The above is a picture I snapped at Ave Maria University while traveling to a funeral in Florida. Normally these updates go in my Life-Update section, but I wanted to express my deep and heartfelt thanks to those who sacrifice for me, either by finances or by time in prayer. Here's some points on where your money is going: I pray or read several hours a day.  This usually includes Mass, mental prayer, Rosary and the old Divine Office. I still receive health insurance from my Archdiocese.  However, all my income still comes from you who read my site and listen to my pods.  This is because I am not [...]

Catholics (including myself) often justify our presence on social media by evangelization, teaching and Church reform.  But do the advantages really outweigh the benefits for even the most astute apologists online? Besides the big pitfalls of porn and bullying, there are some other smaller hazards to Christians on social media.  I'm not speaking of simply manners, but things that will affect people's salvation.  Let's look at five other hidden pitfalls to social media: Fake Romances, Fake Friendships.  Many marriages have been broken up when a spouse meets another person online.  Sometimes that spouse commits adultery with the new squeeze met online.  But sometimes the married person leaves for a person [...]

Since however the younger generations must be trained in the arts and sciences for the advantage and prosperity of civil society, and since the family of itself is unequal to this task, it was necessary to create that social institution, the school. But let it be borne in mind that this institution owes its existence to the initiative of the family and of the Church, long before it was undertaken by the State. Hence considered in its historical origin, the school is by its very nature an institution subsidiary and complementary to the family and to the Church. It follows logically and necessarily that it must not be in opposition [...]

Should you attend a parish that promotes truth or charity?  The obvious answer is both.  But what if you had to choose?  I ask this parish-based question because I have been hearing horror stories lately on some unbelievably mean things that traditional priests have said in the confessional to lay people.  Also, we just saw more priest-child scandals explode from the past in the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) world.  But the question I am proposing here doesn't have to do with such scandals.  Obviously, one must avoid like the plague any parish with a groomer priest.  I am talking about something slightly more nuanced than the following dilemma but here's [...]

I wish there were not divisions in Christianity, but there are.  I wish there were not any divisions in Catholicism, but there are.  In this article, I'm going to show the roots of the three factions of Western Catholicism as found in recent Church history.  This is not to further divide, but so that readers may better understand the motivations of such groups.  It's also to teach the first group listed below how to better evangelize the other three groups. Traditional Catholics are those I usually label Apostolic Catholics because their roots in both doctrine and liturgy go back historically to what Jesus Christ gave to the Apostles.  This group [...]