A Blue-Collar Catholic Can Recognize a White-Collar Heretic.
Most American Catholics do not know the definition of a heretic. However, a smaller percentage of mainstream Catholics who have studied a little theology might know that Catholics used to call Protestants "heretics," whereas they now prefer the term "separated brethren." An even smaller percentage of Catholics, namely traditionalists, still prefer to label Protestants as "heretics" (as well they should.) However, most traditional Catholics today are hesitant to grant the moniker "heretic" to anyone in the clergy without a formal canonical trial. Why are they so free with the first group and hesitant with the second group? They are afraid that an obvious heretic in the hierarchy as such undermines the indefectibility of the Church. (The indefectibility of the Catholic Church is her invincibility against any error of faith or morals, that the gates of hell will not prevail against [...]
Hero in a Vacuum of Hope
Between WWI and WWII, Germans proudly sang their patriotic anthem Die Wacht am Rhein translated as "The Watch on the Rhine." It contains the famous line, Lieb Vaterland, magst ruhig sein (seen in picture above) meaning "Dear Fatherland, be at peace." That is, Germans believed that despite the loss of WWI, they could find the right captain to lead them to peace and victory. Everything was going to be fine... at all costs. Alhough there is much debate to this day on how many Germans actually believed Hitler's initial threats to the Jews, the fact is that it didn't matter to most German gentiles. They were ready for a win, an easy win, a local win, any win at the hands of any unvetted hero who promised a quick "come-back." Before going any further, let me admit that there are [...]
“Peregrino Ignatian Path” (PIP): Intro B.
-Rule #23: “Thinking with the Church.” -The Suscipe prayer of St. Ignatius of Loyola (with which we will start every podcast): “Take, Lord, receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will. All I have and call my own, You have given all to me. To You, Lord, I return it. Everything is Yours: do with it what You will. Give me only Your love and Your grace, that is enough for me.”
“Man Cannot Be Happy in This Life.”—St. Thomas.
In the Summa I-II Question 5, St. Thomas writes "On the contrary, It is written (Job 14:1): 'Man born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries.' But Happiness excludes misery. Therefore man cannot be happy in this life." We're going to see why this is actually good news by looking at quotes from that part of the Summa. If you only read my X profile, you might think I'm a dark pessimist. But only a couple friends and family members know the deepest part of my soul: I am actually a hopeless optimist who has trusted too many people who betrayed me and the Catholic Church. It is because I have expected too much in life. I have forgiven most or all of those people. (Of course, forgiveness is sometimes a process for the [...]
Rearranging the “Pontifical Academy For Life.”
In 2016, Archbishop Paglia (top left) was named the "President of Pontifical Academy for Life" by Francis. Despite the pious names, both were in favor of contraception and assisted suicide. Now in summer of 2025, real Catholics were thrilled to find out that Leo would replace Paglia with someone else. However, the excitement was short-lived as he replaced him with Monsignor Renzo Pegoraro (top right) who also promotes these pro-death dogmas. Ed Pentin at CNA even reports that Pegoraro "was the longtime deputy of its outgoing president." Chris Jackson wrote on his Substack about their similar view towards assisted-suicide: "In 2022, Pegoraro publicly justified assisted suicide as a 'lesser evil' in secular legislation. While admitting that neither assisted suicide nor euthanasia represent the Catholic position, he nevertheless called for legalizing the former under certain conditions, an action flatly condemned by [...]
RCT 59: Baptism as Regeneration.
The Sacraments, ep. 11. -My Site: https://www.padreperegrino.org -Emergency baptism for lay people to do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOY3cDtF4gA
Relief Comes From Unanticipated Quarters.
Editor's Note: This piece is from Mike, a husband, father and convert to the Catholic faith. Mike is a retired SEAL officer who spent many years at SEAL Team Six. He attends the Traditional Latin Mass. On a Sunday night in October, 1989, Hell Week began. Gunfire, flash-bangs, yelling, confusion: all designed to induce the maximum stress and chaos among us SEAL trainees. It continued non-stop for the next 4-1/2 days. Attrition was about 70%: a typical rate. I was a 22 year old Navy ensign leading a “boat crew” of six fellow trainees. About 48 hours into Hell Week (it was Tuesday evening), we paddled our inflatable rubber boats ashore at “Camp Surf,” not far from the border with Mexico. Camp Surf is specially designed for attrition: it is an inflection point for one’s physical and psychological endurance, both [...]
Damage-Control for a Material Heretic
The traditional Magisterium of the Catholic Church listed nine ways to being an accessory to another’s sin: 1. By counsel 2. By command 3. By consent 4. By provocation 5. By praise or flattery 6. By concealment 7. By partaking 8. By silence 9. By defense of the ill done. In traditional Catholic morality, we usually apply the above to matters of sexuality, gossip or finances. And we should. But have we ever thought of what it means to cover for another’s heresy under pretext of “giving the benefit of the doubt” to a "Catholic" teaching error? St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that heresy is “any deviation from the rectitude of the Catholic faith,” and it is one of the absolute worst sins a Catholic can commit. Granted, the above is the definition of material heresy, not formal heresy. But too [...]
“Peregrino Ignatian Path” (PIP): Intro A
The Supremacy of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and the Holy Spirit's gift of Counsel. **** -Rules of Discernment: https://www.padreperegrino.org/2025/01/allrules/
Six Different Attitudes to the TLM
One hundred years ago, Catholics were Catholics. Some were good Catholics and some were bad Catholics. But we didn't have political terms like "liberal Catholic" or "conservative Catholic." All Catholics one hundred years ago were traditional Catholics because that's all there was. However, Vatican II fractured Catholics all over the world. Now, every Catholic needs an adjective to describe where he is on a spectrum. Of course, Jesus Christ never designed it to be that way. As much as I dislike political terms, we will—for the sake of brevity—look at six common die-hard attitudes towards the TLM using terms that are found on that spectrum from left to right. Following St. Thomas Aquinas at a far distance, I will try to avoid straw-man arguments and give even better arguments than my opponents for their views on the Traditional Latin Mass [...]