As I have written before, narcissism is more than just vanity.  For example, the male models in the comedy movie Zoolander are vain.  But alas, Derek Zoolander is not smart enough to be a narcissist.  (I don't suggest anyone watch a movie as immoral as that, but it was a young-adult favorite of my friends and me.)  True narcissism includes much more than the silly vanity of a Hansel McDonald.  Due to low self-esteem, the real narcissist begins to manipulate those in his life with calculated gaslighting. Gaslighting is also an over-used term today.  It doesn't mean simply winning a debate using evidence.  (Evidence is always the pathway to the [...]

Under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul wrote this to the Thessalonians about the man of lawlessness: Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to Him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself [...]

From Padre: I'm a Boston College grad and my alma is obviously the rival of Notre Dame.   But one of my closest friends is named Shane who graduated ND just before I graduated BC in 2000. Below is his witty reply to an initial reply regarding his concern about the upcoming Drag Queen show at ND.  Shane allows for much more leeway on academic freedom than I would, but his reply also has the bite of a Neil McCaffrey Sr. from the 1980s: [Dear ND Lady,] Actually, that's funny because when Billy Joel was banned from performing [at Notre Dame], I believe he was later brought in to perform [...]

A sedevacantist is defined as a Catholic who believes there has not been a valid Pope since 1958.  Fr. Jim Altman is not a sedevacantist.  I know Fr. Altman in real life.  We have mutual friends who are sedevacantists and we admire them, but we are not in that camp. To recap:  Sedevacantist in Latin means empty-chair.  Sedevacantist in English means one who believes no valid Pope since 1958 due to modernist heresies in them. If you were speaking exclusively Latin, you could accurately call Fr. Altman "a sedevacantist" due to his recent video on the papacy.  But while speaking English, it would be entirely dishonest and a false-accusation to [...]

Canon 188 in the 1983 Code of Canon Law reads: "A resignation made out of grave fear that is inflicted unjustly or out of malice, substantial error, or simony is invalid by the law itself." This means if an attempted papal-resignation were done under duress, it would be invalid.  Keep in mind as you read this that some crimes can be proved, even if the victim denies it.  This is true in both criminal law and canon law. There has been much written on Can. 188 over the past decade by a few traditional Catholic authors.  But I believe many Catholics have forgotten two of the most important accounts given [...]

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. [...]