1 05, 2019

World Religions Part I: Three Options

By |2019-05-01T15:13:35+00:00May 1st, 2019|Theology|

CS Lewis once wrote, “Religion is man’s search for God, but Christianity is God’s search for man.” Whereas Divine Revelation only allows for one true religion, I believe that all of the current religions of the world can be boiled down to only three sustainable philosophies. Or, at least I believe that only three world philosophies could possibly coordinate to the desires of a post-modern man. Epicureanism is to live for pleasure, but the original Greek promoter of hedonism, Epicurus (4th century BC), was more like an LA pot-smoker than a fast-paced NYC coke addict (something we usually think of when we think of the word “hedonism.”) This is because [...]

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19 04, 2019

Pro Divine Mercy From a Rad-Trad

By |2019-04-20T12:34:47+00:00April 19th, 2019|Theology|

Most "EWTN Catholics” (for lack of a better term) might be surprised to find that in the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) world, there is sharp divide down the middle between those who believe that the private revelations of Sr. Faustina Kowalska are authentic, versus those who do not. I am referring to the Divine Mercy Diary, a book of private revelation written by a Polish nun in the 1930s.   A modern EWTN Catholic could, in an overly-facile manner, condemn traditionalists who are wary of the Divine Mercy message for just being “Jansenist” or “disobedient.”  This would be too easy and not fair.  Indeed, one must realize that many traditionalists [...]

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18 04, 2019

Why You Should Say No to Being an Organ-Donor

By |2023-03-10T14:41:42+00:00April 18th, 2019|Theology|

Edit:  USA Today wrote a very important article following my blog post called Death by Donation:  Euthanizing Patients for Organs. Although I am a Catholic priest, I am also an ex-paramedic and I graduated pre-health from Boston College. I am writing this blog post “Why you should say no to organ donation on your driver’s license” as a former paramedic, not as a priest. In other words, this blog post will be practical medical advice for all readers Catholic or non-Catholic.  There will be no overt Catholic bioethics below, except these two sentences: The Catholic Church has no problem with organ donation per-se. The problem is that certain organs are [...]

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14 04, 2019

Did Christ Program the Church to Withstand Every Storm?

By |2019-04-15T05:15:21+00:00April 14th, 2019|Theology|

Between my initial conversion as a teenager (1997) and about halfway through my nine-years of priesthood (2014) I would probably have been described as a small-fish but bold-agent in the "New Evangelization" of Pope John Paul II. I don't regret those days. I came to know salvation-history through great lay leaders. I saw real miracles in the charismatic movement (as well as some evil things.) As a layman, I had many sins forgiven by priests who did not speak a word of Latin (and some invalid confessions via priests changing the words of absolution.) As much as this blog post might sound primed for a line like "But now I [...]

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9 04, 2019

Why are Trads So Mean to Each Other?

By |2019-04-10T01:25:59+00:00April 9th, 2019|Theology|

And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.—Jesus Christ in St. Matthew 24:10-14 Why are traditional Catholics so mean to each other? I don’t mean people like Virginia senator Tim Kaine who described himself as a “traditional Catholic.”  By “traditional Catholic” I mean people who [...]

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3 04, 2019

Church Structures and Supernatural Faith

By |2019-04-03T20:31:21+00:00April 3rd, 2019|Theology|

About 15 years ago, I went to Colorado Springs to visit both the Focus on the Family Visitor Center and New Life Church. The latter is a Protestant community nearby with nearly 14,000 congregants. I always half-joke that Colorado Springs is the "Protestant Vatican," but I am half-serious: These two centers alone are the engines for countless missions in dozens of countries, not to mention the hundreds of other Protestant communities in Colorado Springs. In Colorado Springs, many Catholics might be surprised to see that Protestants have a relatively unabashed approach to "sacramentals." Many Protestant Mega-Church communities now sell "holy water" from the Jordan and "holy oil" made from olives [...]

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27 03, 2019

Courage over Consequentialism in the Hierarchy

By |2019-03-28T01:02:54+00:00March 27th, 2019|Theology|

And behold, a man came up to [Christ], saying, “Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?” And He said to him, “Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only One who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He said to him, “Which ones?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to Him, “All these I have kept. What do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, [...]

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21 03, 2019

On Sorrow in a Good Confession

By |2019-03-22T13:06:51+00:00March 21st, 2019|Theology|

The sacrament of penance, also called the sacrament of reconciliation (or confession) has four necessary parts, three of which are on the part of the penitent: 1) contrition (sorrow) 2) confession of sins (to a priest, in person) and satisfaction (also called your penance, done outside the confessional.) The one aspect of a good confession executed by the priest is absolution (provided the priest has judged the penitent worthy of absolution.) Last year during Lent, I gave a sermon called How to Make a Good Confession found on both my podcast and Sensus Fidelium's YouTube on these external parts of confession. Since then, I have started to read the Catechism of Pope [...]

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4 03, 2019

The Simple Gospel

By |2019-03-05T05:50:25+00:00March 4th, 2019|Theology|

Our Patristics professor in seminary said something that I will never forget. He said: “Don’t read the Scriptures with a higher IQ than who it was written for.” I’m going to keep coming back to this line, “Don’t read the Scriptures with a higher IQ than who it was written for,” so I need to explain first what it does not mean. My professor was a very intellectual man, so he was not saying that the Gospel of Jesus Christ was created to trick peasant-doofuses into becoming Christians or later that Catholicism would become the opium of the illiterate-masses. Nor did he mean that the Deposit of the Faith was [...]

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28 02, 2019

The Amazon Synod and Married Priests

By |2019-03-01T16:13:23+00:00February 28th, 2019|Theology|

Crux reports "When the Synod of Bishops on the Amazon rolls around in October, the long-debated possibility of ordaining mature, married men to the priesthood in areas where there are priest shortages will be brought to the table." Ever notice that when he who St. Ignatius of Loyola calls “the enemy of human nature" floats propositions to men, that proposition always begins under the guise of "safe, rare and legal"? This is not only in matters of human life, but even in liturgical matters. Fr. Heilman shows here in Truth About Communion in the Hand While Standing that Holy Communion in the Hand only started in 1969 by "bestowing an [...]

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