by Thomas Storck. What is needed is a real debate on religious questions providing a rational public apologetic for the faith. “For we were not following fictitious tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his grandeur.” – 2 Peter 1:16 The… Read More The Catholic Faith Is Not a Noble Lie
“What earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden and even considered harmful.” —Pope Benedict XVI, Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the occasion of the publication of the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, July 7, 2007. “The Holy… Read More The Sacred Deposit. No Substantial Evolution of Meaning.
…who kindly blesses each one of us with the Sign of the Cross + from the sidewalk when we come out of Church. Or when we pass on the street. O blessed Sign! Once when I needed to Confess my sins only to find it was one of those rare days when the church was… Read More I know a priest
Mass. June 2025. Now You See Him. Now You Don’t. Who or what here is front and Center at Mass the whole time? And Who is casually picked up – with one hand! – put back down and de-emphasized quickly, then passed around in what appears to be the real climax of the present liturgical… Read More Dismal Liturgies
One body, one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Father of us all” — Eph. 4: 4-6 Every ecclesial community brings its tradition(s) to bear in the exegesis and understanding of Scripture. Even independent Protestant Fundamentalist pastors and larger Protestant denominations(1) employ their traditions [i.e., their received community understanding of texts] as a… Read More Catholicism, Tradition and Protestantism
America… “not in any sense Christian” “….she licensed every form of lust with laws to cleanse the stain of scandal she has spread.” — Dante, The Inferno, canto V, 57. Every four years, truths in America can change from one thing to another, even as the center – left’s quest to be the global hegemon… Read More America and Seductive False ‘Liberty’.
by Stephen Hand In Evelyn Waugh’s stunning classic, Brideshead Revisited, there is a scene which presses on my mind these days as I ponder so many forces gathering against a Church weakened greatly by the sins of her own children, both clerical and lay. All of us. It is the time when Sebastian, Lord Alex… Read More Lord Marchmain’s Long Hate
By Carlo Carretto, 1910 – 1988 (*). Carlo Carretto PFE was an Italian Catholic and member of the Little Brothers of the Gospel. See other links at this website. His books can be purchased at Amazon.com. ~~~ “Charles de Foucauld said one day: “If the contemplative life were possible only behind monastic walls or in the silence… Read More Contemplation in the Streets
With respect to the ongoing controversies about the value of both Catholic ecumenism and the Sainthood of Pope Paul VI, Inez Fitzgerald Storck, in reply to a question regarding her previous review of Paul VI: A Divided Pope by Yves Chiron, writes in this month’s New Oxford Review: “As my husband, Thomas Storck, points out… Read More Ecumenism? Paul VI? Inez Fitzgerald Storck
“… a raw and unedited conversation at his home in Somerset. In this wide-ranging dialogue, we explore his Catholic upbringing, his current faith and daily prayer life, and how these shape both his family life and his political convictions. We discuss the foundations of his conservatism, his perspectives on Reform UK, and the potential for… Read More Jacob Rees-Mogg: Catholicism and the Future of Britain
Whatever trouble has been wrought by apostate clergy, or otherwise indifferent power blocks in the Church today, the prophecies concerning the infiltrations of Christ’s Mystical Body, as the climax of history approaches, makes it clear that Catholic Christians are to be vigilant. Macaulay urged us, not to forget that all branches are cut off from… Read More Macaulay on the Catholic Church
by Michael Davies.From Catholic, October 1996. The Catholic Church was founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son made Man. He has promised His Church that She will continue to exist exactly as He constituted her until He comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead. The Catholic Church is the Church that is indefectible. The… Read More Michael Davies on the Indefectibility of the Mass of Paul VI.
Excerpt from Richard Evans‘ The Third Reich in Power [Footnotes found in book]. CATHOLICS AND PAGANS. Hitler both admired and feared the Catholic Church, which at the time of his appointment as Reich Chancellor claimed the allegiance of about 20 million Germans, or one-third of the population, mostly in the South and West. Like Bismarck… Read More Richard Evans on Hitler and the Catholic Church.
“In Archbishop Georg Gänswein’s memoir, Nothing but the Truth — My Life Beside Benedict XVI, there are some passages which confirm that the pope emeritus, in relation to ethically sensitive issues, was in full harmony with the Magisterium of the Church and in significant discord with the magisterium of Pope Francis albeit presented with extreme grace… Read More On abortion and gender Benedict and Francis are irreconcilable
Note: Mary Daly died in January 2010. It is good to be tolerant, even of incoherent things, we are told today. The devil himself ought to be given a seat at the table. So the courts have ruled. But that can’t stop us from noticing that Mary Daly represents the meltdown of the dissident transgressive… Read More Mary Daly: The Witch of Boston College
Or, how a modern psychologist had it out for the Catholic Church and joined forces with the so-called Progressives to wreck her sacred tradition. Carl Ransom Rogers (January 8, 1902 – February 4, 1987) was an American psychologist who was one of the founders of humanistic psychology and was known especially for his person-centered psychotherapy. Rogers was widely considered… Read More And the ‘Walls’ of Love Came Tumbling Down
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 with them. Trent models that approach each week on the radio program Catholic Answers Live and on his own podcast, The Counsel… Read More Trent Horn: What Charlie Kirk Gets Wrong About the Catholic Church
Carlo Carretto1910-1988 “How much I must criticize you, my church, and yet how much I love you! You have made me suffer more than anyone and yet I owe more to you than to anyone. I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence. You have given me much scandal and… Read More Love Letter to the Church. Carlo Carreto.
“The living magisterium makes extensive use of documents of the past, but it does so while judging and interpreting, gladly finding in them its present thought, but likewise, when needful, distinguishing its present thought from what is traditional only in appearance. “It is revealed truth always living in the mind of the Church, or, if it is preferred, the… Read More Tradition and the Living Magisterium.
… and the state of the Church.. unfinished controversy? | New Oxford Review 2001. Cardinal Walter Kasper famously contested Cardinal Ratzinger’s defense of the “ontological primacy of the universal church” over the local churches. By Philip Blosser | April 2002Philip Blosser, Professor of Philosophy at Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, North Carolina. “When Cardinals clash in… Read More Revisiting The Kasper-Ratzinger debate
+ Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect. Declaration:+Dominus Iesus, August 6, 2000. + On the Unicity and SalvificUniversality Of Jesus Christ and The Church. INTRODUCTION: 1. The Lord Jesus, before ascending into heaven, commanded his disciples to proclaim the Gospel to the whole world and to baptize all nations: “Go into… Read More On the Unicity and Universality Of Jesus Christ
“The statement is likely to be embraced by conservatives and stir consternation among L.G.B.T.Q. advocates who fear it will be used as a cudgel against transgender people.” The Vatican on Monday issued a new document approved by Pope Francis stating that the church believes that gender fluidity and transition surgery, as well as surrogacy, amount… Read More NYT: Vatican Document Casts Gender Change and Fluidity as Threat to Human Dignity
…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
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.
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’
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.
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…
… in your pocket. I don’t want money or offerings. Keep it for your family, your neighbors, and Christ’s poor. I only want to share content that will possibly edify, inform, and console in this time of global and ecclesial destabilization. Here at this website I mostly share the invaluable work of others, past and… Read More Catholic Critique. If there is any value in this website, please keep your money…
… but pay attention to what is said” — Thomas a’ Kempis, The Imitation of Christ. Begging With Confidence January 27, 2024 Around us, evil on evil is unfurled? “Fear not,” said Jesus, “I’ve overcome the world” (Jn. XVI, 33). On the last day of 2023 a Franciscan priest of the Capucin Friary of Morgon… Read More “Do not inquire, ‘Who said this?’
“… several years after my Bat Mitzvah, I started to ask myself deeper questions: What is the real purpose of our human existence? What really happens when we die? And God, why do YOU feel so far away? I felt like I received a fantastic introduction to God, but I was still, somehow, craving more: I wanted a… Read More Why Recognizing Jesus as the Messiah Is the Culmination of My Jewish Faith
National Catholic Register. The hearing followed the unveiling of the House Judiciary Committee’s report detailing the results of a monthslong investigation into a leaked internal FBI memo that discussed investigating Catholics as potential domestic terrorists. FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on… Read More FBI Director Grilled After Release of New Report on Targeting of Catholics
Truth does not change with the changes in political parties, current philosophies or trends. ” a thing cannot be and not be at the same time”— St. Thomas (Summa Contra Gentiles, Book 1, chap. 84) “…reason’s first principle is the principle of contradiction. He who denies this principle affirms a self-destructive sentence. To deny this principle… Read More Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange on Reason and The Law of Non-Contradiction.
Charles Lewis. Review of The Priest Barracks: Dachau 1938-1945 by By Guillaume Zeller. National Catholic Register . Updated. “On July 20, 1933, six months after Hitler rose to power, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, the future Pope Pius XII, and the German vice chancellor, Franz von Papen, signed a concordat — a sort of peace treaty between the… Read More Enduring Faith Amid Horror: The Priests of Dachau
C. S. Lewis once said that reading literature from the past is like a clean sea breeze blowing through our musty minds. Interview by Greg Peters. This article is from the November 2023 issue. Christianity Today. In recent decades, evangelicals studying faith in the Middle Ages have done much to recover its variety and richness. Yet… Read More Mystics, Monastics, and the Moderns Who Need Them
It cannot be seriously doubted in our time that since the Second Vatican Council not a little of what has been called “Catholic ecumenism” has in fact gone off the Church’s traditional dogmatic rails. But for all that the principle cannot be doubted. It was doubtless the seemingly radical abruptness of the Church’s turnaround regarding… Read More Traditional Catholic Ecumenism
Hear Davies’ talk: What Happened at Vatican II? +++ Michael Treharne Davies (13 March 1936 – 25 September 2004[1]) was a British teacher and traditionalist Catholic writer of many books about the Catholic Church following the Second Vatican Council… Although Davies opposed French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s canonically-illicit consecration of four SSPX bishops in 1988 against the wishes of Pope John Paul II,… Read More Michael Davies. What Happened at Vatican II?
“For the first time in over fifty years, a Catholic bishop has published his own comprehensive presentation of the Faith–what to believe, how to live, and how to pray as Christ taught. Sure to be a classic for generations to come, Credo: Compendium of the Catholic Faith offers a clear and readable summary of Catholicism… Read More Credo: Compendium of the Catholic Faith. Athanasius Schneider.
Updated. A couple of years ago our son asked me if I watched Michael Voris’ YouTube channel. I replied along the lines of, “Sometimes. Not very often. He’s been around for a long time; I know his thinking well enough. It can lead to wrong impressions, to schism or outright skepticism.” It can also minimize… Read More Michael Davies on Our Priests and Our Tribulation
Anti-colonialism was one of the dominant political currents of the 20th century, as dozens of European colonies in Asia and Africa became free. Today we are still living with the aftermath of colonialism. Apologists for terrorism, including Osama Bin Laden, argue that terrorist acts are an understandable attempt on the part of subjugated non-Western peoples… Read More History is Complex. Dinesh D’Souza on The Legacy of Colonialism
… in Liberalism. And why I can never see the Crucifixion of Our Lord in the same way after Holland’s momentous book Dominion. SH “Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable, a punishment reserved for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe that one particular victim of… Read More Historian Tom Holland on Losing His Faith
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