40 “Smaller” Heresies of Modernism
Many Catholics studying the current crisis in the Church have become numb to the definition of Pope Saint Pius X that modernism is "the synthesis of all heresies." Some may think "synthesis of all heresies" is an amorphous problem of general doctrinal malaise. Others might classify it as a paranoid papal prophesy that never really materialized for the good-willed but jumpy Pope. But what has been astonishing to me lately is that I keep seeing that I learned everything, yes, quite literally everything, while growing up in Catholic grade school, high school and even seminary—wrong. I don't mean just liturgical issues. I mean the seemingly-smaller issues of Catholic doctrine are all turning [...]
Transpontina: Why Would God Let This Happen?
Most Catholics know that the Vatican placed in the Roman Church Santa Maria Transpontina (St. Mary's Across the River) a display of indigenous costumes for the "Amazon Synod" this month (October 2019.) This transformed the beautiful and ancient Church of Our Lady into a kitschy display jungle items and pagan rituals. The first problem with this is a violation of the First Commandment. The second problem with this is that it is racist: A white liberal hierarchy imposed paganism on indigenous peoples of Brazil. I know this to be a political (or diabolical) move because the native people of Brazil do not promote such rituals in their Catholic Churches. (As [...]
How Ascetical Theology Brought Christ to the World
I have been haunted for two and a half years by this "Fr. Z" blog post that shows how American Catholics fasted for lent in the 19th century: DIOCESE OF NEWARK. (1873) REGULATIONS FOR LENT: Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, will fall on the twenty-sixth day of February. 1. Every day during Lent except Sunday, is a day of fast on one meal, which should no be taken before mid-day, with the allowance of a moderate collation in the evening. 2. The precept of fasting implies also that of abstinence from the use of flesh meat, but by dispensation, the use of flesh meat is allowed in this [...]
Science and Religion Part 2: The Superstition of Those Who Reject Religion
In my last blog post, I explained how important it is for science to be concerned with the object (objective truth) more than the subject (subjective truth.) Strangely, many people in the West who reject Christianity now also reject science. They put on their cars and on their lawns a new secular creed called the "Sign of Justice." Let's examine their claims from a scientific (not religious) point of view: Sign of Justice: "Black Lives Matter." (See picture above) Assertion: Those who do not support "Black Lives Matter" are racists. Historical Reality: Black Lives Matter was created by George Soros to use blacks as pawns to cause civil unrest in the United [...]
Science and Religion Part 1: Epistemology
Epistemology is the study of how a knower can know things. It is a study of both the learner (the subject) and the learned topic (the object.) Epistemology is both subjective and objective. Science, on the other hand, is simply concerned with the learned topic, or the object, and hence we say that the goal of science is to be purely objective via data presented. Scientia is Latin for "knowledge." Science is the mind's conformity to reality, not to an agenda. This also presupposes that the mind, via the five senses, can actually grasp objective truth. Properly speaking, there is no room for a political agenda or even relativism in true [...]
What is the Primacy of Conscience?
Jesus Christ can forgive, through His priests, the most serious mortal sins through baptism and confession. As most readers know, mortal sins (sins that lead to hell) are mortal if they are 1) grave material and 2) done with full-knowledge and 3) executed with full consent of the will. In a recent blog post, I reminded readers of 15 Mortal Sins that most Catholics don't know are grave matter. In today's article, I will try to unmask how Satan tricks amateur theologians on the other two criteria of mortal sin (full knowledge and full consent of the will.) For lack of more politically-correct terms, I have tried to identify the tricks [...]
The Cross vs. Emotional Fulfillment in Marriage
By Fr. David Nix and Leila Miller As I have said in many sermons and blog posts, Catholics that use contraception have the same divorce rate as the rest of the United States—roughly 50%. Catholics who refrain from contraception have a divorce rate that is only 3%, even when all studies are averaged. But what about those 3% of Catholics who get a divorce while avoiding contraception? Crisis Magazine did a study about 15 years ago to ask why young Catholics who avoid contraception were getting divorces. The answer was one: They did not expect to suffer much in marriage. This blog post is written by my friend and author, [...]
Real Men of the Church Take Ownership
Real men take ownership. Cowards blame each other. In the below video, Navy Seal Jocko Willink describes a fire-fight in Iraq that went bad into a situation of deadly friendly-fire. At minute 8, Willink asks: "Who’s fault was this?” One Seal stood up and explained the deadly situation, adding: “…And it was my fault.” But then the next Navy Seal stands up and says: “It was my fault…” The next Navy Seal stands up and says: “No, it was my fault, because…” Again, watch time stamp 8:00 to 9:00: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljqra3BcqWM Contrast this to the below video from the 1960s where a young Irish priest asks an older Irish priest why [...]
3 Apologetics Points
There are many good books for Catholics to purchase to defend the Catholic Faith while talking to non-Catholics on topics such as the Resurrection of Jesus Christ or the Eucharist or the Immaculate Virgin Mary or even all Scriptural topics including Purgatory. But three debilitating moves for Catholics to use on Protestants while debating on-the-fly are as follows: 1) Disprove Sola Scriptura by reading Scripture Alone? 21 Reasons to Reject Sola Scriptura by Joel Peters. It can be found online or in $2 pamphlets from Amazon. It will take less than an hour to read, and it is undeniably the best little booklet to disprove the erroneous Protestant notion that Divine Revelation is found exclusively in [...]
Does God Change His Mind Through Church History?
Two other titles I threw around for this blog post were, Was the early Church more traditional or charismatic? and Was the Early Catholic Church as Dogmatic as the Medieval Catholic Church? This is a long blog post, but if you follow it carefully to the end, I believe you'll be happy that you did. In the above picture, every domino represents a different century in Church history. I used to believe that liturgy and dogma in Catholic Church history followed an erratic pattern like the above picture of dominos, where every century differed from the next century. Where it is true that the politics of Church history have followed a [...]