Relief Comes From Unanticipated Quarters.
Editor's Note: This piece is from Mike, a husband, father and convert to the Catholic faith. Mike is a retired SEAL officer who spent many years at SEAL Team Six. He attends the Traditional Latin Mass. On a Sunday night in October, 1989, Hell Week began. Gunfire, flash-bangs, yelling, confusion: all designed to induce the maximum stress and chaos among us SEAL trainees. It continued non-stop for the next 4-1/2 days. Attrition was about 70%: a typical rate. I was a 22 year old Navy ensign leading a “boat crew” of six fellow trainees. About 48 hours into Hell Week (it was Tuesday evening), we paddled our inflatable rubber boats ashore at “Camp Surf,” not far from the border with Mexico. Camp Surf is specially designed for attrition: it is an inflection point for one’s physical and psychological endurance, both [...]
Damage-Control for a Material Heretic
The traditional Magisterium of the Catholic Church listed nine ways to being an accessory to another’s sin: 1. By counsel 2. By command 3. By consent 4. By provocation 5. By praise or flattery 6. By concealment 7. By partaking 8. By silence 9. By defense of the ill done. In traditional Catholic morality, we usually apply the above to matters of sexuality, gossip or finances. And we should. But have we ever thought of what it means to cover for another’s heresy under pretext of “giving the benefit of the doubt” to a "Catholic" teaching error? St. Thomas Aquinas teaches that heresy is “any deviation from the rectitude of the Catholic faith,” and it is one of the absolute worst sins a Catholic can commit. Granted, the above is the definition of material heresy, not formal heresy. But too [...]
“Peregrino Ignatian Path” (PIP): Intro A
The Supremacy of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and the Holy Spirit's gift of Counsel. **** -Rules of Discernment: https://www.padreperegrino.org/2025/01/allrules/
Six Different Attitudes to the TLM
One hundred years ago, Catholics were Catholics. Some were good Catholics and some were bad Catholics. But we didn't have political terms like "liberal Catholic" or "conservative Catholic." All Catholics one hundred years ago were traditional Catholics because that's all there was. However, Vatican II fractured Catholics all over the world. Now, every Catholic needs an adjective to describe where he is on a spectrum. Of course, Jesus Christ never designed it to be that way. As much as I dislike political terms, we will—for the sake of brevity—look at six common die-hard attitudes towards the TLM using terms that are found on that spectrum from left to right. Following St. Thomas Aquinas at a far distance, I will try to avoid straw-man arguments and give even better arguments than my opponents for their views on the Traditional Latin Mass [...]
Why Does God Allow Temptation?
Today, we're going to look at St. Thomas Aquinas on why God allows temptations. Below in black italics will be quotes from St. Thomas' Summa, part one, Question 114. As usual, my commentary will be in orange below. St. Thomas: I answer that, Two things may be considered in the assault of the demons---the assault itself, and the ordering thereof. The assault itself is due to the malice of the demons, who through envy endeavor to hinder man's progress; and through pride usurp a semblance of Divine power, by deputing certain ministers to assail man, as the angels of God in their various offices minister to man's salvation. Nix: The "Catholic Scripture Scholars" of the 1970s erroneously taught that demons were just diseases renamed by a primitive and stupid people. But by now, most Christians in the 21st century have [...]
RCT 58: The Effects of Baptism.
The Roman Catechism of Trent (RCT) p. 193-198. The Sacraments, ep. 10. My Site: https://www.padreperegrino.org Emergency baptism for lay people to do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOY3cDtF4gA
The Magical “Convert-Making” Chair-of-Peter
They refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false.—2 Thess 2:10-11. Before the 2025 Conclave, Archbishop Viganó stated: "The Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici Gregis that regulates the Conclave, confirmed by the Motu Proprio of Benedict XVI Normas Nonnullas, peremptorily establishes that the number of Cardinal electors must not exceed 120 individuals. But the Cardinal electors who make up the imminent 'conclave' are 136: we are therefore faced with a very serious violation that alone would be enough to undermine the legitimacy of any supposedly valid Conclave. Furthermore, a College of Cardinals composed of 108 ‘cardinals’ created by a Jesuit who usurped the Papacy for twelve years cannot validly elect a legitimate pope." Even if Archbishop Viganó was wrong about that and the 2025 Conclave [...]
The Pope of the Synodal Church
Despite the obvious differences in the outfits above, the two men hold the same ecclesiology. In Leo XIV's very short opening speech on 8 May 2025, he favorably mentioned "Francis" twice, indicating he would continue all his reforms. In that short speech, he also honored Peru, where he had been bishop. (It should be noted that in Peru, Bishop Prevost had once promoted the sacramental-heresy of phone confessions being valid. He also publicly stated that the abortion-tainted COVID-19 vaccine had to be “available for all.") But the most important thing he said from the loggia in his acceptance speech last week was: "To all you brothers and sisters of Rome, Italy, of all the world, we want to be a synodal church, walking and always seeking peace, charity, closeness, especially to those who are suffering." Again, he said the church [...]
To Sell Out the Faith for a Bowl of Porridge
p/c Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN Vatican. Are there traditionalists willing to make a deal with the devil? Are there American traditional Catholics willing to ignore yet another prelate’s destruction of the faith in order to keep their own local Traditional Latin Mass (TLM)? Are there allegedly-traditional Cardinals, teachers, priests, influencers or bishops willing to ignore yet another non-Catholic-in-white destroying the Faith just to save their local devotional life? Such is the approach I see in the Catholic media over the last week. But it is neither Catholic, nor is it charitable to make a pact with enemies of the Faith for temporary peace on the liturgical field when the souls of billions of unbelievers are still at-stake. Would you keep your local TLM for yourself at the price of your grandchildren not having the faith? You see, I don’t have biological children [...]
Is the Theology of Aquinas That Different From St. Paul?
Having come from the charismatic movement before being a traditional Catholic, I still talk to charismatic Catholics and admire some of them. Heavily influenced by the American Pentecostal (Protestant) movement, most charismatic Catholics today have a great devotion for the Apostle Paul. You can't fault them for this. In fact, besides the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Paul is still my favorite saint. Thus, I want readers to see before continuing that there is clearly no problem in having tremendous devotion to the Apostle Paul (the Apostle as many later saints and Popes have dubbed him.) But some charismatic Catholics today can be heard saying things like "I love St. Paul but I really don't care for St. Thomas Aquinas." Why do they say this? Usually, it is implied that while St. Paul was all about charity and evangelization, St. Thomas [...]









