The article that Alan Fimister, John Joy and myself wrote on whether there is (still) such a thing as 'implicit faith in Christ' is now available for purchasing:
Dear fellow Catholics! Can we agree that we should not participate in ceremonies in which an 'elder' whistles four time through a bone instrument before asking the western grandmother to give us access to the sacred circle of spirits?
If capital punishment is always unjust then either:
1. God did not inspire the whole of the Law of Moses; or
2. God commanded injustice.
Both 1 and 2 are heretical. Therefore capital punishment is not always unjust.
Can dogma evolve? No:
"If anyone shall assert that sometimes, according to the progress of science, a sense may be able to be given to dogmas propounded by the Church different from that which the Church has understood and understands; let him be anathema" (Vatican I)
'If you want to read something scary, there it is in black and white. A Bishop saying the condemnation of sinful behaviour is “not the Christian position”.'
I've heard that Fr Jeremy Davies, former exorcist of Westminster diocese, is not expected to live much longer. Say a prayer for him if you have a spare one.
I said Mass today for the repose of the soul of Sr Mary John, the last contemplative nun of the English Dominican province. With her death ends a line that goes back at least until 1660; I don't know what continuity can be traced before then.
I hope (and pray) that some young
The feast of our Lady of Lourdes. One of the things which Mary is supposed to have said to St Bernadette is 'I do not promise you happiness in this world but in the next'. When I was living with the brethren in Toulouse, one of them mentioned that he had once known an old priest
The Daily Telegraph today has an obituary of the director of The Exorcist. It says that the last official Catholic exorcism in the USA is thought to have taken place in 1949. Inaccuracy on this scale almost seems like an achievement.
What will be the sign that the crisis in the Church has been surmounted? I'd suggest two:
1. The traditional Mass celebrated each Sunday by diocesan bishops on the high altar of their cathedrals;
2. Bishops swearing the anti-modernist oath before taking office.
To claim that capital punishment is intrinsically evil is obviously heretical, being incompatible with sacred Scripture. So any Catholic who publicly maintains this position has to be refused Holy Communion, according to canon 915 of the Latin code.
While grace before meals is alive and well, the custom of grace after meals is in danger of dying out, outside religious houses. But it is good, when we have refreshed ourselves with food, to pray for those souls who cannot console themselves in their labours, as we can in ours.
Dutch government policy that permits involuntary
#euthanasia
of terminally ill children up to 12 years of age started today. Policy is said to apply in exceptional cases of v serious terminal illness & expected to be used in 5 to 10 cases per year.
Dear Dr Faggioli,
Presumably you give an ex animo assent to the canon of Vatican I, since it would obviously be highly improper and dishonest to take money for teaching theology at a Catholic university if you did not.
Sincerely,
Fr Thomas Crean
I second the Latin Mass Society's call to the archdiocese of Westminster to reconsider its decision to suspend confirmations in the traditional rite.
Either the traditional rites of the Latin church are good or they are bad. If they are bad, what reason have we think that the
St John Vianney lived off old potatoes and had one threadbare cassock. But when he ascended the altar steps, he wore a cloth-of-gold chasuble.
@LibTheoJesuit
Whatever one's position on taking an anti-covid injection, it is clear that Catholics have completely failed to get across to the world that they were produced in an immoral way, by making use of aborted human foetuses.
In all the many articles in secular journals or on secular
Today is the 17th anniversary of the death of Michael Davies. He probably worked harder than anyone in the world to vindicate the right of Christ's faithful to the traditional Mass of the Roman rite.
He died on the feast of St Cadoc, who was, like Michael himself, a Welshman who
The sacrament of confession is the only normal means to be freed from grave sins committed after baptism. I hope more bishops will write pastoral letters saying and explaining this: it would start to re-vitalise the Church.
To think that the Greek and Latin bishops at the Council of Florence spent so long poring over patristic texts to see if they taught the Filioque, when they could just have settled the question once and for all by passing round a few dumb-bells.
St John Chrysostom on the duty of stopping public blasphemies:
"Should you hear any one in the public thoroughfare, or in the midst of the forum, blaspheming God; go up to him and rebuke him; and should it be necessary to inflict blows, spare not to do so. Smite him on the face;
I am horrified that something like this has happened in my constituency.
John Fisher is an excellent local school with whom I enjoy a great working relationship.
The actions of the Archdiocese are unacceptable. Would they ban me from visiting as an openly gay MP?
God will not bless a party that upholds a secular Republic and access to abortion. Let's hope that this victory for the 'extreme left' will lead to the rise of truly Catholic political action in France.
Dietrich von Hildebrand:- "It is a greater evil for a heretic to remain in the Church, than for the Church to become poorer by one member. It is better that he leave the Church, or be excluded from her by anathema or excommunication. This is not only better from the standpoint of
St Simeon, who appears on the martyrology today, should be better known. He was one of the cousins of Christ, mentioned in the gospels, and became the second bishop of Jerusalem, living to a great age. When the emperor Trajan decided to have all known descendants of King David
To the people who say that 'blessings are for people' and that a priest can therefore bless a 'same-sex couple' without endorsing homosexuality: would it be good for a priest to bless together a married man and the woman with whom he is having an adulterous liaison?
Just as priests have to refuse Holy Communion to those in manifest grave sin without waiting for orders from above, so bishops have to withdraw communion from other bishops who profess heresies, without waiting for instructions from the pope. This is not to cause a schism, but
In the Mosaic Law it is not just a sin but a crime for a man to 'lie with a man as with a woman'. So a Christian can't hold that criminalisation of this practice is intrinsically unjust.
In judging whether our rulers can be trusted to respond in a sane and rational way to Covid-19, we may want to remember that most of them apparently believe that two men can marry each other.
Two suggestions:
1. Next time someone says to you, "I believe all religions lead to God", say, "that's an interesting theory - do you have any evidence for it?"
2. Next time someone says to you, "Religion is the cause of most of the wars in the world" say, "false religions are."
At a certain deep level, the spirit of the English was broken at the Reformation. The sadness was covered up for a while by the exultation of an exaggerated patriotism. But now that too is passed away; and very little is left.
By request, I said Mass today for the repose of the soul of Oscar Wilde, who died on St Andrew's day 1900. He died as a Catholic: the Irish Passionist Fr Cuthbert Dunne and the French Dominican Fr Humbert Clerissac were there.
Fr Dunne died exactly 50 years later, St Andrew's
Jesus Christ on capital punishment, against the Pharisees: "Moses said, ‘Honour your father and mother,’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death'" (Mark 7:10).
Some people today think that the words of Christ are contrary to the gospel.
The Patriarch of Antioch to the Patriarch of Constantinople, AD 1054:-
"Consider what would certainly happen if that great first and Apostolic See {Rome} were divided from our holy Churches - wickedness would spread everywhere, and the whole world would be upset, the kingdoms of
whom came from the area around Lourdes and who therefore understood the dialect that Bernadette and the Lady used in their conversations. This priest said that what She had actually said was 'I do not promise you the happiness of this world, but of the next'. Which, when you
Lay-folk who fight for orthodox teaching in the Church are sometimes attacked as 'self-appointed spokesmen'. In fact, they were appointed by the bishop who confirmed them.
Today is the feast of St Raphael the archangel. He liberated Sara from Asmodeus, the demon of fornication, and bound him in upper Egypt. He is a good patron for those struggling against the sin of pornography.
Priests have been sent a letter from Cardinal Grech about the synod. Your Eminence, l shall be enthusiastic about the synod when those in power admit that the Church has been devastated by neo-modernism and that the rule of law has broken down. Till then I shall say the rosary.
When I read the Odyssey as a young man, I was struck by how Homer would say that Odysseus and his companions 'took the gift of sleep'. Why call sleep a gift, I wondered. Now that I am forty-nine, I begin to understand.
One week before their ad limina visit to Rome, & basing themselves on
#PopeFrancis
’ ‘Amoris Laetitia’, Belgian Bishops Conference green lights blessing gay couples & publishes prayer service. Document in Flemish here with working English translation below:
The controversy over hell is a reminder that if we assent to doctrines only insofar as they appeal to our taste or proceed from our reasoning, we do not yet have the virtue of faith.
Philip Johnston says today in the main article of the
@Telegraph
that he respects Christians even though he doesn't believe that "Mary was impregnated by an angel." Presumably the article was checked by at least one editor. Are we really dealing with this degree of ignorance?
A fertility rate below 1.6 means 50% less new people after three generations, say 100 years. Below 1.2 means an 80% drop.
The U.S. is at 1.64. China, Japan, Poland, Spain all below 1.2. South Korea is at 0.7—96% drop.
Mass extinction numbers.
@tonyannett
@FeserEdward
Scripture teaches that slavery strictly considered as the duty to work in perpetuity for another is not intrinsically immoral, though to be excluded where possible. The same applies to capital punishment.
From the letters of St Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury:
"The Roman Church remains the head of all the churches and the source of Catholic teaching. Of this there can be no doubt. Everyone knows that the keys of the kingdom of heaven were given to Peter. Upon his faith
Today among things is the feast of Pope St Leo II, who condemned his predecessor Honorius I for attempting 'to stain the immaculate faith by a profane act of betrayal'.
It would seem strange to hold that a pope who encouraged this sort of thing would still have a claim to have his teachings believed or his laws and precepts obeyed.
History continues to be made in the church: a priest blesses a same-sex couple, according to the guidelines set out in "Fiducia Supplicans," in the Diocese of Lexington.
According to Cardinal Ratzinger, teachings don't receive extra weight from being put into the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It follows that any statements in it which were not already 'authentic magisterium' didn't become so by its publication. This is from his book
28 years old & scheduled for euthanasia next month.
"She recalled her psychiatrist telling her that they had tried everything, that 'there’s nothing more we can do for you. It’s never gonna get any better.'
At that point, she said, she decided to die.”
How is that those who deduce a policy on immigration from the fact that God in the old law told the Israelites to be kind to the stranger never deduce an economic policy from the fact that He also fixed the upper limit of income tax there at 10%?
Inability to state your opponent's position honestly is a mark of bad faith. By this measure, the pro-choice movement comes off badly. Its spokesmen nearly always describe their opponents as wanting to control women's bodies, rather than wanting to protect unborn life.
I'm wondering if we should propose a new act of contrition to penitents:
"O my God, because I am infinitely dignified, I am very sorry that I have offended against myself..."
Rev. Michael Coren's argument here is that there is nothing in the bible about homosexuality, and if there is it doesn't matter because we get to ignore the bible when we want to anyway. This is called sophisticated theology.
So if a particular teaching isn't in Vatican II or the CCC (or a more recent magisterial document), there can be some assurance that it's not a required belief or binding on consciences.
women in this country be will be inspired once again to live this hidden life of prayer for the support of ministers of the word of God, and be able to live it out with the traditional Dominican observance and liturgy.
Today is the feast of Blessed Hadrian Fortescue, a Dominican tertiary who was beheaded under King Henry VIII for resisting the attempt of that tyrant to set up a national church in England, separate from the Church of Christ.
In 1966, Pope Paul VI wrote 'Sacrificium Laudis', telling male religious who sing the office in choir to use Latin chant. When all the Benedictine abbots of the world came to Rome, he asked Rembert Weakland to present this document to them in a meeting. His manner of presenting
Theories of evolution didn’t begin in the 19th century. Aristotle considers the idea of evolution by natural selection near the start of the Physics, and dismisses it as irrational; and the Physics was one of the texts most frequently commented on from the High Middle Ages
Denying the legitimacy of an ecumenical council is bad; denying that Christians today can pray some of the psalms or repeat some of St Paul's teaching is worse.
Since the punishment for worshipping the beast and receiving its mark in Apoc. 14 is {symbolised by?} fire and brimstone, as in Gen. 19, the sin may have something to do with homosexuality, e.g. accepting it as a good. In biblical terms, receiving the mark 'on the forehead'
I'd like to see bishops celebrating the TLM every Sunday in their cathedrals, ask all their parishes to have the 40 hours in reparation for sin, write a pastoral letter explaining why contracepting Catholics should go to Mass but not Communion, and ban the sale of the Tablet.
Calling all
#Catholic
bigmouths (and I mean that as a compliment) - How do you think we should get younger Catholics back to the Church? What is the Church not doing that it should be doing?
Very serious question there and I hope a lot of you chime in.
#CatholicTwitter
#CatholicX
The head of the CDW says that the traditional Latin Mass has been used 'to encourage an ecclesiology that is not part of the Church's magisterium' (Letter to Cardinal Vincent Nichols). Please, which proposition or propositions about the nature of the church are in question here?
Does the reply to the dubia deny the inerrancy of Scripture? It says that 1 Cor. 11:3-10 'cannot be materially repeated today'. There's no point having a synod if we don't believe in the bible.
Some people have been making fun of Sam Harris for asking 'where is heaven?' I don't think this is fair. The question is a legitimate one. Christians must hold that heaven is a place, since the risen body of Jesus Christ is there. Some people suggest that it is a place that
Cardinal Gerhard Muller: "To teach contrary to the apostolic faith would automatically deprive the pope of his office. We must all pray and work courageously to spare the Church such an ordeal."
"No mere man was of infinite dignity, so as to make adequate satisfaction for an offence against God" (St Thomas Aquinas, 'De Rationibus Fidei', ch. 7).
I don't like the modern habit of using 'the Spirit' to refer to the third Person of the Blessed Trinity (e.g. 'Father, Son and Spirit'). In our times, at least, it easily takes on a doubtful, pantheistic connotation. The doxologies of the Roman liturgy very rarely use the
2nd Vatican Council: "Holy Mother Church has firmly and with absolute constancy held, and continues to hold, that the four Gospels just named, whose historical character the Church unhesitatingly asserts, faithfully hand on what Jesus Christ, while living among men, really did
A very important essay by the late biblical scholar Raymond Brown.
A key point here: “In 1964 the Roman Pontifical Biblical Commission taught authoritatively that the Gospels are the product of considerable narrative, organizational and theological development and so are not
Given recent measures taken about the liturgy, it may be worth recalling that according to both reason and revelation, there is no obligation to obey an obviously unjust law.
This implies that subjects can notice that a law is unjust, since no superior is going to say, 'This
Lots of commentators in Britain have been saying things like 'though ritual is irrational it is comforting and natural'. But it is only irrational if we think that we are only minds and not bodies. Otherwise, it is perfectly rational, as well as natural and comforting.
A sad interview with Delia Smith in the Sunday Times. She became Catholic 60 years ago, read Teilhard de Chardin and now no longer believes in original sin.
#AnathematizeTeilhard
I recently talked with someone who teaches at a Catholic university. He claimed that integralism is infecting the young men. A terrifying development. Where is this coming from?
Some people: "Dei Verbum says that the bible makes lots of mistakes!"
Dei Verbum: "Everything asserted by the inspired authors or sacred writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit."
The opponents of the old rites are in a logical bind. Either they offer inadequate worship or else they do not. In the first case Christ would have failed His Church in necessary things; in the second, there is no need to try to suppress them.
May we believe that one form of Mass is more grace-giving than another? We have to distinguish. Insofar as it is the sacrifice of Christ, every Mass is equally pleasing to God. Insofar as it is the sacrifice of the Church, it can be more or less pleasing to God, by virtue
Actually, one of the errors of the Waldensians, whose conversion St Dominic sought, was to claim that the secular power may not administer capital punishment. See Denzinger-Hunermann 795.
Also, he's not in a grave.