The Gospel found in the Traditional Latin Mass for the Wednesday of the third week of Lent includes this excoriation from Our Lord Jesus Christ to the Pharisees: Then came to Him from Jerusalem scribes and Pharisees, saying: "Why do Thy disciples transgress the tradition of the ancients? For they wash not their hands when they eat bread."  But He answering, said to them: "Why do you also transgress the commandment of God for your tradition? For God said: 'Honour thy father and mother: And: He that shall curse father or mother, let him die the death.' But you say: 'Whosoever shall say to father or mother, The gift whatsoever proceedeth [...]

Have we already forgotten the men who put a Pachamama idol in the Vatican? Have we forgotten the bishops and Cardinals who were complicit in this First Commandment violation through their resounding silence? As we will see, there are Biblical patterns that make sense of the fact that the people currently promoting pagan worship in the Catholic Church are the same ones overturning traditional worship. First of all, consider the fact that the word "Paschal" (Easter) has the same roots as "Passover." The Oxford Dictionary explains that "Paschal" was originally Middle English from the Old French taken from the ecclesiastical Latin paschalis. This word came from the similar Greek and [...]

The earliest age of the Church was the age of blood martyrs. As I currently am reading the Victories of the Martyrs by St. Alphonsus, I am repeatedly shocked how spontaneously the earliest Catholic men and women and children chide their Roman procurators for their pagan worship. Before the threat of flames, little girls openly declare they would rather suffer several minutes in the flames than the eternal flames to which the Roman procurator will throw himself if he does not repent for his idolatry. That early age of the Church carried the physical cross of Jesus Christ. Indeed, many of the early martyrs were literally crucified, as was Our [...]

The Gospel in the TLM today is about the end of the world.  Christ declares that "the abomination of desolation" will enter "the holy place." (Mt 24:15.)  In those days "there shall arise false Christs and false prophets" (v. 24.) Our Lord adds this unusual line: "Unless those days had been shortened, no flesh should be saved.  But for the sake of the elect those days shall be shortened." (v. 22.) Earlier in Matthew 24, Christ describes dark signs that will precede His light-filled return: "You shall hear of wars and rumours of wars." (v. 6.) And "nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there shall be [...]

The late Fr. Gabriele Amorth was the chief exorcist of Rome in the 20th century under Pope John Paul II.  In his second book, An Exorcist: More Stories,  he recounts on page 124 a soldier with a demon who had originally met with him but couldn't make future appointments.  Fr. Amorth writes:  "Continuing with the story of the young soldier: he called me to cancel our fourth appointment, citing military duties. Several months later, I received a letter from him. He told me that he had to leave Rome because he had been suddenly transferred to northern Italy. He gratefully thanked me for the help I had provided and joyfully [...]

Shielding your conscience on moral or doctrinal or liturgical issues on anyone in the hierarchy right now won't get you to heaven.  You must study the Bible and the Magisterium to do that.  Christ said 2000 years ago towards those blue-collar folks who would hang their hat on the Jewish hierarchy, For I tell you, that unless your justice abound more than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.—Mt 5:20.  A few hundred years later, most Arians were bishops and most Catholics trusted them.  Maybe they said things like "These are protected offices so God couldn't let 99% of all bishops be wrong." [...]

Wiktionary erroneously defines epikeia as "the principle in ethics that a law can be broken to achieve a greater good."  Of course, the notion that the end justifies the means can never be squared with Catholic moral theology.  As soon as one believes that the end justifies the means, one approaches the moral theology heresies of consequentialism and proportionalism.  I blogged against those errors here in a post called The Greater Good is Not a Catholic Moral System especially when applied to forcing people to take an experimental injection "for the greater good" a couple years ago. But St. Thomas Aquinas did hold epikeia to be an important virtue.  St. Thomas essentially [...]