The Easter cards we see in ordinary stores give no hint of the shock of the disciples at seeing the empty tomb and beholding the risen Christ. And certainly not of the terrible trauma and ignominy which Our Lord had just gone through: the betrayal, the arrest, the torture and brutal execution of the Son… Read More The Paradoxical Joy of Easter
Cardinal Müller, former head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Benedict XVI, asks in his book The Power of Truth, “How do the pope’s Magisterium and the Tradition of the Church relate? When he interprets the words of Jesus, must the pope be in continuity with the Tradition and the previous… Read More Cardinal Müller on ‘The Power of Truth,’ Our Times and the Magisterium
“Today, there is a great silence. The Savior has died. He rests in the tomb. Many hearts were filled with uncontrollable grief and confusion. Was He really gone? Had all their hopes been shattered? These and many other thoughts of despair filled the minds and hearts of so many who loved and followed Jesus. It is… Read More Holy Saturday. Silence of the Tomb.
Why did our Lord thirst? It Is Finished. “28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, “I thirst!” 29 Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there; and they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and put it to His mouth. 30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He… Read More The Lord Said ‘I Thirst’
And the Deep Truths in Fritz Eichenberg’s ‘The Lord’s Supper‘. The other side of the Eucharist is friendship. It often happens that week after week, year after year, Christians sit and kneel next to practical strangers in church on Sundays. They leave Mass as they entered, nodding and saying hello to people they do not… Read More Strangers in the Pews
“There is only one recorded time in the life of our blessed Lord that he ever sang. And that is the night he went out to his death.” “You can sell the Blessed Lord. But you can never buy Him”. + Archbishop Sheen on the Last Supper and Agony. + Death March to Jerusalem +… Read More The Supper and the Cross
Updated. “In a new interview, a Catholic Cardinal who headed up one of the top Vatican offices says Joe Biden is a “nominal” Catholic and should be excommunicated for supporting abortion. Cardinal Gerhard Müller, who previously lead the Vatican’s highest doctrine office, called abortion “infanticide” and saying those politicians who actively support abortion like Biden… Read More Cardinal Müller Calls for Excommunication of Joe Biden
2 Corinthians 11:3 “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if some one comes and preaches another Jesus than the one we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received,… Read More Judas, The Third Temptation, and the Social Gospel — Fulton J. Sheen
…the considerable numbers of trendy theologians and clerics who have fallen away from the teachings of the Sacred Scriptures (and the apostolic fathers who faithfully passed on these teachings) and appear to be selling their souls for the pleasures of this world. Dr. Ralph Martin received his BA from the University of Notre Dame in Philosophy… Read More Theologian Targets the Heart of the Problem
Warning: some very brief rough language in the intro clip. Decency follows. “Immigration ranks as the second-most important issue among registered U.S. voters and the top issue for Republican voters, according to a Marist Poll/PBS NewsHour/NPR poll released last month. Perhaps that’s because of the 3.2 million border encounters documented by Border Patrol in 2023—a new record high that’s so… Read More An Intelligent Debate on Immigration
LA Times. “It’s a good idea to wash carrots after they’re pulled from the ground because they might have some dirt on them. They don’t typically come with more than a ton of methamphetamine, but you can never be too careful. A 44-year-old truck driver is in federal custody after he allegedly tried to cross… Read More Nearly 3,000 Pounds of Methamphetamine Found in Border Carrots Shipment
And Fulton J Sheen on the meaning of Palm Sunday. Homily of Benedict XVI, Palm Sunday, 2006. To understand what occurred on Palm Sunday and to know what it meant not only for that time but for all times, a detail is important, which became for his disciples the key to understand that event when,… Read More “The Cross Is the Tree of Life” – Benedict XVI
What Democrats have never understood is that all the obviously hateful endless rants of people like Joe Scarborough (especially him) and the other MSNBC political snipers, coupled with the most vicious unjust actions of the likes of a Letitia James, only creates sympathy for Donald Trump. Almost everyone I know is quietly planning to vote for… Read More Overkill. What Democrats Have Never Understood.
Gaza’s Shadow Death Toll: Bodies Buried Beneath the Rubble. New York Times. “With hand tools and bare hands, families and rescuers continue to search broken buildings for missing friends and relatives. Gaza has become a 140-square-mile graveyard, each destroyed building another jagged tomb for those still buried within. The most recent health ministry estimate for… Read More No Concern for Proportionality
Only Christians know what this “rabbit hole” really is, and how deep it goes. The biblical view of history alone (which the writers of The Matrix could only incompletely sense in some aspects), tells what is happening in its revelations about both good and evil —and where history is headed. WSJ: “The 1999 sci-fi classic… Read More WSJ: “25 Years Later, We’re All Trapped in ‘The Matrix’”
Attacking the prevenient natural order, finitude itself, gender theory is ground zero. Dr. Margaret McCarthy, interviewed by Dr. Larry Chapp here, “received her doctoral degree in theology at the Pontifical John Paul II Institute at the Lateran University in Rome (1994), with a dissertation on the contemporary theology of predestination. Since then, her teaching and writing… Read More Gender Theory: “The Atomic Bomb of Nihilism”
We all likely have disagreeable situations in our lives. Some of it is our own fault. We sometimes seek the good in wrong ways and suffer the consequences. How can I heal my painful regrets? “The whole creation groans,” St. Paul says, Why does God allow it all? “Blessed are those who mourn”. In Him. Penance… Read More The Cross of Jesus Christ. “Breaking With Sin.”
And Frankenstein. “…Jesus is approached with the offer of a worldwide TV network, and “The Dead Sea Videotapes,” in which archaeologists centuries hence discover a cache of tapes, films, and other evidence of our contemporary society, and reach shocking conclusions. “Future historians,” says Muggeridge, “will surely see us as having created in the media a… Read More Malcolm Muggeridge on The Fourth Temptation
City Journal: “Throughout American history, religious organizations have cooperated with our federal, state, and local governments to deliver essential medical and social services to the poor and downtrodden. Faith-based charities, hospitals, and schools have long been cornerstones of our civil society and enjoyed the rightful protection of the Constitution. Recent regulations released by the Biden… Read More A Crackdown on Religious Organizations
Dave DeCampMarch 12, 2024antiwar.com President Biden has requested a record $895 billion in military spending for the 2025 fiscal year. Of that amount, about $850 billion will go to the Pentagon, and the remaining funds will go to other US federal agencies for military programs, including the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons program. While a massive… Read More No Conceivable Justification. Biden Requests $895 Billion For Military Spending For 2025
By Jay Dunlap|New Oxford Review. Jay Dunlap served as communications director in North America for the Legion of Christ and its lay affiliate, Regnum Christi, from 1998 to 2006 and as a communications consultant from 2006 to 2010. He is currently President of Madonna School & Workshop, the Archdiocese of Omaha’s outreach to children and… Read More Why the Popes Failed to Act.
“Technology advancements, along with the increasing availability of Wi-Fi, broadband internet, and cellular and wireless networking, have played a crucial role in creating a perfect storm for the IoT [“Internet of Things”], steering the direction of various industries.” “Billions” of physical objects, including what we wear. “Science” aping omnipotence, omniscience. NYT. As cars become ever more… Read More What Total Surveillance Means In Our Time. Cars, Homes, Hotels, Stores…
Freemasonry’s relationship with Catholicism has been back in the news lately, so I thought it might be interesting to post this ancient (and technically crude) interview with former Freemason and now Catholic theologian, David L. Gray. Dr. Gray talks about his journey from one so-called Enlightenment to Jesus Christ, Alpha and Omega, the Light of… Read More An Ancient Interview With David L. Gray on Freemasonry
Stillness By Romano Guardini When Holy Mass is properly celebrated there are moments in which the voices of both priest and faithful become silent. The priest continues to officiate as the rubrics indicate, speaking very softly or refraining from vocal prayer; the congregation follows in watchful, prayerful participation. What do these intervals of quiet signify?… Read More What is Missing. Stillness. By Romano Guardini
To Heck With the Irish.By Laura Wood —The Thinking Housewife. ON this Patrick’s Day, when the Irish wear green hats, drink cups of green beer and drown the memory of a holy saint in hedonism and nauseating sentimentality, it’s a good time to bear in mind that the Irish fully deserve the chastisement they are currently… Read More God Has Every Reason to Chastise the Irish Today.
Solange Strong Hertz. Quis ut Deus? Who is like God? The very name of St. Michael, Commander-in-Chief of the Church Militant, is a question. So capital a query immediately suggests another which must have preceded it: Who thinks he can be like God? Answers to both are given in Scripture, for God would not have… Read More The Primacy of Lucifer
This is no ordinary talk / book (perfectly narrated here). It is extraordinary even by Fulton J. Sheen’s standard. Lay persons and clergy both need to hear its message in our troublesome time. A time which assaults our very souls: “Day after day, Christians struggle to do good, to avoid evil, and to take up… Read More Spiritual Warfare: Victory Over Vice by Archbishop Fulton J Sheen
“…she tells us that “of course” she could “provide good arguments as to why looking at gender this way is wrong. Tempted as she might be … it turns out that she’s not going to bother with that stuff much. Instead, she wants to give the people what nobody was really asking for: a deconstruction of the… Read More What is Judith Butler afraid of?
…he seems to express a kind of anxiety or apprehension here about the obvious problem of the magisterium as he “comes out of the closet” and reveals himself to be an eschatological “universalist”. Dear Dr. Chapp: A point towards the clarification of thought from a layman and obvious non-theologian: Despite making many interesting —even profound—… Read More A Note to the Always Interesting Dr. Larry Chapp on Hell
The rules will cover high-impact, general-purpose AI models and high-risk AI systems which will have to comply with specific transparency obligations and EU copyright laws. “I welcome the overwhelming support from the European Parliament for the EU AI Act, the world’s first comprehensive, binding framework for trustworthy AI. Europe is now a global standard-setter in… Read More World’s first major act to regulate AI passed by European lawmakers
Despite the attempts on the part of recent popes like John Paul II and Benedict XVI* to correct the situation, not a few Protestants are, most traditional Catholics have long known, more biblically literate and theologically coherent today (despite the exegetical errors of Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and the rest), more traditional, and more empiric in their approaches to… Read More Yes, them.
Shellenberger: “To protect children from sexual exploitation, Canada must pass the Online Harms Act, says Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government. “I am the parent of two young boys,” said Justice Minister Arif Virani. “I will do whatever I can to ensure their digital world is as safe as the neighborhood we live in. Children are… Read More Musk & Schellenberger Warning
Updated. Note: My only interest in the following clip is the first segment because Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who served as the Apostolic Nuncio to the United States 2011 to 2016, said much the same thing early in the pandemic. While much is appreciated, no total agreement with the views of Tucker Carlson is implied. Dr. Joseph Ladapo, appointed… Read More Opinion. Florida Surgeon General Calls MRNA Covid Vax “The Antichrist of All Products”
The referendums were touted as the next step for social change. Irish Votes on Women, Family Defeated in Surprise Blow to Government. Irish referendums held to change outdated language on women and the family in the constitution were defeated Saturday in a surprise setback for the government, which admitted that it had failed to convince… Read More Humiliating Defeat For Varadkar in Irish Family Referendum
Updated. “This book collects essays, speeches, and presentations given over the course of James Likoudis’ seven decades as a Catholic. As a convert from Eastern Orthodoxy, he has devoted the greater portion of his life to the work of ecumenism, “that they all may be one” (Jn. 17:21). Within these pages, he attempts to refute… Read More Dr. James Likoudis. The Divine Mosaic: Piecing Together Catholic and Orthodox Unity
Catholic Critique 