Catholic culture is like tofu: It takes on the flavor of the culture around it. When Islam took over the Middle East, Christians suddenly starting having cows about veneration of images and the Iconoclast heresy was born. When Calvinist rigorism was all the rage in 16th century France, Jansenist rigorism became all the rage in the French Church. When French hubris and nationalism was at its peak, so was Gallicanism in the Church. And when American star-spangled patriotism is what... Read more
Here’s an oldie but a goody: I thought of that cartoon as the man who used to be Patrick Coffin, fresh from ginning up nutty conspiracy theories about the pope (which Dawn Eden Goldstein recently chronicled) decided to favor us with this deeply Catholic and definitely not racist observation that certainly has nothing to do with the trope about black people having lots of different baby daddies and certainly does not feed the nutty conspiracy theory that Michelle Obama is... Read more
The Catholic tradition teaches that concupiscence “darkens the intellect” or, as I like to say, sin makes you stupid. Examples of this abound these days as Family Values Christianist prostrate themselves to adore a self-confessed sex predator who shags porn stars behind his third wife’s back and proclaim a man who welcomes the title “Second Coming of God” as the anointed of God. It would be lovely to think that the graces of the sacraments protect Catholics from such idiocy,... Read more
Catholic and Enjoying It is on the air live at 7 PM Pacific (10 PM Eastern) for the last time tonight. They asked me to do twelve shows and I gave it a whack, but I’m working on two books and doing other stuff besides and I just couldn’t afford to carve out an hour of time every Monday night. Maybe one of these day, when I have more spare time I will go back to it. But not now.... Read more
Lots of people reckon Autumn to start on the Autumnal Equinox on September 23. I reckon Autumn to start on Labor Day. So here is a little offering from John Donne and the Wheaton College Women’s Chorale. IF I should declare what God hath done (done occasionally,) for my soul, where He instructed me for fear of falling, where He raised me when I was fallen, perchance you would rather fix your thoughts upon my illness, and wonder at that,... Read more
Drama is about conflict and so my fear is that the screenwriter will invent a conflict between these two popes that doesn’t exist and make everybody dumber as a result. I also fear they will turn it into a simple-minded Good Francis vs. Evil Benedict narrative. There’s an outside chance they will turn it into a Cool Francis vs. Square Benedict tale, but that’s less likely, I think. Trads will, I fear, be gravely disappointed if they are hoping for... Read more
When last we left Dawn, she was challenging the principalities and powers behind the publication of Taylor Marshall’s execrable screed Infiltration. By no coincidence, Dawn’s challenge to that screed and to the vile attack on Francis by Cdl. Burke and Patrick Coffin, in which they encourage the anti-Francis Freak Show to declare his election invalid and him a papal pretender, was attacked by Austin Ruse at CRISIS!!!. Also, no coincidence is the fact that Infiltration is published by by the... Read more
In which my heroic friend takes on some very powerful figures in the Right Wing Christianist Freak Show that has come to dominate American conservative Catholic media in their struggle to promote a blaspheming weirdo who gladly accepts the accolades “King of Israel” and “Second Coming of God” while making open and naked war on the Holy Father, the Magisterium, and the Second Vatican Council. I’ll just let Dawn take it from here since she did her homework carefully: (Thread:)... Read more
I love Dawn. She is smart. She is well-educated. She is devoted to Jesus Christ in his Church. And she has guts. Here she is, taking on the Trump-adoring, Francis-hating Right Wing Freak Show on Twitter. She does such a thorough job that I am going to let her speak for herself for the next few days. If you want to go to her Twitter feed, just click on through to the other side. [Thread:] I tweeted that Cardinal Burke,... Read more
One of the weird things about the Christianist Freak Show is that you can display all the approval you like of this guy and his immensely destructive career and nobody will ever say, “Why are you distracting from the Faith to talk about politics?” But observe the obvious fact that he was a profoundly anti-life and anti-christ force in the world and that is exactly what the Christianist leap up to shout. Nonetheless, this assessment is perfectly true: ‘Koch and... Read more
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