Someone, somewhere (for I must protect the innocent and befuddled) recently proclaimed that, yes, it is true, we owe the Church religious assent even when it does not speak infallibly, but that all said, I will “eat my hat” if you can find the term “social justice” in any encyclical. Really? Here is Quadragesimo Anno, by Pope Pius XI, in 1931, where it appears nine times. (§57, 58, 71, 74, 88, 101, 110, 126). Pius XI writes: To each, therefore,... Read more
As it happens, I have already answered this objection before in a two-part exegesis of John 6. That was back in 2014. You can read them here and here. (You ought to, because I go into a lot of detail I won’t repeat below.) But recently an anti-Catholic stated the objection to transubstantiation in a peculiarly absolutist sort of way: [Communion] is supposed to be done purely has a symbol or metaphor of the body and blood of Christ. However... Read more
Suppose you owed a debt you could not repay. Suppose further that my father is a very wealthy man, and because you are a good family friend, he decides to pay off this debt for you. He entrusts the money to me to pass on to you. I give you the money, and you pay the debt. In an immediate sense, I gave you the money; in an absolute sense, however, the money came from my father. He paid your... Read more
So there I was, innocently minding my own business, when someone hands me the following “I love you but let me attack you” piece of anti-Catholicism. I love you sister and I’m sorry that you think I’m persecuting you because I’m not. I never once judged or condemned you. I was exposing the false church itself and now I will talk about a few reasons why it is blasphemous. [But he’s not “judging” or “condemning.”] I can confidently say... Read more
Here is how it works. George Soros has planted one, three, six, forty-seven moles in a Facebook group called “Banished by Mark Shea.” You will have read about their, ahem, antics on Mary Pezzulo’s blog here, here, and here. They include such pleasantries as planning libelous publications, anti-Semitism, and threats of violence against well-known figures in the Catholic Church. (Entirely in a jovial, facetious spirit of course.) Soros’s moles meet with the Patheos bloggers when we all get together at... Read more
I tell you again: Give no credence to Fake Site News. Never give them credence, but particularly give them no credence when they are bashing the pope. Never give them credence when they are bashing the pope, but particularly give them no credence when the author is John-Henry Westen. A look at his absurd attempt, here, to claim that Pope Francis somehow contradicts Benedict XVI and John Paul II on abortion, gives us one more example why. But first, in... Read more
Kristen Hatten was, once upon a time, the Vice President of New Wave Feminists and much involved with Live Action. She also has a blog called Chronicles of Radness. These days, by her own telling, she has “come to identify with the alt right” and calls herself an “ethnonationalist.” [Edited to add: It is because of this that NWF, not approving of Hatten’s transformation, kicked her out several months ago.] Somehow, this is not “white nationalism,” it’s not racism, and... Read more
The Magisterium is the teaching authority of the Catholic Church. The word does, after all, come from the Latin magister, which means “teacher.” So when St. John Paul II, in promulgating the Catechism of the Catholic Church, called it a “sure norm for teaching the faith,” he sure seems to be calling it Magisterial by definition. He said that in Fidei Depositum. Fidei Depositum is an apostolic constitution. An apostolic constitution is the highest, most solemn decree a pope can... Read more
I have refuted all the other charges of heresy the filial ones have made against the Holy Father. And you will recall, dear reader, I often had the difficulty in finding out exactly where in the text of Amoris Laetitia they think they find those notions. This is because they do sloppy work. Read more
What is this stumper of a question? you ask. Here it is: Would you save one thousand embryos or one child in a fire? Really? That's it? This is the question that's supposed to confound us? This is the question that gets Raw Story in a heat of excitement and Mr. Tomlinson many new followers on Twitter? Really? Read more
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