What Catholics Are Missing in the Death Penalty Debate
WAIT. WAIT. WAIT. Before skimming this article to see if you like my conclusion on the death penalty, please realize that this blog post is a work on systematic theology, not moral theology. Systematic theology is a consideration of the levels dogma in the Catholic Church. Indeed, the question of By What Authority must precede visceral reactions to difficult issues that divide Catholics today like the death penalty or gay "marriage." Against the better judgment of half-my-mind, I’m going to give you (here in the first paragraph) the dogmatic conclusion of this blog post that will be proved below: The Catechism of the Catholic Church is not infallible. The Catechism of the Catholic Church is not infallible. I imagine this sentence will delight many liberal Catholics (who like to put moral relativism above the Catechism under the auspices of [...]
Holy Faith is Your Triumph Over Enemies
In this sermon for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost, I reference a 1995 death experience of Gloria Polo and an ancient prophesy of St. Francis of Assisi.
A Formation Commensurate to Baptism
Any species of animal must have a formation commensurate to its nature. We are humans with a human nature, but we are called to participate in the Divine Nature through baptism. How can our formation equal the grace already transmitted in the sacraments? Two ways: 1)To live according to the spirit, not the flesh (Romans 8) and 2) To go to the mother who singularly formed the human nature of the God-man.
Prophesy of St. Francis of Assisi
“Act bravely, my brethren; take courage and trust in the Lord. The time is fast approaching in which there will be great trials and afflictions; perplexities and dissensions, both spiritual and temporal, will abound; the charity of many will grow cold, and the malice of the wicked will increase. The devils will have unusual power; the immaculate purity of our Order, and of others, will be so much obscured that there will be very few Christians who obey the true Supreme Pontiff and the Roman Church with loyal ears and perfect charity. “At the time of this tribulation a man, not canonically elected, will be raised to the Pontificate, who, by his cunning, will endeavour to draw many into error and death. Then scandals will be multiplied, our Order will be divided, and many others will be entirely destroyed, because [...]
Thunderclouds of Mary
This is actually one of my most hope-filled posts, but follow me down the bad rabbit hole of humanism for a minute before we come rocketing up to the glory of God: Most conservative pundits say that the world is now worse than previous centuries. However, most professors of world history at American and European universities teach that (except for modern wars) we now live in a world much safer, thanks to medicine, secularism and globalism. Of course, I would want to point the latter group to the millions of yearly abortions, but the Western academy will not accept that the unborn constitute an actual genocide of slaughtered human beings. However, every once in awhile, even the liberal academy releases evidence that things are now worse now than ever in world history. The United-Nations-affiliate International Labor Organization released statistics in [...]
On Exiting the Gay Lifestyle 2 of 2
I interviewed Joseph Sciambra about his exit from work in gay pornography to a chaste life in the Catholic Church. This is part 2 of 2, live from the Castro, San Francisco. You can find a lot more about Joseph's life and apostolate at www.josephsciambra.com. You can watch both of these coffee-shop interviews with Joseph and myself on Sensus Fidelium.
On Exiting the Gay Lifestyle 1 of 2
I interviewed Joseph Sciambra about his exit from work in gay pornography to a chaste life in the Catholic Church. This is part 1 of 2 of my interview in the Castro, San Francisco. You can find a lot more about Joseph at www.josephsciambra.com
What Exactly is the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary?
On 13 October 1884, Pope Leo XIII entered a trance after finishing Mass in the Vatican and he saw Jesus and Satan talking: Satan: “I can destroy Your Church.” Our Lord: “You can? Then go ahead and do so.” Satan: “To do so, I need more time and more power.” Our Lord: “How much time? How much power?” Satan: “75 to 100 years, and a greater power over those who will give themselves over to my service.” Our Lord: “You have the time, you will have the power. Do with them what you will.” Pope Leo XIII then went to compose his prayer to St. Michael to be prayed after Masses everywhere. Fast forward 33 years to 1917 when the Mother of God would have monthly apparitions to simple shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal. To these children, Mary revealed warnings [...]
Prayer of Praise and Offering of Love for the Life of the World
Blessed are You, Magnificent Holy Father of Gentleness and Majesty. Nothing compares to you, the Holy, Almighty One of Israel. Thank you Father for your power—You to whom all things in heaven, on earth and under the earth, do bow and obey. I now see that You alone are worthy, O God. I praise you and worship you with holy hands, night and day in the temple with Simeon. Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, how sweet are you to me who cries “God alone!” Kyrie Eleison. I adore you profoundly in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, all aflame with the Holy Spirit. I pierced the meek and mild heart of your Son Jesus by my many sins. I repent heartily of my sins and those of the whole world. Victorious Lion of Judah, as your child, I ask you [...]
Two Modern Myths of Ancient Church History
Myth 1: Catholic means universal, as in what all Catholics believe in the 21st century. Truth: Catholic is that which is believed everywhere, always and by all.Many people believe that the term "Catholic" means universal in Latin. This is true, but the Greek root of this word is even older: As you can see, Catholic means "according to the whole." By whole, that means everything in the Bible and oral tradition (2 Thess 2:15.) It means the fullness of the truth. The modern myth is that "Catholic" means universal—but only today. The problem with this definition is that it falls short of the original Patristic definitions of Catholic. The fifth century monk St. Vincent of Lérins taught: "Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believedeverywhere, always, [...]