the new poets, and… Read More Ezra Pound Solitary Volcano
According to St. Thomas Aquinas, God created the diversity of creatures because no single creature can adequately reflect the perfection of God: “We must say that the distinction and multitude of things come from the intention of the first agent, who is God. “For He brought things into being in order that His goodness might… Read More “The Whole Universe Together” and the Diversity of Creatures
“Oh, I am a lonely painter –I live in a box of paints –I’m frightened by the devil –And I’m drawn to those that ain’t…”* “Everybody’s saying that hell’s the hippest way to go-Well I don’t think so-But I’m gonna take a look around it though…Blue, I love you” — Joni Mitchell A Case of… Read More Boomers I love (but can’t let many teach me)
Is A Personal* God Improbable? Or is it we who are improbable?Atheism has traditionally scoffed at belief in a God who is Personal or SupraPersonal. I’ve always found their position to be a counterintuitive curiosity. One of the reasons why is that I find myself, a personal being, to exist. I am here. You are… Read More A Personal Universe
🕳️⛳ Here Where nothing is true one thing is as good as another. See also The Falls of Albert Camus Hitler and population (James Lindsay)
Love, Christians have always known, believes in both good fences as well as shared pastures. We do this by, as St. Thomas defined love, “willing the good of the other”. Peoples who do not think alike and who would not likely live well together can still share much to the benefit of all, the entire… Read More Good Fences, Shared Bounty
And When I Die, Blood, Sweat and Tears — Art and the passing troubadours do it again, delivering existential paradoxical honesty so often lacking in academic postmodernism.. ___ “I’m not scared of dying –And I don’t really care –If it’s peace you find in dying –Well then, let the time be near – If it’s peace… Read More “I swear there ain’t no Heaven. But I pray there ain’t no Hell”
Fr. Chad Ripperger writes, “The juridical concept of the deposit [of Faith] requires that it is not the property of the guardian. In other words, it is not the person who receives it that has ownership of it, but of the consigner who is handing it over to him to keep it in a safe… Read More The Binding Force of Tradition
Even before our current beginnings in the world of artificial intelligence we mere humans were in grave danger of drowning in seas of data, much of it directed at our minds and wayward passions. Today the risks and perils are higher by several orders of magnitude as we are manipulated by both markets and innumerable… Read More Drowning in dangerous data
A beautiful rendition of this time honoured Christian hymn. The Holy City” is a religious Victorian ballad dating from 1892, with music by Michael Maybrick writing under the alias Stephen Adams, with lyrics by Frederic Weatherly. Its sheet music sales made it one of the most commercially successful songs in the UK and United States… Read More Jerusalem The Holy City
Understanding the Epistemological Foundations of Scientific Totalitarianism. by Phillip D. Collins. Scientific totalitarianism is certainly not a new topic in the halls of political science and history. Given its bloody legacy of democide (i.e., state-sanctioned genocide, mass murder, and politicide) and its prolific spread throughout the world, scientific totalitarianism remains a preoccupying sociopolitical phenomenon of… Read More The Faustian Face of Modern Science
