3 11, 2024

On The Indefectibility of the Catholic Church in this Crisis

By |2024-11-04T02:59:16+00:00November 3rd, 2024|Theology|

Perhaps the only reason that a true Catholic with a good will and a functioning intellect would fear coming to the same conclusion on the papacy as Archbishop Viganó did would be the indefectibility of the Catholic Church.  Fr. John Hardon SJ explains that indefectibility essentially promises that the Catholic Church "will always remain the institution of salvation, founded by Christ. This affirms that the Church is essentially unchangeable in her teaching, her constitution, and her liturgy. It does not exclude modifications that do not affect her substance, nor does it exclude the decay of individual local churches or even whole dioceses." But could that decay include the Pope?  Of [...]

31 10, 2024

Catholic Numbers Tank Globally

By |2024-10-30T22:36:00+00:00October 31st, 2024|Theology|

Before Vatican II, numbers of Catholics across the globe were exploding.  Consider just a few stats regarding American Catholics as listed in the Index of Leading Catholic Indicators: In 1930, the USA had 27,000 priests, but by 1965 that number nearly doubled, bringing the total number of American priests to 58,000. In 1930, the United States had 20,203,702 Catholics.  By 1965, that number had sky-rocketed to 45,640,619.  This means Catholics were not just reproducing, but making many converts. By 1965, American priests, nuns and lay people had built the world's largest conglomerate of hospitals, universities, high schools, grade schools and charitable organizations ever seen in the history of a young [...]

27 10, 2024

The Co-opting of Two Female Saints in “Dilexit.”

By |2024-10-27T20:58:18+00:00October 27th, 2024|Theology|

Jansenism was a heresy found over the past 400 years that put the emphasis on God's justice instead of God's mercy.  Jansenism is a bit like a mix between Calvinism and Catholicism.  Because of St. Margaret Mary and St. Therese's teaching of total trust in God, they are both often credited with putting the final nail in the coffin of Jansenism.  Indeed, that heresy was particularly strong in France in the 18th and 19th centuries.  Those two female saints are rightly credited for nearly ending Jansenism. However, modernism is the major heresy that threatens the Church today.  For the past 50 years, modernists have often labeled traditional Catholics as "Jansenists." [...]

24 10, 2024

St. Teresa of Ávila on Edifying Speech

By |2024-10-22T21:50:14+00:00October 24th, 2024|Theology|

St. Teresa of Ávila (top left) had much to say on holy speech, but it was summarized by an anonymous Jesuit (a loyal son of St. Ignatius of Loyola, top right) in a book now called Practical Meditations.  I know this is a short article for the second half of this week, but I found every sentence extremely convicting, so, I hope you do, too.  He summarizes her as writing: Speak little, especially when you are with many people.  Never praise yourself, your knowledge, your good actions, or your birth, unless you have reason to hope that it may be of use, and then do it humbly, remembering that these [...]

22 10, 2024

Dogma Evolves As Well As a Species

By |2024-10-22T12:40:31+00:00October 22nd, 2024|Theology|

p/c Nordic Biosite Dr. David Hillel Gelernter Ph. D is a Jewish man who is professor of computer science at Yale University.  At one point, he believed in Darwinian evolution.  But in 2019 he wrote a groundbreaking article called Giving Up Darwin that reveals his reversal on this.  It is probably my favorite proof against species-based evolution because it is neither biological nor theological, but rather mathematical.  I encourage you to read the entire article, but one excellent paragraph reads thus: "Do the numbers balance out? Is Neo-Darwinian evolution plausible after all? Axe reasoned as follows. Consider the whole history of living things—the entire group of every living organism ever. [...]

17 10, 2024

Heresies Always Start Small

By |2024-10-18T01:28:23+00:00October 17th, 2024|Theology|

The Council of Nicea teaches that God the Son exists as one substance (homoousian) with God the Father, even though they are different persons of the Blessed Trinity. The word homoousian is Greek for consubstantial in Latin (which you say or sing every Sunday or Feast day at Holy Mass during the Creed.)  To deny the persons of the Trinity being consubstantial is to deny both the Divinity of Christ and the Blessed Trinity. This fact of orthodox Catholicism seems obvious to most Catholics today who have taken even one week of Christology classes at a Catholic University or seminary.  But in the fourth century, the heretic Arius denied this, [...]

15 10, 2024

Stop Compromising on These Two Commandments!

By |2024-10-15T16:00:45+00:00October 15th, 2024|Theology|

Featured image above shows two stained glass windows in the "Mary Keane Chapel" at the "La Salette Shrine" in Enfield, New Hampshire. There is a little-known but Vatican-approved apparition called Our Lady of La Salette.  Catholic Straight Answers explains the basics: "On Saturday afternoon, September 19, 1846, two children– Maximin Guiraud (age 11) and Melanie Calvat (age 14)– were tending sheep for their employers near La Salette in the French Alps. The effects of the French Revolution which had terrorized the Church, the blood spilt during the reign of Napoleon, the increasing secularization of social thought, and the rising political turmoil enveloping Europe had taken a serious toll on the [...]

10 10, 2024

The Synod Producing the “Saviors of the Church”

By |2024-10-10T04:36:47+00:00October 10th, 2024|Theology|

Because the tendency of leftists normally tends towards the insecurity and manipulation found in narcissism, it is no wonder that there is an enormous overlap in the heresy of modernism with these traits.  In other words, modernists often reveal the same constellation of narcissistic traits as democrats, including accusing others of the very things they do.  Sometimes this is hard to identify in leftists within the Catholic Church because they appear meek and humble (at first.) But "synodality" has blown the cover on such strategies.  The irony of the claims of those promoting "the synod on synodality" almost reads like they are trolling traditional Catholics.   Or, perhaps like the [...]

8 10, 2024

Bedtime Prayer of St. John Damascene

By |2024-10-08T01:45:21+00:00October 8th, 2024|Theology|

St. John Damascene (aka St. John of Damascus) was a priest and monk who lived from about AD 675 to 750.  He was born in Damascus (still the Capitol and largest city in modern Syria.) However, he spent most of his time as a monk in a monastery near Jerusalem.   St. John is considered to be among the last of the Church Fathers, but he wrote much more about the Holy Mother of God than most of them.  Because St. John was a Church Father before the East-West Schism (AD 1054) he is also revered as a saint by both Catholics and Orthodox.  Below is the bedtime prayer of [...]

3 10, 2024

An “Expanded Ministry” to the Papacy is Impossible

By |2024-10-22T05:20:01+00:00October 3rd, 2024|Theology|

p/c CNS, Paul Haring Why can there be only one Pope at a time?  Because Christ set up 12 Apostles but only one Pope.  St. Peter is "mentioned 191 times (162 as Peter or Simon Peter, 23 as Simon and 6 as Cephas)."  That is more than all the other Apostles combined.  Thus, Peter's office (munus in Latin) is singular.  The Pope is much more than "first among equals" as the New Testament clearly proves in the above numbers.  On top of this, numerous Magisterial documents (and saints that stood against anti-popes in history) all insist:  There can only be one valid Pope of Rome at any one time. Yet [...]

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