Padre Peregrino – Theology from a wandering priest

14 07, 2026

Death Penalty for Post-Aborts?
Death Penalty for Post-Aborts?

Death Penalty for Post-Aborts?

By Father David Nix|2026-07-14T14:01:47+00:00July 14th, 2026|Theology|

p/c Statesman Journal. My answer is "No" to the death penalty for those who have committed abortion, but the abolitionists make a logical argument. Before I get to my answer, let me say I am no softie on abortion. I still try to pray and counsel at the abortion center every other week. I have been arrested for peaceful prayer inside abortion centers on the East Coast twice. But I am not as extreme as the "abolitionists" and a few Catholics who say that women who have had abortions should receive the Death Penalty. Do people really say such things? Yes. Although NPR is rarely to be trusted, they quoted [...]

7 07, 2026

Due-Process: Torquemada vs. Tucho.
Due-Process: Torquemada vs. Tucho.

Due-Process: Torquemada vs. Tucho.

By Father David Nix|2026-07-07T14:19:42+00:00July 7th, 2026|Theology|

Today, we are going to look at canonical due-process as executed by the 15th century Spanish Grand Inquisitor, Tomás De Torquemada (top left) versus that of Cardinal Tucho Fernandez (top-right.) Tucho is the Cardinal who allegedly-excommunicated the SSPX recently on 2 July 2026. (SSPX is the American abbreviation for FSSPX which stands for the Fraternity of the Priestly Society of Pope St. Pius X.) Although a heretic can’t excommunicate anyone (as explained here by the WM Review) we are going to suspend that obvious ecclesial reality in order to evaluate the difference in legal process between the 15th century Dominican and the porn-writer currently living in the Vatican. Fr. William [...]

30 06, 2026

The Heresy of Consequentialism.
The Heresy of Consequentialism.

The Heresy of Consequentialism.

By Father David Nix|2026-06-30T11:16:23+00:00June 30th, 2026|Theology|

Even JP2's Veritatis Splendor tackles the modernist heresies of moral theology called "consequentialism" and "proportionalism." These two errors "claim to draw the criteria of the rightness of a given way of acting solely from a calculation of foreseeable consequences deriving from a given choice." He continues that proportionalism "weighs the various values and goods being sought, focuses rather on the proportion acknowledged between the good and bad effects of that choice, with a view to the 'greater good' or 'lesser evil' actually possible in a particular situation."—Veritatis Splendor #75. In fact, Veritatis Splendor quotes Christ telling the rich young man that to be saved, he first must keep the commandments. [...]

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 [...]