“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.” — Matt. 2:18 Ireland: Irish journalist John Waters, who started his journalistic career writing about youth and Rock ‘n Roll, sadly notes, “There was a moment close to the beginning… Read More Lamentation For Ireland. John Waters
Benedict / Ratzinger Essays on Theology and History below. Benedict XVI — Priest, Prefect, Pope, Rest in Peace. With the pope emeritus’ death, the Catholic Church loses one of the greatest minds in its 2,000-year history. … Read here. — Benedict XVI’s Secretary’s New Book. — Joseph Pearce: Benedict XVI. Defender of the Faith —… Read More Benedict XVI: 1927-2022. Updated.
When in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the Avant-garde were given powerful platforms to announce that traditional art forms were passé, and art galleries exchanged space for the mystic likes of Picasso, Surrealism, and in some degree Andy Warhol, etc., they arguably prepared the way for the denial of natural gender distinctions and the binary… Read More From Rembrandt to Picasso
Our dysfunctional society must return to the hearth. By Paul Kingsnorth. “… The Irish government is currently campaigning against households which burn turf or wood, the former on the grounds of CO2 emissions, and the latter on the grounds of air quality. As ever, the campaign is driven from Dublin, and mostly takes Dublin sensibilities… Read More Firewood Will Save the West
Christmas Liturgy 2022 View this post on Instagram A post shared by Stephen and Diane Hand (@stephen.hand.12)
By Malcom Muggeridge. First Lux! 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… Read More Into History Comes the Light
C.S. Lewis on materialistic thoughts; Consequences for Our Thought-Processes and Philosophies of Truth… ‘If the solar system was brought about by an accidental collision, then the appearance of organic life on this planet was also an accident, and the whole evolution of Man was an accident too. If so, then all our present thoughts are… Read More Revisiting C.S. Lewis on the Dangers of Scientism
By Pieter Vree, New Oxford Review “… NATO is a “done deal,” but Ukraine’s membership isn’t. Though the United States is “obliged” to defend NATO states, we are not required to defend non-NATO states such as Ukraine. With all due respect to Joseph Kerwin and A. James McAdams, calling Putin the next Hitler is facile… Read More So Many Hitler’s!
What makes Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski chief Party Propagandists par excellence? I think it is how with the utmost arrogance and without the slightest attempt at fairness, nuance or balance, they set up their guests with ever-leading questions in such a scripted way as to guarantee the political answers they seek. Day after day… Read More Joe and Mika. Who Needs Big Brother?
And more from the New Oxford Review on the overexposed Francis Effect. DECLARATIONof Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganòregarding the recent gala at Mar-a-Lago. “A large scandal has been created, as well as discouragement, upon learning the news of the gala event hosted by President Donald J. Trump for openly homosexual supporters of the Republican Party. This… Read More Abp. Viganò Repudiates Trump’s “Endorsement of LGBTQ Ideology”
Rand Paul decries adding $45 billion more to a military budget that exceeds the next 10 nations combined improving US national security? “I have ‘shocking’ news for conservatives, big-government Republicans are really secretly tied at the hip to spendthrift Democrats. The Republicans differ only in where they wish to spend the money.” “Conservatives are often… Read More Big Government Repub- licans Out of the Closet
18 Nov 2011 The Vatican has reignited the debate over whether playwright William Shakespeare was Catholic by insisting there was ‘little doubt he was’. Historians have been in two minds over Shakespeare’s faith with splits between whether he was a Roman Catholic or a Protestant and the argument has surfaced again with the release of… Read More Vatican: there is ‘little doubt’ William Shakespeare was Catholic
Newsmax. “The Vatican has defrocked Father Frank Pavone — who has been described as “the most vocal Catholic priest in America for the pro-life movement” — in a move that has shocked Church conservatives. This past weekend the Catholic News Agency (CNA) revealed the full text of a letter from Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Apostolic Nuncio to… Read More Fr. Frank Pavone and Contraception Rumors. Updated.
While every age is a mixture of blessings and hardships, good ideas or actions, and bad, the Middle Ages were once depicted as especially dark. But modern scholarship has long known that is a very superficial judgment. For example, Farming has always meant hard work, and those who farm today, even in America, often work… Read More Those Awful Middle Ages
Tolkien Mourned the Decline of the Shire* …the real shire of his youth which he ever remembered and sought to salvage to the extent that he could; the simplicity and beauty of the land and villages which he grew up in, the countryside, the mountains and streams, the beauty of the day and the night… Read More Tolkien’s Battle for the Shire. And for Us All.
‘Luddite’ Teens Don’t Want Your Likes. Updated. “When I got my flip phone, things instantly changed,” Lola continued. “I started using my brain. It made me observe myself as a person. I’ve been trying to write a book, too. It’s like 12 pages now…You post something on social media, you don’t get enough likes, then… Read More “Social media and phones are not real life”
“Pol Pot, China, America”. Updated. “Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia is a 1979 British television documentary film written and presented by the Australian journalist John Pilger, which was produced and directed by David Munro for the ITV network by Associated Television (ATV).[1] First broadcast on 30 October 1979, the filmmakers had entered Cambodia… Read More The Silent Death of Cambodia (aka extreme “Equality”)
Full length presentation below. “A fascinating new look at the biblical, historical, and scientific evidence for Creation and the Flood. Learn from more than a dozen scientists and scholars as they explore the world around us in light of Genesis. St. Alphonsus Liguori: “It is a certain rule, received in common by all, that the… Read More Is Genesis History?
From The Imaginative Conservative “Under the Law, says Aquinas, whenever foreigners wished to be admitted into complete fellowship with the Israelites, “a certain order was observed: …”For they were not at once admitted to citizenship: just as it was law with some nations that no one was deemed a citizen except after two or three… Read More Aquinas on Citizenship & Immigration
Bishops decry Media Assault on St. John Paul II. CNA Staff Newsroom, Dec 7, 2022 / 08:00 Journalists investigating secular and Catholic Church sources in Poland have called into question allegations by a Dutch writer that St. John Paul II “covered up” sexual abuse while still a bishop in Poland. On Dec. 2, Ekke Overbeek,… Read More Journalists contradict Overbeek ‘Cover up’ Story
Immanuel Kant wrote, “Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed nonage. [‘Nonage’ is the immature inability to use one’s own understanding without another’s guidance]. He continues: “This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one’s own mind without another’s guidance. Dare to know!… Read More Immanuel Kant, Philosopher of the New Light
By Christian Oliver For Mail online.13 Dec 2022. The Pope has warned of ‘omens of even greater destruction and desolation’. The pontiff said even more dire times for humanity are set to come in the future. He was speaking at a Mass commem- orating the appearance of Mary in 1531 The Pope has offered a harrowing vision of… Read More Pope warns ‘omens of greater destruction and desolation’ for mankind
How will the knaves manipulate the masses without this “speech”? The Daily Beast: J.D. Vance Is Coming for Your Porn–Watch Out Meantime, Swiss Cows Browser and Search Engine “No Tracking. Anonymous. Family Friendly (No Pornography. Ever).“ https://swisscows.com/. (Get the App at Google Play and other App stores online). “We place great importance on family-friendly Internet… Read More Beasts Howl As Vows to Ban Porn Increase
When in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the Avant-garde were given powerful platforms to announce that traditional art forms were passé, and art galleries exchanged space for the mystic likes of Picasso, Surrealism, and in some degree Andy Warhol, etc., they arguably prepared the way for the denial of natural gender distinctions and the binary… Read More Rehabilitating Rockwell from the Culture of Kitsch
See many more of Mr. Horn’s episodes on his playlists at YouTube. “After his conversion to the Catholic faith, Trent Horn earned master’s degrees in the fields of theology, philosophy, and bioethics. He serves as a staff apologist for Catholic Answers, where he specializes in teaching Catholics to graciously and persuasively engage those who disagree… Read More The Most Important Biblical-Catholic Apologist Today
Amy Welborn. When Andre Dubus passed away in his Haverhill, Massachusetts home February 25, [1999] obituaries noted the loss of one of America’s finest writers of the short story and certainly one of the most interesting and inspiring figures on the contemporary literary scene. What the secular newspapers failed to emphasize, however, was Dubus’ faith… Read More Andre Dubus 1936-1999
A stoneis not an individual.You can make little onesout of big ones. A treeis an individual.It comesfrom a germ.“Only Godcan make a tree,”says the poet. A horseis an individual.The horse is notan individualthe way the treeis an individual.It has animal life. Man is an individualand has animal lifelike the horse.Man has also reason.which the horse… Read More On Personalism. Peter Maurin.
“[Karl Marx] showed precisely how to overthrow the existing order, but he did not say how matters should proceed thereafter. He simply presumed that with the expropriation of the ruling class, with the fall of political power and the socialization of means of production, the new Jerusalem would be realized. Then, indeed, all contradictions would… Read More Benedict XVI on Marx’s “Fundamental Error”
…Last Sermon on the Immaculate Conception by Pope John Paul II Wednesday, 8 December 2004 1. “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” (Lk 1: 28). We address the Virgin Mary several times a day with these words of the Archangel Gabriel. Let us repeat them with fervent joy today, on the Solemnity… Read More “By One and the Same Decree.”
“Dickens must have known would have worked on the consciences of the Parliamentarians too, as it did!” “By advocating that population should be controlled voluntarily through birth control, abstinence, or delayed marriage – or involuntarily, and through the scourges “of war, famine, and disease,” [Thomas] Malthus was derided by his peers and he even earned a nasty… Read More Scrooge and Thomas Malthus
By Gary Potter. The subject here is a movie, one I think could be the most important made in my lifetime, at least in terms of cinema’s future. Its importance doesn’t make it a favorite nor even that I have especially enjoyed seeing it. Do we “enjoy” seeing, say, Shakespeare’s Richard III? A particular production… Read More Terrance Malick’s “The Tree of Life”
On giving, not just consuming. Melvyn Bragg and guests (In Our Time, BBC) discuss Charles Dickens’ novella, written in 1843 when he was 31, which has become intertwined with his reputation and with Christmas itself. Ebenezer Scrooge is the miserly everyman figure whose joyless obsession with money severs him from society and his own emotions,… Read More Dickens and the meanings of A Christmas Carol
“Master, do you not care that we perish?” — Mark iv. 38. “… we bear in mind what was promised about the holy church and him who said that the gates of hell will not prevail against it (by these we understand the death-dealing tongues of heretics); we also bear in mind what was prophesied… Read More The Gates of Hell — (Formal Heresies within and without) — Do Not Prevail
—First, Ross Douthat. What Euthanasia Has Done to Canada. And: Yuan Yi Zhu: “Since last year, Canadian law, in all its majesty, has allowed both the rich as well as the poor to kill themselves if they are too poor to continue living with dignity. In fact, the ever-generous Canadian state will even pay for… Read More Why is Canada euthanising the poor?
Rod Dreher.The American Conservative.Oct 29, 2022. In maiden parliamentary speech, new Italian PM cites St. Benedict, St. John Paul II, and Sir Roger Scruton. The new Italian prime minister gave her maiden speech to Parliament yesterday, and it was magnificent. Here is a link to the transcript in Italian. I’ve google-translated some passages. Excerpts: Italy… Read More “Giorgia Meloni: One Of Us”
Catholic Critique 