“Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire”
—Sacred Traditio, Sacred Liturgy, Sacred Space, Sacred Scripture. “Try to wrap your head around…” — Culture critic, Florence, Italy
Category: Sacred Liturgy
Journalists contradict Overbeek ‘Cover up’ Story
Bishops decry Media Assault on St. John Paul II. CNA Staff Newsroom, Dec 7, 2022 / 08:00 Journalists investigating secular and Catholic Church sources in Poland have called into question allegations by a Dutch writer that St. John Paul II “covered up” sexual abuse while still a bishop in Poland. On Dec. 2, Ekke Overbeek,… Read More Journalists contradict Overbeek ‘Cover up’ Story
Revisiting the 2018 Dreher / Douthat Interview: the Great Gamble of Francis.
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.
Cardinal Müller challenges Pope Francis
Updated … “Müller is becoming a voice of reason within the Church and one many may start to rally around“ The Catholic Herald.September 29, 2022. In an interview with Infovaticana, German prelate, Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has warned that Pope Francis has no authority to change… Read More Cardinal Müller challenges Pope Francis
Catholic Social Teaching and Liberation Theology
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
How St. Augustine “Invented” Sex
He rescued Adam and Eve from obscurity, devised the doctrine of original sin—and the rest is sexual history. By Stephen Greenblatt.The New Yorker.June 12, 2017. Note: the italics in the above title of this essay were not in the original but have been supplied here. SH. One day in 370 C.E., a sixteen-year-old boy and… Read More How St. Augustine “Invented” Sex
I Am Therefore I Think
Is A Personal God Improbable? Or is it we who are improbable?Atheism has traditionally scoffed at belief in a God who is Personal or SupraPersonal. I’ve always found their position to be a counterintuitive curiosity. One of the reasons why is that I find myself, a personal being, to exist. I am here. You are… Read More I Am Therefore I Think
Why NCRs Androgynous ‘Jesus 2000’ Was a Problem
Weaponizing Jesus, Flowers, Rainbows… It was never a controversy about skin color for Catholics, despite NCRs disingenuous claims. The problem went much, much, deeper. “First unveiled on NBC’s Today Show in 2000, Janet McKenzie’s painting, Jesus of the People was the first place winner of the National ‘Catholic’ Reporter’s global competition to identify an image of Jesus… Read More Why NCRs Androgynous ‘Jesus 2000’ Was a Problem
The New Oxford Review Exchange on Whether Vatican II Was Necessary
It Ain’t Broke, But Let’s Fix It Anyhow June 2004, NOR We picked up a Catholic magazine, and on the cover was one big headline, and it was a striking one: “Was Vatican II a Mistake?” In the background to the headline were a litany of post-Vatican II disasters: “practicing homosexuals in the priesthood,” “pro-abortion… Read More The New Oxford Review Exchange on Whether Vatican II Was Necessary
“What was sacred for our ancestors remains sacred and great for us” — BXVI
“There is no contradiction between the two editions of the Roman Missal. In the history of liturgy growth and progress are found, but not a rupture. What was sacred for our ancestors remains sacred and great for us and it is not permissible that it be suddenly prohibited altogether, nor that it be judged as… Read More “What was sacred for our ancestors remains sacred and great for us” — BXVI
Traditional Catholic Ecumenism
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
Carlo Carretto on the Pain of Failing
“I wrote Letters from the Desert sitting on the arid dunes of the Sahara. They cost me ten years of suffering, and I love them for that. I tried to place myself naked, poor and alone, in the presence of God’s eternal majesty, totally committed to penetrating the logic of the Gospels, which is inexhaustible. I tried… Read More Carlo Carretto on the Pain of Failing
The Theology of the Priest in Union with Christ.
Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange THE PRIEST IN UNION WITH CHRIST AS VICTIM. Pt. 2 Ch.3 When considering the priest’s union with Christ we saw that he was bound to strive for an intimate friendship with Christ by reason of his priesthood—that is, by reason of his ordination and his duties towards the sacramental body and the… Read More The Theology of the Priest in Union with Christ.
Late A Disciple
John Paul II: “To do penance means, above all, to re-establish the balance and harmony broken by sin, to change directions at the cost of sacrifice” (Reconciliation and Penance, 26, emphasis added) Looking back, it seems to me I was only somewhat converted (if one can say that) to my Catholic Faith when I was… Read More Late A Disciple
Our Blessed Mother, Mary, in the Order of Grace
Fundamentalist Protestant incomprehension of the Catholic doctrine regarding Mary as the Mother of God is largely and essentially an incomprehension of the Incarnation itself, whereby the Word, who is God, was made flesh (John 1:1; 14). It is rooted in a failure to contemplate, with the Catholic Church, the stupendous implications of this wondrous mystery.… Read More Our Blessed Mother, Mary, in the Order of Grace
Tradition and the Living Magisterium.
“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.
Catholic Critique 