Jean-Jacques Rosseau and the Antinomian Principle

“… 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

When Popes Exposed and Denounced Doctrinal Ambiguity, the “Art of Deception.”

Pinned 2.15.23 —Auctorem Fidei, August 28, 1794, is a Bull issued by Pius VI in condemnation of the Gallican and Jansenist acts and tendencies of the Synod of Pistoia (1786) In the introductory text the Pope exposed the method, the “art of deception,” as Pius X did again at the dawn of the twentieth century… Read More When Popes Exposed and Denounced Doctrinal Ambiguity, the “Art of Deception.”

Weather Balloons? Deep State(s) Psy-Ops? ‘Signs and Lying Wonders’?

In any case, whatever it all turns out to be this time, whether altogether mundane or something else, we know that one day Christians can expect “wicked deceptions” to descend upon the earth, originating from “principalities and powers … the rulers of the world of this darkness … the spirits of wickedness in the high… Read More Weather Balloons? Deep State(s) Psy-Ops? ‘Signs and Lying Wonders’?

Keeping Out the Jacobins

“The French Jacobins selected France as savior of the world. The new Jacobins have anointed the United States.” Pedro L. Gonzalez.Aug 25. “I’ve been reading The New Jacobinism: America as Revolutionary State by Claes G. Ryn, first published in 1991. It’s a short but insightful polemic about the pernicious influence of neoconservatism—the “New Jacobinism”—on American… Read More Keeping Out the Jacobins

Acedia and Its Discontents: Metaphysical Boredom in an Empire of Desire

“In the arid wasteland that is academic writing, amid the wider desert that is modern secular thought, R. J. Snell’s book on acedia is an oasis of flowers and fruit and fresh water. Professor Snell reminds us that man must never be made subordinate to work, nor even to the empty ‘vacations’ that are but interruptions in work. He… Read More Acedia and Its Discontents: Metaphysical Boredom in an Empire of Desire

Benedict XVI: The Church Links Pedophilia to the Error of Proportion-alism in Ethics.

BXVI: “We have to reflect on what was insufficient in our education, in our teaching in recent decades. There was, in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, the idea of proportionalism in ethics: It held that nothing is bad in itself, but only in proportion to others. With proportionalism, it was possible to think for some… Read More Benedict XVI: The Church Links Pedophilia to the Error of Proportion-alism in Ethics.

Dr. Larry Chapp on McElroy and the Moral Theological Project of Pope Francis

Note: the choice of James Martin’s photo here is mine alone, not Dr. Chapp’s. SH Opinion “Bishop McElroy is on record stating that the language of the Catechism on [rainbow theology] being “gravely disordered” should be changed to something more “inclusive” (whatever that means) and is clearly sympathetic to the project of Fr. James Martin.… Read More Dr. Larry Chapp on McElroy and the Moral Theological Project of Pope Francis

The Quicksands of “Catholic” Education and the Future.

I personally think that Catholic education, combining the teaching of traditional theology, philosophy, the great books and intensive practical skills necessary to build a home, ought to be returned to holy men and women in small orthodox monastic or other communities at comparatively little cost. — Why colleges are becoming cults — Trent Horn reviews… Read More The Quicksands of “Catholic” Education and the Future.