How Our Age of Church History Is Different From All Others in the Past
As I finished up Vespers tonight for the Conversion of St. Paul and got my ribbons ready for tomorrow on my old-school Divine Office for the third-class feast of St. Polycarp, I realized something tonight: Whereas St. Paul probably prayed all 150 Psalms by memory in Hebrew every day or every week, and whereas St. Paul probably asked for intercession for the people he killed before his own conversion and perhaps even asked intercession for all those he names in his letter to the Hebrews (ch. 11-13) there is something St. Paul and St. Polycarp did not have: 2000 years of saints and martyrs in the Catholic calendar and roll-call of those catalogued in the highest roll call of the altar through canonization. Many of us traditional Catholics feel very abandoned by the current governing powers of the Catholic Church [...]
CPX 49: As We Forgive Them
Prayer part 7 in the Catechism of Pope St. Pius X (CPX) p. 52 Q/A #31-33. We look at invincible vs. vincible ignorance in moral theology as well as a practical lesson on maintaining Christian boundaries with enemies (while still loving them.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I35fmgO2Hzo
Communism according to Pope Pius XI & Lockdown
As I recently explained in a recent CPX 48 podcast, communism in the 20th century killed 14x the amount of people than Nazism did. Yes, gulags killed more people by execution than even the concentration camps. This is a historical fact, even it is not politically expedient to admit. We must now ask if this global health-theatre lockdown continued under Joe Biden's plan for our country meets the criteria of Pope Pius XI's description of communism. On the 19th of March, 1937, Pope Pius XI published an encyclical on "atheistic communism" including this paragraph: Communism, moreover, strips man of his liberty, robs human personality of all its dignity, and removes all the moral restraints that check the eruptions of blind impulse. There is no recognition of any right of the individual in his relations to the collectivity; no natural right is [...]
Catholics Who Voted for Biden
This is what Catholics who voted for Biden are going to answer to Almighty God for:
VLX 49: Jesus Calms The Storm
St. Matthew 8:23-27. Why were the disciples (fishermen) so afraid on a storm on the Sea of Galilee? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3fPqxzYw5Y
CPX 48: Our Daily Bread (vs. Communism)
Prayer part 6 in the Catechism of Pope St. Pius X (CPX) p. 51-52 Q/A #23-30. A closer look at communism in the 20th and 21st century. https://youtu.be/sJG3s8g1xO0
Family Life Reflects Religious Life
While it is true that religious congregations are rightly called "families" (and indeed, are built on the family structure, hence, "father" and "mother" and "brother" and "sister") most people today realize in their hunger for good (and sadly, missing) family life that religious life should reflect family life. But few people remember that family life should also reflect religious life. When I was a neo-conservative (not yet a traditional priest) I noticed that most priestly discussions on the liturgy revolved around what would be most accessible and most pious for most of the laity. Similarly, during the first year of my priesthood, when I was pushing "Theology of the Body," I found that priests like me had a very pronounced adulation of the faithful families around us: We listened to lay Catholic leaders on our iPods (this was 10 years [...]
VLX 48: Homeless Disciples
Mt 8:21-22. Music bumpers courtesy of Alyssa Kortright. https://youtu.be/1MygK23VIUQ
Proverbs 16:25
Proverbs 16:25 reads, There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (In Latin, est via quae videtur homini recta et novissimum eius ducit ad mortem.). This is where we get the English proverb, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" which has been around since 1855 (at the very latest, and possibly much earlier.) I am shocked how many priests allegedly trained in moral theology are now holding that the end justifies the means on all the issues of 2020 and 2021 from election fraud to vaccines. No, the end does not justify the means in moral theology. Hiding behind trite 1970s phrases like "the common good" is essentially how many moral theologians are overturning very, very basic Catholic moral theology. Here is basic Catholic moral theology: When [...]
Injecting Appeasement and Shame Into Others’ Lives For Your Own Sins Prevents Repentance
Here's a situation relatively new to the past 50 years, but especially pronounced in the past year in the USA: Liberals justify their sins in front of conservatives by demanding either the conservative ratify the liberal's conscience (appeasement) or the liberal flips the tables and shames the conservative for implying anything shameful exists about the liberal's life-decisions. When a liberal injects appeasement or shame into the mind of any conservative who questions the left's behavior, this seems very much to hurt the right. But from a Christian point of view, it hurts the left. Here's why: The left's every sin demands appeasement and shame from the other (not himself) which necessarily prevents the repentance of the person on the left. And repentance is the one thing necessary before believing in the Gospel of Forgiveness. Indeed, the first public call from [...]