Fr. William Saunders, in one of his consistently excellent articles for The Arlington Catholic Herald (12-19-13), wrote: St. Luke related the announcement of the birth of St. John the Baptist to his elderly parents, St. Zechariah and St. Elizabeth. St. Zechariah was a priest of the class of Abijah (Lk 1:5), the eighth class of 24 priestly classes (Neh 12:17). Each class served one week in the temple, twice a year. Josef Heinrich Friedlieb has established that the priestly class... Read more
(6-2-14) *** I totally agree that there are very serious problems in the blogosphere, and particularly, these days, on Facebook, which is just about as bad now as the old Internet discussion boards, that I left for good in October 2003 (and explained why at the time). In 2003, Internet discussion boards were all the rage. Blogging was still relatively new. Facebook is now the most fashionable and trendy thing. I stopped debating anti-Catholics in 2007, too, for the... Read more
(12-14-06) *** G. K. Chesterton On Christmas and its Modern Detractors * If ever a faith is firmly grounded again, it will be at least interesting to notice those few things that have bridged the gulf, that stood firm when faith was lost, and were still standing when it was found again. Of these really interesting things one, in all probability, will be the English celebration of Christmas. Father Christmas was with us when the fairies departed; and please God... Read more
(12-8-14) *** Jonathan Huddleston (see Facebook / resume) is an ordained Church of Christ minister, and has been assistant professor of Old Testament at Abilene Christian University. He obtained his doctorate in Hebrew Bible / Old Testament from Duke University and he speaks biblical Hebrew, koine Greek, Ugaritic, Aramaic, German, French, and Swahili. That’s extremely impressive. What an honor, then, that he was willing to dialogue on this topic with me, on my Facebook page! A true scholar and a gentleman... Read more
(12-7-06; final two paragraphs added on 12-8-17) *** Many of our esteemed Protestant brethren have a big problem with Catholic beliefs concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary. Catholic convert Kimberly Hahn once gave a great talk (one of my own favorites) about her own past struggles, entitled, “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary.” Our Lady’s Immaculate Conception is one of these “controversial Catholic distinctives.” Like the other Marian doctrines, it’s not nearly as foreign to Scripture and Protestants’ own belief-system as often erroneously thought.... Read more
(2-4-05; abridged and very slightly edited / added to otherwise, on 12-7-17) *** This is drawn from what was originally a very extensive dialogue with a friendly and learned Reformed Protestant, Alastair Roberts. At first, he himself asked me to respond to a series that he wrote on the topic. I was happy to oblige. I feel, however, that the two-part dialogue (see parts one / two, via Internet Archive) is far too long and involved for the vast majority of... Read more
See the previous related papers: Capital Punishment: I’ve Changed My Mind Genesis 9:6 & Capital Punishment (Contra Ed Feser) *** [Dr. Edward Feser’s words will be in blue] *** Romans 13:1-4 (RSV) Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. [2] Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. [3] For rulers are not a... Read more
Preliminaries and Whether Genesis 9:6 is Proverbial Literature My post, “Capital Punishment: I’ve Changed My Mind” (12-5-17) has generated vigorous discussion on Facebook and in its own combox. Dr. Feser showed up in the latter, last night. We had a very minor dispute about how many (and which) links of his I provided in my paper. I added further ones at his request. Then we had the following little exchange. His words will be in blue. Dr. Robert Fastiggi’s words... Read more
(1-23-06) ***** Every act of war directed to the indiscriminate destruction of whole cities or vast areas with their inhabitants is a crime against God and man. This citation appears in the CCC #2314, which in turn is citing Vatican II, Gaudium et spes: 80:3. The remark in that document was preceded by the following statement: . . . the Council, endorsing the condemnation of total warfare issued by recent popes (3), declares [then the sentence in question occurs] . . . Footnote... Read more
My position for as long as I can remember has been against the death penalty, except in the case of mass murderers and terrorists. I was more generally in favor of it in the past (not sure how long ago that was). Thus, in more recent years I have been basically opposed to it, with only relatively rare and extraordinary exceptions to the “rule.” As a result of wonderful group discussion with Dr. Robert Fastiggi (professor of systematic theology at... Read more
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