Rocco Buttiglione on Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

“Society has to defend itself to a certain extent against the tyranny of the [nihilist] state.” Rocco Buttiglione (Italian: [b. 6 June 1948) is an Italian Union of Christian and Centre Democrats politician and an academic. He was a close friend of Pope John Paul II. Buttiglione’s nomination for a post as European Commissioner with a portfolio that was to include civil… Read More Rocco Buttiglione on Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

No More Traditional Priesthood, a Goal for ‘Progressives’?

Recent events among some significant numbers of so-called “Progressive” Catholics, gleefully talking about the “devolution” of Church authority in our time, especially since Francis, has reminded me several times of something I was told by an Oblate priest while I was making a personal retreat in the late 1980’s. It was at the Oblate Fathers… Read More No More Traditional Priesthood, a Goal for ‘Progressives’?

St. Thomas Aquinas and  the “Life-blood of Catholic Theology”

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”

Gilson, Saint Thomas and The Self-Attesting God

First, the Problem. The famous Thomist philosopher Etienne Gilson writes, surely accurately, in his Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, “… at the very place where the Summa of Alexander and the Commentary of St. Bonaventure undertake to show that the existence of God is evident, St. Thomas devotes an article to proving that it… Read More Gilson, Saint Thomas and The Self-Attesting God

Could Walsingham point the way to a post-Francis liturgical renewal?

… 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?

Facing Crises in the Church and Society | Fr. Gerald E. Murray

Then, The Jesuits: What Went Wrong? But first: Franciscan University Presents. Panelists Dr. Regis Martin, Dr. Scott Hahn, and special guest Fr. Gerald E. Murray, a diocesan priest in the Archdiocese of New York, and Co-Author of the new book “Calming the Storm: Navigating the Crises Facing the Catholic Church and Society“, as they discuss… Read More Facing Crises in the Church and Society | Fr. Gerald E. Murray

Taking Sheen Seriously

James M. Patterson, April 2020First Things Magazine C-Span: The important lecture of Thomas Reeves on America’s Bishop (including an the account of his many sufferings and persecutions). Watch it here. Fulton J. Sheen is defined in popular imagination by the persona he adopted on Life Is Worth Living, his Emmy-winning television program. During each episode, the… Read More Taking Sheen Seriously

George Weigel on The Last Laugh of Alfredo Ottaviani

First Things. Despite his humble origins as a baker’s son from Trastevere, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, longtime curial head of the Holy Office (“successor to the Inquisition,” in journalese) and scourge of the nouvelle théologie of the 1950s, was a formidable figure in pre-conciliar Catholicism. Ottaviani’s approach to theology was neatly summarized in the Latin motto of his… Read More George Weigel on The Last Laugh of Alfredo Ottaviani

Judas Did Not Fight His Predominant Fault… and so was blown away

What is meant by the Predominant Fault? The noted theologian Reginald Garrigou – Lagrange explains, “The predominant fault is that defect in us that tends to prevail over the others, and thereby over our manner of feeling, judging, sympathizing, willing, and acting. It is a defect that has in each of us an intimate relation… Read More Judas Did Not Fight His Predominant Fault… and so was blown away

Lifesite News Reports The Persecution of The Late Mother Angelica’s Nuns

How Mother Angelica’s nuns suffered loss, decay from fight against tradition. [Photo: Fr. Timothy Radcliff, LGBT activist] Maike HicksonLifesite NewsMon Oct 4, 2021 FAIRFIELD, Pennsylvania (LifeSiteNews) — Even nuns in a monastery founded by EWTN’s Mother Angelica have suffered from an insensitive “Apostolic Visitation”, a Vatican-approved investigation. In a newly published interview conducted by LifeSite’s… Read More Lifesite News Reports The Persecution of The Late Mother Angelica’s Nuns

Dogmatics Clarified, 2007: Second Vatican Council doctrine of the Church

Prescinding from any questions regarding the wisdom of calling the Council in the time and manner it did, regarding the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium, and its Decrees on Ecumenism, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 2007 clarified confusions, showing again that the Holy Spirit protects the Church from dogmatic errors through the… Read More Dogmatics Clarified, 2007: Second Vatican Council doctrine of the Church