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.
By James J. Thompson Jr. | New Oxford Review. | Does God answer prayer? Christians respond to such a query with a mixture of bewilderment and irritation. Who but unbelievers and those of little faith would even think to pose the question? One need only turn to the Gospel of St. Luke to find Christ’s unequivocal… Read More Jacques Ellul’s ‘Prayer and Modern Man’
Pianist and conductor Ignat Solzhenitsyn reflects on growing up in exile as the son of Nobel laureate Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, moving from Soviet persecution to a quiet childhood in rural Vermont. Ignat recounts how music, faith, and Russian culture sustained his family far from home, how cellist and conductor Mstislav Rostropovich helped set him on a… Read More Ignat Solzhenitsyn in Conversation with Peter Robinson
ACI Prensa. EWTN. Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher spoke at the event “A Common Front for Human Dignity: Preventing the Commodification of Women and Children in Surrogacy.” And 2026: Year of Saint Francis. By Almudena Martínez-Bordiú Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, secretary for relations with states and international organizations of the Holy See, described the practice of… Read More Archbishop Gallagher: Surrogacy is a ‘new form of colonialism’
Not that I can ever fully trust Google or Facebook, but I asked A.I Gemini (Google) for an objective evaluation of CatholicCritique.com. First, in another session elsewhere, Search Assist AI quotes Julian Assange saying of another venue, “Facebook is the “most appalling spying machine” ever invented, suggesting that it allows U.S. intelligence agencies to gather personal… Read More Gemini / Google Evaluation of Catholic Critique
One man wrote …, I wanted to encourage him since I too know the struggles of coming to the piano late in life. I wrote, “Keep going, sir. Look up Phillip Springer (shown here below) still playing at 94, all bent and gnarled. Nothing keeps down the human spirit that wants to soar 🚀 Beethoven,… Read More The Fab Three — and The Student.
Foreword to Dietrich von Hildebrand’s book by Manfred Honeck (and see a conversation with Manfred Honeck on great composers below). He writes, “THIS LITTLE BOOK IS A TREASURE, not only because it discusses three of the greatest composers, but also because the author is willing actually to engage with their music. It does not claim… Read More Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert
Music is universal. When the message is not truly bad it is good enough, and cheers the human heart in recreation. John Paul II reminded us that whatever is truly and universally human participates in the essential goodness of Creation. Only we can wreck that! (Phil. 4:8) If all music had to be overtly religious… Read More Play skilfully
“First off, I want the US to acquire Greenland — fairly and legally. But this is extortion against America’s allies. It cannot be the case that this or any American president has the power to do this. It’s obscene. He’s not … Caesar!”
Q: Why is there no black note between B and C or between E and F? Well, this is a simple sounding question with a not very simple answer. You’ll need to be sitting up in your seat for this one! Too, from musicstackexchange.com Why do B and C and E and F not have a sharp note between them? Simply because, acoustically speaking, there… Read More Music Theory and The Monks 🎹
By now we’ve all long heard Cohen’s honest testimonial to the faltering universal holy quest. “I’ve heard there was a secret chord That David played, and it pleased the lordBut you don’t really care for music, do you? It goes like this, the fourth, the fifthThe minor fall, now the major liftThe baffled king composing… Read More Who Hasn’t Known the Broken Chord?
By Thomas Merton. “Today the first and perhaps the only duty of the philosopher is to defend man against himself: to defend man against that extraordinary temptation toward inhumanity to which—almost without being aware of it—so many human beings today have yielded. — GABRIEL MARCEL “As long as I am obsessed with the need to… Read More A Response to Questions on Art and Freedom
Today, I feel like being a lot bolder and more blunt in this blog. There’s this thing that’s been bothering me for years, so here it goes. I hope I don’t get judged for being vulnerable and extremely open on this, but let’s be real—we’ve all had those “what was I thinking?” years … Neither… Read More The Truth, The Mess, and The DNA Test.
Francis Albert Sinatra (/sɪˈnɑːtrə/; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the “Chairman of the Board” and “Ol’ Blue Eyes“, he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of the 20th century.[1] Born to Italian immigrants in Hoboken, New Jersey, Sinatra began his musical career in the swing era. He joined the Harry James band as… Read More Sinatra in the studio
“With the proliferation of systems, methods, concepts and philosophical theses which are often extremely complex, the need for a critical discernment in the light of faith becomes more urgent, even if it remains a daunting task. Given all of reason’s inherent and historical limitations, it is difficult enough to recognize the inalienable powers proper to… Read More The Church and Philosophical Discernment.
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