“The Christian concept of witness adds to the popular notion the idea of a religious experience to which a believer testifies by his life, words, and actions, and thus gives inspiration and example to others by his testimony. “Implicit in Christian witness is also the element of courage in giving testimony, either because others are… Read More Fr. James Martin v. Catholic Courage
A World Over analysis begins in hope then almost immediately enters into the darkness of what the Church is now facing: possible formal “heresy and schism”. Raymond Arroyo, Robert Royal and Canon Lawyer Fr. Gerald Murray. (CNA) “… The consistory will be held on Sept. 30. By Oct. 1 there will be 136 cardinal electors… Read More Shaking the Foundations. A “Hostile Takeover” of the Catholic Church?
“Hold fast to your faith in the Church, she is One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic. We can never relinquish her holiness to the evils of this world even if they invade her very depths. Remember that when we are faithful to Jesus He is our power & strength. He is Light of the World.” —… Read More “Even if they invade her very depths”
G.K. Chesterton and the Meaning of Progress by Joseph Pearce. “Progress is a useless word; for progress takes for granted an already defined direction: and it is exactly about the direction that we disagree.” G.K. Chesterton c. 1920 (photo: Public Domain).National Catholic Registerwith permission of author. The great British writer G.K. Chesterton insisted that progress… Read More What Good is ‘Progress’ in the Wrong Direction?
Everything is changing. The Medium Is so ubiquitous we often become unaware of it. Which is no small part of the problem. We dwell totally within technological media today and observe it less and less. But (practicing Catholic) Marshall McLuhan saw it clearly and tried to warn us of what was coming — and how… Read More Marshall McLuhan, Prophetic Witness, 1966-7.
Bends over backwards to save ubiquitous travesties. “A few months ago, I visited Lourdes for the first time, and when I saw the mosaics, I groaned out loud. Father Rupnik’s style is immediately recognizable, and my first thought was that the art would forever be tainted… Three years ago, he was even briefly excommunicated …… Read More America Magazine Compares Rupnik Cartoons to Caravaggio.
By Solange Hertz Any citizen doubting that the Old Religion of the alchemists is the state religion of the U.S. need only make a pilgrimage to the nation’s capital, beginning with the Prayer Room established in the Capitol by joint resolution of Congress in 1954. He will find there for his devotion a small central… Read More Our State Religion
“I wonder how many readers are aware of the full extent of the threat to the faith posed by Modernism, “the synthesis of all heresies,” as St Pius X described it. Modernism is not simply a danger to Catholicism; it undermines the very basis of any form of religion that claims belief in a supernatural… Read More Michael Davies on Modernism
David Halberstam’s The Fifties: “Selling The American Way” “The Fifties is a sweeping social, political, economic, and cultural history of the 10 years that Halberstam regards as seminal in determining what our nation is today. Halberstam offers portraits of not only the titans of the age: Eisenhower, Dulles, Oppenheimer, MacArthur, Hoover, and Nixon; but also of… Read More Videodrome. When the Seven Deadly Sins of Excess Morphed Into “Progress”
Edward Pentin of the National Catholic Register wrote, “The former cardinal-archbishop of Milan [Jesuit Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini], a favorite of those pushing for heterodox reforms in the Church, had envisioned a permanent synodal Church in which the idea of collegial governance introduced at the Second Vatican Council could be better realized. The Jesuit biblical… Read More Martini’s Endless Dream
Updated. Cardinals Mueller and Burke on the German Synod and beyond. “Bishops are accusing brother bishops of schism and heresy — and it’s all over the most fundamental and crucial doctrines of the Church.” Signs of the times. “Desecration is the act of depriving something of its sacred character, or the disrespectful, contemptuous, or destructive… Read More Pontificate of Francis 10 Years Later
“On the occasion of the release of his autobiographical book retracing the last 50 years of the history of the Church, retired Archbishop André-Joseph Léonard discusses the great challenges of our time. “… from the theological and pastoral drifts that marked the post-Vatican II period to the current debates surrounding the Synod on Synodality and… Read More Belgian Archbishop: The Fundamental Teachings of the Church Are Under Threat
… Being careful to provide and protect the hermeneutic of continuity of Pope Benedict XVI. “Built in the mid-14th century, and dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria, this chapel served pilgrims on their way to England’s Nazareth. Saint Catherine was the patron saint of pilgrims to the Holy Land and her knights kept open the… Read More Could Walsingham point the way to a post-Francis liturgical renewal?
From the book Benedict XVI Defender of the Faith “Having stressed that the traditional Mass was “never abrogated,” he sought to ensure the freedom of the faithful to be present at the celebration of the Mass by replacing John Paul II’s earlier indult and Motu Proprio, which had relied on the good faith of the… Read More Joseph Pearce on the Heart and Mind of a Real Shepherd
By Catholic Worker, Dr. Larry Chapp Michael Sean Winters is either hoping we are naïve enough to not remember the Reporter’s long and problematic history, or he thinks we are stupid enough to not be concerned with incoherent zig-zagging. The folks over at the National Catholic Reporter must think we have poor memories or no… Read More The “Hypocritical Ultramontanism” of The National Catholic Reporter
Updated. New York Times columnist Ross Douthat’s new book, To Change The Church: Pope Francis And The Future of Catholicism … is an urgent, compelling work of popular religious journalism. Douthat reads the signs of these anxious times with acute clarity and far-seeing vision. This book is must reading for every Christian who cares about the fate of… Read More Revisiting the 2018 Dreher / Douthat Interview: the Great Gamble of Francis.
Even if it may have caused more problems than it solved, Vatican II for the future Pope was in no small part about reintegrating loose and undisciplined elements of immutable Catholic doctrine with Christological and Eucharistic teaching. George Weigel writes, “In the years immediately after the Council, Joseph Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI), who… Read More Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger on Reasons for Vatican II
Anthony Esolen: “…Every closing of a church is a knife to the heart of a real human community. Here [Canada / Quebec] people feel it more keenly perhaps than in America. There was no school till the Church made one. There were no groups for social welfare till the Church organized them, formally or informally.… Read More The Loss of the Heart of a Human Community
In 2008 Nikolas Kozloff wrote in the New York Times, “During the 1980s and 1990s Benedict, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, acted as John Paul II’s doctrinal czar. At the time, John Paul was in the midst of a fierce battle to silence prominent Church liberals. “This conception of Christ as a political figure, a revolutionary,… Read More Catholic Social Teaching and Liberation Theology
The following conversation took place in 2018 and it appears we remain essentially stuck where we were then. Many, of course, argue that it’s much worse today since the issues discussed here seem to have been eclipsed and complicated by bizarre psycho-sexual agendas from coast to coast. Others say not really since both the legacy… Read More Stuck ‘Twixt Him and Him
— Trent Horn on the double standard of those Catholics who push “LGBT Pride“. — Also critiques Fr. Martin’s LGBT Outreach website — Why French Postmodernists were pro-pedohilia: Foucault, Sartre, Derrida, Barthes, Simone de Beauvoir, Deleuze… 1968 was the powderkeg. “The Catechism’s teaching on homosexuality and homosexual acts is based on Christian anthropology not bad… Read More Trent Horn Reviews Fr. James Martin Documentary
Elizabeth’s Occult Reign. John Dee: Scholar, Courtier, Adviser to Queen, purveyor of “Science”, the original 007. “Founder of the Rosicrucian Order, the protestant response to the Jesuits.” (5) By Carolyn McDowall Feb. 5, 2016 John Dee (1527-1608) English born Welsh mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, occult philosopher, imperialist, and adviser to Queen Elizabeth 1, it has been… Read More The Occult Reign and Wizardry of Elizabeth I Queen of England
“On August 13, 1961, the Communistgovernment of the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) began to build a barbed wire and concrete “Antifascistischer Schutzwall,” or “antifascist bulwark,” between East and West Berlin. The official purpose of this Berlin Wall was to keep so-called Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state,… Read More Far Left Power. A New Berlin Wall.
James Li breaks down the dark side of the non-profit industrial complex which is rife with corruption, power, and a lack of transparency (Click image). Too, Utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer is awarded the Berggruen Prize. More on him below. Culture of Death by First Thing’s Wesley J. Smith “reveals how more and more doctors have withdrawn… Read More Bill Gates and Other “Non-profit” Foundations
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.
Paul Kingsnorth. “Do not be conformed to this world“— St. Paul Welcome to the Abbey. ‘Instead of thought there is a vast, inhuman void, full of words, formulas, slogans, declarations, echoes, ideologies … If we do not think, we cannot act freely; we are at the mercy of forces which we never understand, forces that… Read More The Abbey of Misrule
Matt Taibbi writes at his TK News site, “News2Share and Ford Fischer recap the history of “Progressive Anti Abortion Uprising,” or “PAUU,” a group mentioned in this space during anti-abortion demonstrations last December. The group’s director of activism, Lauren Handy, was arrested along with eight other group members in connection with an incident in 2020 when they allegedly blocked access… Read More Progressivist Prolifers on Trial
“… Some German Catholics have voiced concern that the abuse crisis is being exploited in order to introduce the Synodal Way’s revolutionary goals. The sex-abuse scandal “is only being used for the radical restructuring of the Church,” said Meuser, himself an abuse survivor. “Because of abuse, we need abuse prosecution, not ‘Church reform,’” he added. … Read More Synod Using Clerical Abuse Crisis as Revolutionary Pretext?
By John A. Perricone | New Oxford Review, January-February 2021 The Deleterious Effects of a Subtle Inversion One of Hollywood’s more sybaritic starlets solemnly announced the other day that she was embarking on a 30-day “spiritual cleanse” in India. Since neither ecumenism nor eco-enthusiasm is my métier, I was bewildered. Could it be some novel… Read More “New Spirituality” & the Ghost of Catholicism
From Trojan Horse in the City of God,by Dietrich von Hildebrand. Note: what follows by Dietrich Von Hildebrand is lengthy but well worth a print-out and read — Editor. I MET TEILHARD DE CHARDIN in 1949 at a dinner arranged by Father Robert Gannon, S.J., then president of Fordham University. Previously, the noted scholars Father… Read More Teilhard de Chardin: False Prophet
Excerpt “… I know there are billions of good Muslims. In an art class after forgetting my lunch an Iranian woman offered me hers. The mostly wealthy English ladies present wouldn’t offer a crisp. I’ve had good experiences with Asians here and abroad, that doesn’t affect my question; great people; why not live among them?… Read More Twitter revives the ducking stool for unwoke witches
“What they are proposing to do to Notre-Dame [Paris] would never be done to Westminster Abbey or Saint Peter’s in Rome. It’s a kind of theme park and very childish and trivial given the grandeur of the place.’ … Under new proposals confessional boxes, altars and classical sculptures will be scrapped for trendy art murals,… Read More Notre Dame reportedly ‘being turned into woke theme park’
Regarding the U.S. bishops upcoming document on the Eucharist, Progressivist Jesuit Thomas Reese proffers some telling theological suggestions: Reese: “… the document should not use the word “transubstantiation,” which is a theological concept based on Aristotelian philosophy, not the Scriptures. I believe that the bread and wine become the body and blood of Christ, but… Read More Jesuit Former ‘America’ Editor to Bishops: Drop Trans – substantiation and the Worship of Jesus
NYT: Pope Francis Is Tearing the Catholic Church Apart (Revisited). By Michael Brendan Dougherty.The New York Times.August 13, 2021. In the summer of 2001, I drove up to Poughkeepsie, N.Y., to find what we called “the traditional Latin Mass,” the form of Roman Catholic worship that stretched back centuries and was last authorized in 1962, before… Read More All I Really Need to Know in Theology I Learned From … Mr. Rogers?
Catholic Critique 