Blogposts

There is a bill floating in Congress with this title, which frankly is dishonest. This bill is NOT about respect for marriage. Quite the contrary. With the return of the issue of abortion to the states, there was worry by some that the same fate would befall so-called “homosexual marriage” by overturning the Obergefell vs Hodges decision of the Supreme Court, which ruled for same-sex marriage. Thus the issue would be returned to the individual states. Whether overturned or not, the Obergefell-decision is a nullity and any law codifying this decision would be a nullity because courts and legislatures have no power to change the nature of marriage.

O Teacher, Priest, and Lawgiver, You display this title on your garment marked with blood: Lord of lords, and most high King of kings.

O Christ peace-bringing Prince, subdue rebellious wills, by Your love gather into one fold those who have gone astray.

We confess, O Christ, that You are the King of the ages, You are the nations’ King, You are the sole ruler of minds and hearts.

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662), in addition to being among the widely acknowledged geniuses of the human race, was one of the most eminent modern apologists for the Christian faith. In an era such as ours that denigrates both rationality, man’s distinctive trait, and belief in God, man’s highest dignity in this life, we have much to learn from him.

Despite his poor health, Pascal was a prodigy in mathematics and science from his earliest youth. He performed groundbreaking experiments with water and air pressure, invented a calculating machine, and made striking advances in theoretical mathematics, especially probability theory.

After the legalization of Christianity in A.D. 313, a common commemoration of the saints, especially the martyrs, appeared in various areas throughout the Church. For instance, in the East, the city of Edessa celebrated this feast on May 13; the Syrians, on the Friday after Easter; and the city of Antioch, on the first Sunday after Pentecost. Both St. Ephrem (d. 373) and St. John Chrysostom (d. 407) attest to this feast day in their preaching. In the West, a commemoration for all the saints also was celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost. The primary reason for establishing a common feast day was the desire to honor the great number of martyrs, especially during the persecution of Emperor Diocletian (284-305), the worst and most extensive of the persecutions. Quite simply, there were not enough days of the year for a feast day for each martyr, and many of them died in groups. A common feast day for all saints, therefore, seemed most appropriate.

Without a doubt parental rights in the rearing and education of their children have become a political issue in the country and in the upcoming election. They are under attack. Laws are being proposed in various jurisdictions to usurp parental rights, in schools especially, to promote gender ideology and puberty blockers in service of this agenda. Along with this is the attempt to sexualize children at a young age in favor of this same ideology in schools and libraries with so called “drag-queen reading sessions” and other perversities. It’s important to deal with a sometime objection from people that they don’t come to church to hear politics. They want to forget about politics.

One of the thinkers who had great influence on Pope Benedict XVI was Fr. Romano Guardini. Below is an excerpt about the challenges we face as Christians in this post-modern world.

From Fr. Romano Guardini’s The End of the Modern World, “The Dissolution of the Modern World”:

The Faith of Christian men will need to take on a new decisiveness. It must strip itself of all secularism, all analogies with the secular world, all flabbiness and eclectic mixtures. Here, it seems to me, we have solid reasons for confidence. The Christian has always found it difficult to come to an understanding of modern attitudes, but we touch an issue here which needs more exact consideration.

Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony of Jesus. (emphasis added) Revelation 12:17 The real opposition to things Christian comes not from dogma, but from revolt against the majesty of the revealing God… Fr Romano Guardini, The Faith and Modern Man p.113 1952

St. Maximillian Kolbe was shocked when he saw that “In the years preceding the war, in Rome, the capital of Christianity, the massonic mafia, repeatedly disapproved of by the Pontiffs, was dominating in an ever more brazen manner. (Writings 1328) The brothers with the apron "were celebrating in honor of Giordano Bruno, sporting a black banner with the image of St. Michael the Archangel under the feet of Lucifer and waving their banner in front of the windows of the Vatican”.…which is the center of Christianity. The young cleric immediately began to study their methods and purposes. (Note: Giordano Bruno was a former Dominican friar in the 16th century, who became a heretic and rejected the Catholic Faith.)

A Jesus who agrees with everything and everyone, a Jesus without his holy wrath, without the harshness of truth and true love is not the real Jesus as the Scripture shows but a miserable caricature. A conception of “gospel” in which the seriousness of God’s wrath is absent has nothing to do with the biblical Gospel.
— Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Look Upon Christ

Only a blind man can deny that there's now in the Church great confusion.
— Cardinal Carlo Caffarra

Cardinal John Henry Newman (now St. John Henry Newman) was an inspiration of Germany's greatest heroine in defying Adolf Hitler, scholars have claimed. New documents unearthed by German academics have revealed that the writings of the 19th-century English theologian were a direct influence on Sophie Scholl, who was beheaded for circulating leaflets urging students at Munich University to rise up against Nazi terror.

One of the premier Catholic thinkers and philosophers in our country is Edward Feser. He recently published an essay called “Perfect World Disorder” where he talks about the meaning of order and disorder and its effects on our country. You can read the whole essay here: postliberalorder.substack.com/p/perfect-world-disorder.  But for purposes here, some bullet points and observations from his essay and Frank Sheed’s Society and Sanity.

Christ entrusted to the Apostles the mission of proclaiming the Kingdom of God and preaching the Gospel of conversion (cf. Mk 16:15; Mt 28:18-20). On the evening of the day of his Resurrection, as the apostolic mission is about to begin, Jesus grants the Apostles, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the authority to reconcile repentant sinners with God and the Church: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (Jn 20:22-23). Through the centuries, the celebration of the Sacrament of Penance has developed in different forms, but it has always kept the same basic structure: it necessarily entails not only the action of a Bishop or priest, who judges and absolves, tends and heals in the name of Christ – but also the actions of the penitent: contrition, confession and satisfaction.

Pope Benedict while Cardinal Ratzinger expressed himself on the title of this essay in a book called The Ratzinger Report. He said: It seemed exaggerated to me. So it was difficult for mater to understand the true meaning of another famous expression…the declaration that designated the Virgin Mary as the “conqueror of all heresies.” Now in this confused period where truly every type of heretical aberration seems to be pressing upon the doors of the authentic faith-now I understand that it was not a matter of pious exaggerations, but of truths that today are more valid than ever.