Padre Peregrino – Theology from a wandering priest

25 06, 2026

Did the Pharisees Keep the Law?
Did the Pharisees Keep the Law?

Did the Pharisees Keep the Law?

By Father David Nix|2026-06-25T20:42:21+00:00June 25th, 2026|Theology|

One of the hazards in growing up in a Protestant nation like the USA is that our theology is suffused with dispensationalism and odd evangelical movies. Because of this, many American Christians (including Catholics) picture Jesus as a hippie with no concern for the moral law. The Pharisees, on the other hand, are portrayed as the people of the First Century in Israel who were overly-concerned with the Commandments and the Jewish law. Indeed, many Christian movies make Jesus out to be the beatnik who dissolved the moral law while the Pharisees were not only hypocrites, but even bad for thinking the Commandments mattered. The Church Fathers, however, paint a [...]

23 06, 2026

End of Life Care: What is NOT Required.
End of Life Care: What is NOT Required.

End of Life Care: What is NOT Required.

By Father David Nix|2026-06-22T16:45:37+00:00June 23rd, 2026|Theology|

p/c American Nurse Journal. What does the Catholic Church teach about DNRs and Ventilators? I have had an article go viral recently on the topic of bioethics. Many in the pro-death world were shocked by my words and tried to counter me. Such people were easy to disprove because I sourced secular links into my articles, showing what even non-Christian surgeons were admitting about euthanasia. On the other hand, some people in the pro-life world misunderstood the difference between ordinary care (required by the Catholic Church) and extraordinary care (not always required by the Catholic Church because it's often disproportionate to what can be accomplished.) Their over-reaction in going even [...]

11 06, 2026

A Priest’s “Psych Unit:” Part 2.
A Priest’s “Psych Unit:” Part 2.

A Priest’s “Psych Unit:” Part 2.

By Father David Nix|2026-06-11T15:44:55+00:00June 11th, 2026|Theology|

p/c sjvcenter.org In Priest Psych Unit: Part 1, I gave an introduction to what happens to Catholic priests who are sent to psychological behavioral centers. Some men request a sabbatical there. But other priests (usually the conservative ones) are sent there by a bishop to break them of their orthodoxy (usually hung on the red-herring of "rigorism" or "scrupulosity.") Today, I interview a priest in the latter category. In the below interview, he will go by the pseudonym of "Fr. Paul." However, he is a friend of mine and he is a priest from a different diocese who was sent away for "treatment." Before this interview, let me give a [...]

9 06, 2026

A Priest’s “Psych Unit:” Part 1.
A Priest’s “Psych Unit:” Part 1.

A Priest’s “Psych Unit:” Part 1.

By Father David Nix|2026-06-09T17:49:56+00:00June 9th, 2026|Theology|

p/c Globe photo/Lisa Kay, St. Luke Institute, Silver Spring, MD. Some priests were sent by their bishop to the funny-farm to heal them. Others were sent there to break them of their intransigent orthodoxy. By now, most American Catholics who are at least 30 years old know of one Catholic priest (or two) who has been sent away for "treatment" by the diocese. If the priest was liked by the parish, most of the faithful remained hush-hush about why he got sent packing. If he was a distrusted priest, well, lay-lips might be a little looser: Was Father sent away for alcoholism? Did he have a girlfriend? Did he [...]

2 06, 2026

Ut Salvetur Mundus.
Ut Salvetur Mundus.

Ut Salvetur Mundus.

By Father David Nix|2026-06-02T14:55:12+00:00June 2nd, 2026|Theology|

For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.—St. John 3:17. Perhaps the most debated dogma within the Catholic Church today is the teaching that "outside the Church there is no salvation." In Latin, that is Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus (EENS.) Even though I'm no huge fan of the new Catechism, even that CCC has a whole section titled "outside the Church there is no salvation," in which the ancient teaching is upheld (albeit with excessive nuances) beginning in CCC 845. Of course, 19 centuries of real teaching of Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus was [...]

28 05, 2026

“Did God Really Say?” Part 2.
“Did God Really Say?” Part 2.

“Did God Really Say?” Part 2.

By Father David Nix|2026-05-28T13:24:32+00:00May 28th, 2026|Theology|

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”—Genesis 3:1. In Part 1 of Did God Really Say (Found on the Update section of my site this week) I told my own conversion story, explaining how God initially moved me from a progressive view of Biblical scholarship to a traditional Catholic view. This set the ground for my later conversions on both the moral life and even the liturgical life as a priest. I specifically credited a Hahn tape set on Providentissimus Deus [...]

26 05, 2026

“Did God Really Say?” Part 1.
“Did God Really Say?” Part 1.

“Did God Really Say?” Part 1.

By Father David Nix|2026-05-26T12:15:03+00:00May 26th, 2026|Theology|

Or how I became a "Catholic Fundamentalist." In 2024, I gave a talk at a women's conference at a traditional Catholic parish called My Two Conversions. I explained how in high school, I was a pretty liberal Catholic who worked at The Catholic Worker Soup Kitchen in the afternoons. Perhaps in the evening, I might be found at a downtown Denver coffee-shop writing letters against the death penalty for Amnesty International. But, at 16 years old, I had a big conversion and I came to believe that Christ was truly present in the Blessed Sacrament. Then, another 16 years later (several years after ordination, in fact) I became a traditional [...]

21 05, 2026

Predestination: Calvinism vs. Catholicism.
Predestination: Calvinism vs. Catholicism.

Predestination: Calvinism vs. Catholicism.

By Father David Nix|2026-05-16T18:27:18+00:00May 21st, 2026|Theology|

The top left is John Calvin, the theological father of modern Presbyterianism who believed in Double-Predestination (the notion that God creates some people for heaven and God creates others for hell.) The top right is St. Francis De Sales, a Catholic saint and doctor of the Church. Both said a lot about pre-destination. Granted, we Catholics have some Church Fathers who seemed to have flirted with Double Pre-Destination even before John Calvin did, so it's not a clear-cut topic. But ultimately, St. Francis De Sales navigated the true way between the Fathers and Common-Sense on God's mercy. Fr. Ludwig Ott has a book titled Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma in [...]

19 05, 2026

Bonum Ex Integra Causa.
Bonum Ex Integra Causa.

Bonum Ex Integra Causa.

By Father David Nix|2026-05-19T01:00:07+00:00May 19th, 2026|Theology|

Bonum ex integra causa, malum ex quocumque defectu is Latin for "Goodness comes from a complete cause, evil from any defect whatsoever." You may remember the free catechetical series I produced called Catechism of Pius X (CPX) which is a YouTube playlist at that link. If you're converting to Apostolic Catholicism (either from Protestantism or modernism) I highly suggest you watch that series. On CPX, I explained the traditional Catholic faith in about 20 hours. Also online, I'm currently teaching the Roman Catechism of Trent (RCT.) It is also a YouTube playlist at that link. Unlike CPX, we have not yet come to the end of RCT. As you [...]

13 05, 2026

Who Showed Up to Vatican II? Who Didn’t?
Who Showed Up to Vatican II? Who Didn’t?

Who Showed Up to Vatican II? Who Didn’t?

By Father David Nix|2026-05-20T00:24:56+00:00May 13th, 2026|Theology|

My favorite assignment as a parish priest began in 2017 when I was on-loan to the diocese of St. Augustine in Florida. I lived and offered the Traditional Latin Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Jacksonville. The families who attended my Mass loved not only the Mass, but also the Catholic faith. After Mass, a surprising amount of families would come to the basement of the Cathedral to talk to each other and attend my classes on how to use all the tassels of the layman's Missal for the old Mass. I came to know many of these families. They loved God, the faith, their [...]