Christ Has Conquered Your Fear of Death
VOA news recently reported on the coronavirus: "The most contentious debate over Orthodox Easter occurred in Georgia [former USSR] where church leaders and the government agreed to allow parishioners to attend dusk-to-dawn Easter vigil services. The agreement meant worshippers were allowed to attend overnight services in large cathedrals despite a curfew, but they were required to maintain a distance of 2 meters. Those who attend small churches had to remain outside. Dozens went to the main cathedral in Tbilisi, where Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II said that the virus had caused fear among many people.” Despite a global fear of death over a virus, these Georgian worshippers stayed up all night worshipping the Holy and Life-Giving Resurrection of Our Lord. Perhaps part of their insistence was due to Church leaders remembering their former communist country and that if clerics kowtow to the state [...]
A Catholic’s Rights Before a Totalitarian State
A cop (Ruben Nava) and a priest (Fr. David Nix) discuss an individual Catholic's rights of self-preservation before a hypothetical liberal totalitarian government. Has the World Health Organization implied that a police-state is needed to end COVID-19? There's some compelling evidence from the WHO, Gates and even the Vatican that such is the case. I'm sorry about the bad sound quality on my end for some of the podcast.
Resurrection and the Problem of Pain
I have thought a lot about "The Problem of Pain" this Lent. The Problem of Pain is the modern atheist's main objection to believing in God: How could an infinitely good God who is infinitely powerful allow so much evil on earth? Indeed, there have been many books written to defend the existence of God and the goodness of God. But the one line that kept returning to me this Lent was: "Why must we suffer? Because here below, pure love cannot exist without suffering."—St. Bernadette. This sounds like an oversimplification of an answer to the Problem of Pain, but it is the most perfect explanation I have ever read of the collision of Heaven and Earth. This saint's line implies that the Trinity in heaven contemplates the Trinity without any violence or suffering before the beginning of time, before [...]
When Does the Church Have to Obey the State?
On today’s podcast, civil attorney Marc Zarlengo and I discuss the separation of Church and State from constitutional law, the Magisterium and Church history. We will look much farther back in history than simply our current debate as to what is considered essential and non-essential commerce as we continue to hunker down for C19.
Predictions for 2020 Based on the Old Testament
On today's podcast, my lawyer friend Marc Zarlengo and I discuss the causes and effects of a country and a Church effectively shut down. We discuss everything from the prophet Jeremiah to Bill Gates' proposal for digital medical certifications for Americans.
In Mary is the Way and the Truth and the Life?
Many good Catholics are often hesitant to share with Protestants the Marian writings of heavily-Marian saints like St. Louis De Montfort and St. Maximilian Kolbe. I would number myself among such Catholics, at least at initial conversations with Baptists, Pentecostals and "non-dommers." Our Catholic giants of Marian theology write so much of "surrendering our life to Our Lady" that such vocabulary could be confusing to someone who has already surrendered his or her life to Jesus Christ (as well as Protestants and Catholics alike both should have.) Even the old Divine Office seems to ascribe too much to Mary, the Mother of God. In the set of Psalms called None (9th hour) on 11 Feb, the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes (the Apparition of the Blessed Immaculate Virgin Mary) the reading after the Psalms from Ecclesiasticus implicitly ascribes the [...]
Shipwreck of this World
Lauds in the old Divine Office of today, the first Sunday in Passiontide, says we life in a "shipwreck of a world" (mundo náufrago) here on earth. This seems like a very negative world view to the modern Christian who is repeatedly taught that God wants him happy on earth. There is some truth to that (that God wants us happy on earth) but the old Irish-Catholic worldview was that our pilgrimage on earth was actually escape from a wretched "shipwreck" to just get to heaven. People nowadays liken this worldview to Jansenism. But I'm going to propose in this blog post that putting the emphasis on original sin in children's catechesis actually produced more joyful kids not only in heaven, but even here on earth. When modern Catholic parents tell kids "I'm okay and you're okay" and that they [...]
What if Catholics Avoided Pornovirus Like Coronavirus?
Every Catholic—lay and cleric—would spend months talking about nothing except how to end the pornography problem among Catholics and worldwide. The mortal sin of pornography would be avoided as vigilantly as plague-stricken hospitals, especially if access to priests were limited. Catholics would wear modest clothes to Mass at least as much as masks are currently worn to Wal-Mart. Priests and biological fathers who make concessions out of laziness to the danger-at-hand would be held morally culpable for endangering more than just their own parish or family. Bishops would shut down the indiscriminate approach to Holy Communion until every man was porn-free and every woman was birth-control free. Every diocese would put popularity, money and relevance at least temporarily on the back-burner until health was restored to souls. Every possible attempt—even seemingly inhuman attempts—would be executed by even lukewarm Catholics to [...]
Catholic Clinicians Speak On COVID-19
On tonight's podcast, I am joined by a nurse working in an ICU treating many coronavirus patients and a physician elsewhere who probably has coronavirus himself. We put into layman's terms COVID-19's common symptoms and treatments. Dr. Matt mentions the dashboard map of Johns Hopkins University.
Is It Ever Permitted to Lie to Your Children?
What is the cost of lies? It's not that we'll mistake them for the truth. The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all.—Chernobyl, TV series. Most people today will lie if necessary. If you ask them why they lie, it seems that most people believe that all will be forgiven at the end of time, especially if they are lying "for a good reason." Now, most of these people remember their Ethics 101 that teaches, The end does not justify the means. "This is a nice philosophy," they say, "but when the rubber meets the road of my life, I sometimes have to lie to keep things afloat." The direct Word from God should sober-up such arguments: But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the [...]