And a response 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… Read More The New Oxford Review Exchange on Whether Vatican II Was Necessary
Fr. Chad Ripperger writes, “The juridical concept of the deposit [of Faith] requires that it is not the property of the guardian. In other words, it is not the person who receives it that has ownership of it, but of the consigner who is handing it over to him to keep it in a safe… Read More The Binding Force of Tradition
See also, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and a New World Order. Our complex theological predicament, which only the hierarchical Church may, in time, formally adjudicate. By Stephen Hand. 2015. If Francis and Cardinal Kasper have taught us anything over the past few years, it’s that without resurrecting that final “checkmate,” which popes from the… Read More John XXIII, Benedict XVI and Francis. 2015.
And Fulton J Sheen on the meaning of Palm Sunday. Homily of Benedict XVI, Palm Sunday, 2006. To understand what occurred on Palm Sunday and to know what it meant not only for that time but for all times, a detail is important, which became for his disciples the key to understand that event when,… Read More “The Cross Is the Tree of Life” – Benedict XVI
And replies. By What Authority Does C.S. Lewis Pontificate? By Thomas Storck | New Oxford Review. Thomas Storck is a Contributing Editor of the New Oxford Review. The great Anglican apologist and scholar C.S. Lewis (1898-1963) championed a concept he called “mere Christianity.” Although the term itself seems to have been coined by the Puritan… Read More Is There Such a Thing as “Mere Christianity”?
Fr. Gerald Murray & Robert Royal discuss Pope Francis’ new book, Hope: The Autobiography, the appointment of Cardinal Robert McElroy as next Archbishop of Washington. Full Disclosure: for many decades and to this day, my wife and I have regularly attended the Traditional Latin Mass with profound gratefulness. We attend the Novus Ordo Mass when… Read More Fr. Gerald Murray and Robert Royal on Francis
“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.
Josef Pieper, the renowned Thomist, in his 1953 study, The Silence of St. Thomas (St. Augustine’s Press, South Bend, Indiana) reminds theologians and students of St. Thomas Aquinas that while Pope Pius XI in his 1923 Encyclical Studiorum Ducem insisted that the Angelic Doctor is to be esteemed by all Schools of Theology, he also reminded all… Read More St. Thomas Aquinas and the “Life-blood of Catholic Theology”
Larry Chapp seems to express a kind of anxiety or apprehension in this video discussion about the obvious problem of the traditional magisterium as he comes “out of the closet” and reveals himself to be, of all things, an eschatological “universalist” wherein, in the end, we can all hope that Scripture and Tradition will be… Read More A Note on Dr. Larry Chapp — at the edge of Hell. Nothing to lose.
“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
Cardinal Müller, former head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Benedict XVI, asks in his book The Power of Truth, “How do the pope’s Magisterium and the Tradition of the Church relate? When he interprets the words of Jesus, must the pope be in continuity with the Tradition and the previous… Read More Cardinal Müller on ‘The Power of Truth,’ Our Times and the Magisterium
Edward FeserFebruary 25, 2024 Popes speak infallibly when they either proclaim some doctrine ex cathedra, or reiterate some doctrine that has already been taught infallibly by virtue of being a consistent teaching of the ordinary magisterium of the Church for millennia. Even when papal teaching is not infallible, it is normally owed “religious assent.” However,… Read More What Counts as Magisterial Teaching?
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
The final phase of the Synod of Synodality will begin in October. Among the 400 participants (cardinals, bishops, lay people and religious) will be the former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller. Interview with Cardinal Müller: Q- This coming October, the final phase of the Synod on Synodality… Read More Cardinal Gerhard Müller: “whenever Popes have felt or behaved like politicians … “
“The Christo-centricity of teaching is being weakened; Christ is being moved from the centre”. THE VATICAN TODAY Commentators of every school, if for different reasons, with the possible exception of Father Spadaro, SJ, agree that this pontificate is a disaster in many or most respects; a catastrophe. 1. The Successor of St. Peter is the… Read More Cardinal Pell’s Pessimistic Assessment of the Pontificate of Francis
Newsmax. “The Vatican has defrocked Father Frank Pavone — who has been described as “the most vocal Catholic priest in America for the pro-life movement” — in a move that has shocked Church conservatives. This past weekend the Catholic News Agency (CNA) revealed the full text of a letter from Archbishop Christophe Pierre, the Apostolic Nuncio to… Read More Fr. Frank Pavone and Contraception Rumors. Updated.
A Synod “filled with the usual modern technocratic, therapeutic linguistics of faux egalitarian tyranny”. Will the Church still be a “listening” Church in ten years or will the “Spirit” go mute once the Germans have given the final definitive word on the Spirit’s intentions? Larry ChappCatholic World Report April 22, 2022 I am not opposed… Read More The quintessentially modern approach to “synodality” is empty and artificial
“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 present… Read More The Living Magisterium
April 4, 2005 In Defense of John Paul II, Peacemaker Justin Raimondo Antiwar.com Unfazed by the antiwar demonstrations that thronged the streets of London on the eve of war with Iraq, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was more concerned with the Pope’s disapproval as he prepared to meet with the Holy Father. After all, this was the… Read More Pope John Paul II’s Opposition to the Iraq War
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