20 07, 2023

Pilgrimage as a Life of Penance

By |2023-07-20T12:51:32+00:00July 20th, 2023|Theology|

It hath also seemed good to the holy Synod, to subjoin, to the preceding doctrine on penance, the following on the sacrament of Extreme Unction, which by the Fathers was regarded as being the completion, not only of penance, but also of the whole Christian life, which ought to be a perpetual penance.—Council of Trent, Chapter 14, On the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, Second Session. The key words I want to focus on from Trent above is that "the whole Christian life...ought to be a perpetual penance."  Why does this sound distasteful to even traditional Catholics? First, even good Catholics today tend to see Christianity through a post-Protestant-revolt lens.  One [...]

18 07, 2023

Remedies to Self-Centeredness in the Spiritual Life

By |2023-07-19T14:46:28+00:00July 18th, 2023|Theology|

Many of you already know that the best remedy to self-centeredness in the spiritual life is to do the corporal works of mercy {to feed the hungry; to give drink to the thirsty; to clothe the naked; to harbor the harborless; to visit the sick; to ransom the captive; to bury the dead.} However, since many of you already know that, I want to discuss some other remedies in this post. When I was a charismatic before becoming a traditionalist, I was discerning a good group of Franciscans in the Bronx.  (I still consider them quite faithful and evangelical, so this isn't a now I've moved on blogpost.)   One [...]

13 07, 2023

You Cannot Be a “Schismatic” For Keeping the Faith

By |2023-07-16T04:54:47+00:00July 13th, 2023|Theology|

Archbishop Viganò recently wrote: The sensitivity that Bergoglio shows towards idols and false religions is second only to the contempt he has for the true God and the one Church. On the one hand, he receives notoriously blasphemous artists in the Sistine Chapel and supports the LGBTQ+ sect which publicly vilifies Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin; on the other hand he expresses “indignation” over a Koran burned by those who are exasperated by the Mohammedan invasion imposed by the New World Order he promoted. A crucifix dipped in urine is worth a papal audience full of smiles and a “thumbs up;” the Pachamama thrown into the Tiber arouses deploration. [...]

11 07, 2023

Demons and Celebrities

By |2023-07-11T11:51:16+00:00July 11th, 2023|Theology|

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.—Col 3:3 I don't like to give hell too much credit, but it's good to know the mind of the enemy. Salvation of souls is what I think of all day. What are the two main enemies of the salvation of souls? Sin (which often has nothing to do with demons, according to the Desert Fathers) and preternatural influence (which obviously has everything to do with demons.) I'm not an exorcist, so I really don't know how demons think. But since I know they are evil and smart (and maybe lazy) they probably see winning individuals through the [...]

6 07, 2023

“Backwardsism” and True Progress

By |2023-06-27T23:10:50+00:00July 6th, 2023|Theology|

An article at Rorate Cæli is titled Francis confirms his hatred for the Latin Mass and it quotes him as saying:  "I certainly know that the Council is still being applied. It takes a century for a Council to be assimilated, they say.  And I know the resistance to its decrees is terrible.  There is incredible support for restorationism, what I call indietrismo (backwardness)." I too used to say things like, "It takes a hundred years for a Council to be implemented correctly."  But now I see this doesn't apply to Vatican II.  It only applies to dogmatic councils that were established to dissipate confusion, not seminate it.  We have [...]

4 07, 2023

A Woman’s Conversion on Birth Control

By |2023-07-04T01:02:03+00:00July 4th, 2023|Theology|

From Fr. David Nix:  This is a short conversion story written by a married friend. As you read it, notice how her own conscience comes into play with objective truth.  She writes... As a new Catholic, I quickly fell in love with the Rosary.  I loved the prayers, the meditations, the lovely beads. Not long into my devotional life with the rosary, as I was praying I had the fleeting thought, "Why am I not getting out of the Rosary what I think other people are receiving?" In the tiniest flash, the Blessed Mother's face was before me and I got the interior the message: "Birth Control." I had the [...]

29 06, 2023

The Red-Herrings Upon Which Canceled-Clergy Are Hanged

By |2023-07-02T12:12:22+00:00June 29th, 2023|Theology|

A red-herring is defined as “something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important question.” In this blog post, I will use that term to describe the false-pretext upon which good bishops and good priests are removed from ministry.  A "canceled priest" or a "canceled bishop" is one who is removed for unjust reasons, never for being a real-criminal.  Recently, at the Conference for the Coalition of Canceled Priests, Brian McCall gave a phenomenal talk on the definition of a canceled priest and the limits of obedience according to St. Thomas Aquinas. Every canceled-priest has a real-reason and a fake-reason why he is on the shelf.  For example, Fr. [...]

27 06, 2023

Liberation Theology and Synodality

By |2023-06-27T14:29:01+00:00June 27th, 2023|Theology|

"Liberation Theology" is a Marxist heresy that developed in Latin America during the 1970s and 1980s declaring that the way to liberate the poor was not liberation from sin, but rather liberation from oppression, even to the point of using violence against the upper-class and middle-class. Like all Marxist movements, it lost control of its violence. The epicenter of "liberation theology" in the 1980s was Nicaragua when countless bishops and priests supported the Marxist "Sandisista" movement. Malachi Martin, in his 1987 New York Times Bestseller, The Jesuits, explains this movement of Marxist priests and bishops: It was a dream come true. A dream put into clear words by the same [...]

22 06, 2023

Ten Tips To Walking the Camino De Santiago

By |2023-06-25T18:48:57+00:00June 22nd, 2023|Theology|

In the first century, following his martyrdom in Jerusalem, the body of St. James the Greater (one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ) was taken by angels and disciples back to the Northwest part of the country he had previously evangelized:  Spain, specifically Galicia.  His body was discovered nearly a millennium later, and pilgrims through the middle ages walked to Northwest Spain to the bones of the Apostle.  In fact, Santiago was one of the three greatest pilgrimage sites of the Middle Ages, next to Rome and Jerusalem. Our 2015 walking Pilgrimage across Spain By the 1970s, the Way of St. James (Camino De Santiago) had nearly [...]

20 06, 2023

Fatima, Modesty and Hell

By |2023-06-19T20:00:14+00:00June 20th, 2023|Theology|

As many Catholics know, the three children of Fatima had a vision in 1917 of many souls falling into hell.  In fact, they described it as a multitude of souls falling "into hell like snowflakes."  Bl. Jacinta (a Fatima visionary who died young) said, “The sins which cause most souls to go to hell are the sins of the flesh.”  Fr. Bernard Kunkel then adds the following: "Our Blessed Mother knew in advance the moral havoc that would follow the introduction of these unholy fashions. This is why she came personally at Fatima in 1917 to forewarn us. At the same time she gave the answer in advance to the question, 'Is [...]

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