“Binyamin Appelbaum In a speech with multiple fire-breathing moments, I was struck by Biden’s level tone as he declared that those who fought to overturn Roe v. Wade were going to learn about “the power of women.”—NYT. “Women?” + Donald Trump on real persons abortion + America is racing toward Canada’s euthanasia free-for-all – as seven… Read More What it boils down to
LONDON (Reuters) – Sexually transmitted infections surged across Europe in 2022, with reported cases of gonorrhoea jumping by nearly a half, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said as it released its most recent data on Thursday. Syphilis cases rose by 34% from the previous year, to more than 35,000, chlamydia cases by… Read More “Sexually transmitted infections surge in Europe, latest data shows”
How the Southern Poverty Law Center profits from intolerance. 2000, Harper’s Magazine Foundation. “Ah, tolerance. Who could be against something so virtuous? And who could object to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Montgomery, Alabama-based group that recently sent out this heartwarming yet mildly terrifying appeal to raise money for its “Teaching Tolerance” program, which… Read More The Birth of the Southern Poverty Slander Center (SPLC)
The “family” referendum proposes to amend article 41.1 of the Constitution to expand State recognition of the family as founded not only on marriage but also on “other durable relationships”. “Ireland is holding a referendum [tomorrow ] March 8—International Women’s Day—which, if the governing parties have their way, will mean the word “mother” is removed… Read More John Waters on Pernicious March 8 Anti-Family Irish Referendum
Aquinas by Edward Feser. Exquisitely written and narrated. St. Thomas died on March 7. One of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the history of Western thought, St. Thomas Aquinas established the foundations for much of modern philosophy of religion, and is famous for his arguments for the existence of God. In this cogent… Read More Aquinas by Edward Feser
Seven priorities of the next Conclave. A profile of the next Pope, writes Cardinal –two years after the text signed ‘Demos’ (later revealed to have been written by Cardinal Pell) a new anonymous document, linked to the first, defines the seven priorities of the next Conclave to repair the confusion and crisis created by this… Read More Demos II. Seven priorities of the next Conclave.
Most truly moral people are shocked at the thought that leaders of a nation could engage in unnecessary wars, kill many hundreds of thousands of people, very likely millions (1) in the process, and still sleep at night and smile on the golf course for the cameras. Leroy Fletcher Prouty (January 24, 1917 – June… Read More Malthusian Wars. Fletcher Prouty.
Updated 2x. Note. SH.: While the Attorney General of the United States, the President’s brother, Robert F. Kennedy, was aggressively prosecuting the mob, we are asked to believe the President was, despite being barely able to walk, maintaining a reckless affair in the Oval Office with a well-known mistress of a major principal mobster? Really? Black-Ops.… Read More Nixon, JFK, The Christophers, and Vietnam
NCRegister: “A blessing is not compatible with a state of sin: One cannot bless that which breaks, consumes, destroys. To which sacrament, therefore, is the blessing of an irregular couple ordered? It is not true that blessing promotes and justifies nothing, because it implicitly promotes “disordered acts” and a pseudo union… “In the text of Fiducia… Read More ‘Non-Liturgical’ Blessings Do Not Exist
For some reason I thought it was another book about our frivolous TV shows and general culture (Seinfeld, Larry David’s vicious Curb Your Enthusiasm —pick your nonsense— and I already knew this about the culture. But then things got darker. Very recently I somehow bumped into this reading. I listened. I couldn’t have been more… Read More I’ve had the book for decades. But I never read it. “Shows About Nothing.”
Traditional Irish people are convinced “that the care referendum would remove constitutional protection for mothers, many of whom would rather work in the home if they could afford to. Members of the Iona Institute have also raised concerns about what they perceive to be the uncertainty of the family referendum. Other conservative groups such as… Read More Ireland in Crisis: Upcoming Anti-Family Referendum March 8
Perhaps most Catholics know her story. Saint Margaret of Castello was born into a well-to-do family near Florence, Italy in 1287. To the great distress of her parents, upon her birth they discovered that she suffered from a variety of severe physical ailments. She was a dwarf, had a curved spine that left her hunched… Read More Patron St. Margaret of Castello
I could never have expected his dying like that.I thought there were things he was still looking forward to. Despite it all… He had quit smoking.Do men contemplating suicide quit smoking? He seemed to have gottenover his divorce. I guess people do. He was in his late 40s. A gifted carpenter.The business and crews which… Read More Suicide.
Note: Dismissing James Martin and Jeanine Gramick rather than encouraging their rainbow agendas would have been a more eloquent gesture, but this is not without its confusing significance. Carol Glatz – Catholic News ServiceMarch 01, 2024 VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The gifts of men and women are “fruitful” together, and to erase the difference between… Read More Pope Francis: Gender ideology is today’s ‘worst danger’
Commentary: ‘People of God’ was seen as the way by which the Church could express herself as an institution rooted in the mystery of the Trinity, yet present and active in the world. National Catholic RegisterFather Joseph Thomas February 26, 2024 How can we explain that the Church is an ineffable mystery, yet also a visible… Read More What Were They Thinking? Vatican II and the ‘People of God’
We, his critics, drawing strength from Catholic Tradition, have never ceased praying for the Pope, But he doesn’t seem to recognize true friendship. So we keep trying and cannot stop. Will he hear us? We must not seek the applause of the world, only it’s conversion. SH. “St. Thomas provides a guideline for addressing correction… Read More Will he hear so many?
Edward FeserFebruary 25, 2024 Popes speak infallibly when they either proclaim some doctrine ex cathedra, or reiterate some doctrine that has already been taught infallibly by virtue of being a consistent teaching of the ordinary magisterium of the Church for millennia. Even when papal teaching is not infallible, it is normally owed “religious assent.” However,… Read More What Counts as Magisterial Teaching?
2/24/24. “For years the annual Religious Education Congress in Los Angeles has been a regular source of liturgical distress as various innovations test the bounds of reverence, not to say sacrilege. This year as the congress unfolded on the West Coast, the genuine sacrilege took place on the East Coast, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in… Read More Dead Synodality. Fr. Raymond J. de Souza.
Catholic World Report. Responsibility, Accountability, Transparency: This was the threefold watchword. Christopher R. Altieri. “Five years ago, the Pontiff railed against “abominable crimes that must be erased from the face of the earth…” His record since has been abysmal and even scandalous.” “Pope Francis has refused to defrock a confessed child molester or even remove him from… Read More “Pope Francis’s ‘all-out battle’ against clerical abuse has been a failure”
This is plausible. But the fact that Doug Barry has a personal financial interest in the danger he warns about detracts from confidence. I’ve seen so many similar dire prophecies of imminent disaster, albeit mostly in the Protestant spheres… but it never hurts to be prepared. You can also, obviously, put together your own preparedness… Read More What Caused the AT&T Outages?
No fear of God. + Bill Joy: Why the Future Doesn’t Need us. + Aldous Huxley on Emerging Scientific Dictatorship . Note: Back in the 1980s a nun told me she believed homosexuals were God’s gift to humankind in an age of overpopulation.
Modern de facto Paganism often caves to the passions, but in ancient times it was not always so. Stoic wisdom is not theology, but is often good psychology in harmony with Christian ideals. The Magi also brought their gifts. “Finally, brethren, whatsoever is true, whatsoever is honorable, whatsoever is just, whatsoever is pure, whatsoever is… Read More Stoic Gems: The Porch and the Cross
Ireland. So, you asked me,“Where’s it going?” Well, it’s pretty dark… Evil, in a strange way, brings us together, forces us to discover strands of commonality and fellowship in our seemingly divergent cultures. When I was growing up, the particularities of my homeland, Ireland seemed to function as a barrier to connections with other places.… Read More Explaining the Cycle of Ireland’s Constant Destruction. John Waters.
Or how to squeeze Union Theological Seminary into two Millennia of unambiguous Catholic teaching. Raymond Brown’s Wayward Turn in Biblical Theory by Msgr. George A. Kelly Ignatius Press, San Francisco, CA, January / February Note: Raymond E. Brown was professor emeritus at Union Theological Seminary (UTS) in New York City, where he taught for 29 years. He was… Read More Raymond E. Brown’s Mischievous Tactic: the “Scientifically Controlled Evidence”
“…on reserving the priestly ordination to men alone” Female Deacons? Not possible. Raymond Arroyo and The World Over Live. The conclusion of the matter. 2. “The Declaration recalls and explains the fundamental reasons for this teaching, reasons expounded by Paul VI, and concludes that the Church “does not consider herself authorized to admit women to… Read More Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis of John Paul II
Tucker Carlson speaks to the World Government Summit on US-Russia After Putin Interview | Ukraine War “The World Governments (plural) Summit is an annual event held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It brings together leaders in government for a global dialogue about governmental process and policies with a focus on the issues of futurism, technology… Read More The Mind of Carlson
Updated 2x. While on the one hand the so-called Social Justice movements of the 1960’s often devolved into a jumble of contradictory directions, some of them noble and some of them not, Dr. Martin Luther King denied the canard about being some kind of “Communist” (see YouTube) some of his friends and supporters may have… Read More Trying to Make Sense of Dr. Martin Luther King
For years now very many “influencers” (Catholics very much included of course) spend much of their time making and promoting videos to share their points of view, or those of others. The camera is alluring. Many dream of becoming popular, the next Joe Rogan or Tucker Carlson. But very few videos are all that memorable;… Read More How to Mark (Read) a Book By Mortimer J. Adler, Ph.D.
The stoics were important pre-modern psychologists. “It was in Greece that the most sublime wisdom flourished, as it is said in the Epistle to the Corinthians: “The Jews require signs, and the Greeks seek after wisdom.” — St. Albert the Great “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever… Read More Gleaning The Wisdom of the Ancients. On Depression.
“Canterbury Cathedral, where St Thomas Becket was martyred just next to the nave, is hosting a “90s Silent Disco” over two nights Feb. 8-9. 3,000 people expected to take part. Faithful are protesting against the event with prayer vigils outside @CburyCathedral”. Faithful Catholics are being taunted all over Europe, the United States and beyond by… Read More Canterbury Cathedral
“… the political fantasies of Jean-Jacques Rousseau have a great deal to answer for. For two centuries, his sentimentalizing utopian rhetoric has provided despots of all description with a means of pursuing conformity while praising freedom. It is a neat trick. Words like “freedom” and “virtue” were ever on Rousseau’s lips. But freedom for him… Read More Jean-Jacques Rosseau and the Antinomian Principle
National Catholic Register. COMMENTARY: Cardinal Fernández’s clarification of ‘Fiducia Supplicans,’ the Pope’s solidarity with the Jewish people, and the lack of priests at the Synod on Synodality were addressed by the Holy See last week. Father Raymond J. de Souza Vatican February 7, 2024 On the feast of St. Blaise, the Vatican cleared its collective throat… Read More Reset Saturday At the Vatican
By Dietrich von Hildebrand. “Enamored of our present epoch, blind to all its characteristic dangers, intoxicated with everything modern, there are many Catholics who no longer ask whether something is true, or whether it is good and beautiful, or whether it has an intrinsic value: they ask only whether it is up-to-date, suitable to “modern… Read More Truth: conformity of an idea or proposition to reality.
MIC Fleecing of American taxpayers Matthew Hoh Two press reports stood out to me this morning: the release of the names of two US Navy SEALs who drowned two weeks ago in the Arabian Sea and the Air Force’s production authorization for the B21 Raider bomber. Both stories symbolize an imperial inertia that defines American… Read More Americans Are Paying A Massive Price To Maintain Empire
I like Damian Thompson. And I like the video, all the sleek suits, handsome people and cool cars. I’m nostalgic in many, many ways; but there was often a world of difference in dress and girth between a modern 1940s office or retail worker chosen for PR purposes and the average butcher, baker or candlestick… Read More Damian Thompson’s Got Class
Updated. Is the local government and local church involved in seeking to help? Why do some US cities struggle more with homelessness? A new book explores a key component of the issue: housing supply. [ Note / SH]: Illegal Substance Use Data also “show high rates of comorbid disorders such as anxiety disorders—which include generalized… Read More Homelessness, Housing Supply — and Co-morbid Disorders.
“Political analysts used to say that the Democratic Party was riding a demographic wave that would lead to an era of dominance. But that “coalition of the ascendant” never quite jelled. The party did benefit from a rise in nonwhite voters and college-educated professionals, but it has also shed voters without a college degree. All… Read More Happy Faces. Joe, Mika and Rachel Won’t Admit it Publicly, But Democrats Are Seriously Infighting
Foreign Affairs: “…When Americans think of global war, they typically think of World War II—or the part of the war that began with Japan’s strike on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. After that attack, and Adolf Hitler’s subsequent declaration of war against the United States, the conflict was a single, all-encompassing struggle between rival alliances on… Read More How Today’s Regional Conflicts Resemble the Ones That Produced World War II
Cardinal Gerhard Mueller wrote in 2023, “Throughout the history of the Church, whenever Popes have felt or behaved like politicians, things have gone wrong. In politics it is about the power of the people over the people, in the Church of Christ it is about the service of the eternal salvation of men, to which… Read More Peter, When you are converted…
1033 We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: “He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life… Read More CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, 2nd. Ed. On Perdition
Catholic Critique 