Update / clarification. The creative brilliance of Hans Zimmer aside, is computer looping music? Is the human being / composer in danger of being lost when all “music” is reduced to “nothing but” vibrations and frequencies which have allegedly “always” existed without direction? Music is evidence of the harmonious manipulation and redirection of created vibrations… Read More The Vibrations of Hans Zimmer
Martin Bormann, Reich leader: “National Socialist and Christian concepts are incompatible. The Christian Churches build upon the ignorance of men and strive to keep large portions of the people in ignorance because only in this way can the Christian Churches maintain their power. On the other hand, National Socialism is based on scientific foundations. Christianity’s… Read More Adolph Hitler Hated Christianity
If we meet a Muslim who is hungry we must try to feed him; if he is homeless, we must try to find him shelter; if a Muslim we know is emotionally or physically hurting, we must seek to tend to his wounds as a brother in Adam. Immigration Many of us in the West… Read More Islam and Our Grandchildren
“We ought not to be swayed by the authority of the writer, whether he be a great literary light or an insignificant person, but by the love of simple truth. We ought not to ask who is speaking, but mark what is said.” — Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Bk. 1 Ch.5 A… Read More You quote dubious Catholics!
Updated. “Something strange is happening on the American right. In just a few years, a movement that once claimed to champion Western civilization began to entertain arguments that Winston Churchill was the real villain of World War II, that Hitler didn’t intend the Holocaust, and that Stalin wasn’t so bad after all. These ideas aren’t… Read More Victor Davis Hanson on the Fall of Tucker Carlson
AP. BBC. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reportedly been killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the United States, throwing the future of the Islamic Republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability ~~ |Feb. 28, 2026 Fox News. “The United States and Israel launched attacks on… Read More Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Killed in US-Israeli Attack
“Thy Faith Hath Made Thee Whole includes all of the articles Carol Jackson Robinson (1911-2002) wrote for Integrity, the magazine she co-founded with Ed Willock and others in 1946. A latér collection of many of her articles was published by The Angelus Press in the book, My Life with Thomas Aquinas, in two editions (1992 & 1995). This… Read More Faith and the Ascendancy of Mammon. Carol Robinson.
By Intentional Faith on February 24, 2026 The Day of Atonement Was a Graphic Reminder That Sin Is a Life-and-Death Matter. Sin leads to spiritual death unless atoned for. Each animal sacrifice was the dreadful reminder that pointed forward. To a Cross. When we read Leviticus 16, we are confronted with imagery that feels foreign and even unsettling.… Read More When Sin Costs Blood and Grace Costs Everything
And the Deep Truths in Fritz Eichenberg’s ‘The Lord’s Supper‘. The other side of the Eucharist is friendship. It often happens that week after week, year after year, Christians sit and kneel next to practical strangers in church on Sundays. They leave Mass as they entered, nodding and saying hello to people they do not… Read More Strangers in the Pews
It’s a work of mercy I hope to revisit it. Michael Steven Bublé OBC (IPA: /buːˈbleɪ/ boo-BLAY; born September 9, 1975)[1] is a Canadian singer and songwriter. Regarded as a pop icon, he is often credited for helping to renew public interest and appreciation for traditional pop standards and the Great American Songbook. Bublé has sold over 75 million records worldwide,[2] and won numerous awards,… Read More The Christmas Concert I Somehow Missed. Michael Buble’.
While many Catholics, and even some recent Popes, have expressed confused notions about the Darwinian models of evolution, theologians like Fr. Chad Ripperger have sought to go back to the sources of Catholic Christian doctrine and philosophy, citing the sacred guardrails: the sacred Scriptures, the church fathers and Doctors, and the Catholic deductive tradition. “In… Read More The Metaphysics of Evolution
For one of the most famous historians in Britain, conquering the past is not enough. This month, alongside co-host Tabitha Syrett, Dominic Sandbrook is launching a new podcast – this time shifting his focus from history to literature. Hear the discussion Note: I may have spoken incorrectly or too soon about Google not allowing us… Read More Historian Dominic Sandbrook on the Decline of Reading
Karol Wojtyla (JPII) wrote, “A non-Catholic philosopher once said to me: ‘You know, I just can’t stop myself reading and rereading and thinking over the first three chapters of Genesis.’ And indeed it seems to me that unless one does so reflect upon that fundamental Ensemble of facts and situations it becomes extremely difficult if… Read More John Paul II on the Most Decisive Confrontation —and History’s ‘Last Lap’
“Ambiguity is hard on the human nervous system“ Tin Man: Aging asks for courage in quiet ways.It asks you to: Watch your body change without its asking permission. Let go of certain strengths.Accept new limits. Keep showing up anyway. There’s nothing tepid about that. What makes it feel especially fierce is that aging is ambiguous.… Read More Tin Man: “Aging is not for the Faint Hearted”
By Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen. | ” … dictators are not the creators of the world’s evil; they are its creatures; they are only boils on the surface of the world’s skin; they come to the surface because there is bad blood beneath. It will do no good to puncture the boils, if we leave… Read More The Wars and the Revolution
Note: Citing what I regard as a significant insight from an important author clearly does not imply an unconditional endorsement of the author’s entire philosophy, theology or worldview. SH ~~ — Excerpt from Mariology by Michael Schmaus in The Concise Sacramentum Mundi edited by theologian Karl Rahner. Michael Schmaus (17 July 1897 – 8 December 1993)… Read More Christology and Mariology. Karl Rahner.
5/14/25/ I don’t know what it is like where you live, but here where I live in, yes, liberal Massachusetts, most immigrants I see on a daily basis appear to be very good and hard working persons. I’ve worked with some myself in the last couple of years taking care of very elderly clients with… Read More Deport Criminals Not Working Refugees Seeking a Way Out of Poverty
Introduction to Theology. |By Carl F.H. Henry. SPEAK OF AN INTRODUCTION to God, or to the science of God, and some people are sure to look for the nearest exit. An introduction to sex techniques—now there’s a best seller! Or a manual (not on avoiding the rise and fall of the American empire but) on… Read More Carl F.H. Henry on The Matter of Belief Today
Salvation History and the “Shocking Alternative” “Sanctify them through the truth. Your word is truth” — John 17:17 “Let God be true and every man a liar”–Romans 3:4 Adam and Christ 12 Therefore as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men… Read More Romans 5
The story is told of a man who fell into a cave filled with Pit Vipers, and, upon clawing his way up the rocks and out, left his pantheism behind. “Pit vipers are dangerous because they are venomous snakes that can deliver a harmful bite, potentially causing severe pain, swelling, and other serious symptoms. Prompt… Read More Pit Vipers
…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
“Under President Trump, the United States will once again take on the task of renewal and restoration… And while we are prepared, if necessary, to do this alone, it is our preference, and it is our hope to do this together with you, our friends here in Europe,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio as… Read More Secretary Mark Rubio in Munich
Roberto de Mattei. “In the Gospels, Jesus makes use of many metaphors to describe the Church He founded. One of the most fitting is the image of the boat threatened by the tempest (Matt. 8:23–27; Mark 4:35–41; Luke 8:22–25). This image was often used by the Church Fathers and saints, who spoke of the Church… Read More The “true reform” that the Church needed in the 20th century
Me to ChatGpt: “Good morning. And I hope your buzzers, widgets and bells are greased and working fine today. Q: Did Beethoven have a concept or themes in mind when he composed his 5th Symphony?” Good morning! All symphonic gears are well-oiled and humming in C minor today. Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 5… Read More With ChatGpt Re: Beethoven and the Fifth
💙✨ ✨💙 🙏 Did you know that in a humble grotto the Virgin Mary offered comfort and healing to millions of hearts? Our Lady of Lourdes appeared in 1858 to Saint Bernadette Soubirous, a simple young girl, in the grotto of Lourdes. Since then, this place has become a living sign of hope for the… Read More Our Lady of Lourdes: The Apparition That Brought Hope to the Sick
And a response. It Ain’t Broke, But Let’s Fix It Anyhow June 2004 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… Read More The New Oxford Review Debate on Whether Vatican II Was Necessary
In light of our personal failings, some of us may not be sure if we have earnestly “worked out our salvation with fear and trembling,” or whether we are more worthy of spiritual chastisements. But in our deepest selves we can know whose side we are on vis a vis the arrogant values of this world.… Read More He Dared to Combine Hope and Misery
The events of 1968 had a strong bearing on his shift to a more conservative outlook. Excerpted from “POPE BENEDICT XVI: A Biography of Joseph Ratzinger.” (c) 2000 by John L. Allen, Jr.The Continuum. Joseph Ratzinger arrived at Tübingen [University] in 1966, still enthusiastic about the promise of Vatican II and ready to take his… Read More How the ’60s Changed Ratzinger
By Mark Brumley, Catholic World Report. June 2020 Recently, the Second Vatican Council’s legitimacy and value have again been challenged [again]. Some observers behave as if Benedict XVI saw Vatican II as a problem and proposed a “hermeneutic of continuity” to overcome the problem. Some people who act this way think Benedict XVI’s approach has… Read More Benedict XVI, VII, and the “hermeneutic of reform”
Best friends & much more forever 51 years and counting in 2025-26 Kahlil Gibran “You were born [again]] together, and together you shall be forevermore… But let there be spaces in your togetherness, and let the winds of the heavens dance between you.” ‘For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health… Read More In Sickness and in Health, For Better or for Worse, for Richer or for poorer…till death do we part.
The common Christian belief is that Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, came to Ephesus with St. John after the Crucifixion of Christ and the two lived the rest of their lives near the city. Explore “the mysteries, legends, and historical clues about the final moments of Jesus’s mother. Tour sacred sites, discover archaeological finds, and explore centuries-old… Read More Inside Mary’s House in Ephesus
Samuel T. Francis+ wrote, “… [M]odernism denies or ignores God and concentrates on secular knowledge and action. Human knowledge then can be only empirical; moral statements can be only relative or factual, there being a dichotomy between fact and value; and human action cannot be modeled on transcendent or spiritual gods that either do not… Read More Modernism & ‘Science’s’ One-way Street.
“Modernism and its Enemies” by Hilton Kramer discusses the ongoing debate surrounding modernism in the arts, highlighting the criticisms it faces from various cultural and political perspectives. Kramer argues that modernism is under attack from those who believe that the concept of individualism and personal identity, central to modernist art, is no longer relevant in… Read More Modernism and its enemies. The New Criterion, 1986.
Cultural values matter. The Beatles are going through a kind of renaissance today, largely thanks to Peter Jackson, Disney and YouTube. The irony is that some of their music is so exciting and inviting we often forget to listen to the messages in the melodies and ponder the global cultural impact. Who cares?, even many Christians… Read More John Lennon’s ‘Wet Dream’
~~ By Peter Kreeft. There is a dimension of truth which most of us have tragically lost and need to recover, a dimension that cannot be put into words and sentences, though words and sentences can be used to suggest it. All premodern societies had this other dimension, even the ones who were very far… Read More Love Sees With New Eyes
“The Saint is a medicine because he is an antidote. Indeed that is why the saint is often a martyr; he is mistaken for a poison because he is an antidote. He will generally be found restoring the world to sanity by exaggerating whatever the world neglects, which is by no means always the same… Read More Saints of Flesh and Blood
Like children wandering towards a circus, in 2 Thessalonians 2:11, it is stated that God will send a strong delusion so that people may believe what is false, particularly as a consequence for not loving the truth. This delusion serves as a judgment for those who have rejected the truth and embraced unrighteousness. 2 Thess… Read More “Therefore God sends upon them strong delusion”
Inside the Vatican excerpt. By Dr. Ralph Weimann: “Harvesting organs: “Bioethics is in a disastrous situation” “…Due to technological progress, Pope Pius XII († 1958) invited scientists to provide medical criteria defining death, whilst upholding the theological definition of death as separation between body and soul. However, ten years after his death, a revolution occurred when the… Read More Death, Harvesting Organs and a Coherent Concept of Man
CT – “Brittany is deeply interesting: She cares about art, ideas, and people. Yet when we went out socially, most people failed to see her as particularly interesting. Once she left the workforce, in group settings, people tended to ignore her to talk to me about my work and interests. I (apparently!) was the interesting and insightful… Read More Human Worth In the Attention Economy
“Ever wanted to sound unbearably pretentious at dinner parties? Wondered how one French philosopher managed to make an entire career out of writing sentences no human being could understand? Curious why your literature professor keeps muttering about “the death of the author” while staring vacantly into space? Look no further than “Derrida’s Deconstruction: Tearing Texts Apart… Read More Derrida’s Deconstructionism. Cogito Ergo Nope.
Catholic Critique 