For the previous post, “CST 101: A Crash Course in Leftism,” go here. Wait, “versus” the left? We talk about “the liberal left” all the time, liberals are the left. Aren’t they? Once again, I’m so glad you asked. Using the words liberal and left as synonyms is a pretty much exclusively American invention, and, in this particular case, not a very useful one. Time for another quick-and-dirty history lesson. Remember our discussion last time of the left and the right... Read more
Where do I get off calling my blog “left-trad,” anyway? Didn’t the Church condemn socialism? And so many leftists are hostile to religion—look at how Marx denounced it. Look at how many Christians were killed by communists! How can a confessing Catholic be a leftist? I am so glad you asked, he said, having put the hypothetical question in the audience’s mouths. To answer that, we’re gonna have to define some stuff, so strap in. The Left is a nickname... Read more
President Trump recently tweeted that he’s going to designate antifa a terrorist organization. Plenty of misconceptions about antifa have been in the air for years anyway; the very word makes it sound like a gang or a political party, when in fact it’s just an abbreviation of the word antifascist. (1) Being anti-antifascist sounds an awful lot like being a fascist, but let’s ignore that for the present. I’ve decided to do a quick write-up to dispel three big myths... Read more
I wrote this poem for Pentecost on my old site a couple of years ago. The name Whitsunday is an archaic English term for Pentecost (whit or wight is a Middle English word for spirit). Whitsunday Eve: spirits, awake; The hells beneath their masters shake; For unmade Love-in-Light descends On those their Maker called his friends, To laurel them with stranger fire Than priest or Levite could ensire. From Babylon by riven tongue Across the earth all men were flung By... Read more
I’m planning a series on why, as a Catholic, leftism is good actually. In preparation, I’m trying to bone up on my CST. For my own convenience and that of my readers, I’ve thrown together a partial list of relevant encyclicals and the like here. (I won’t be charging for this post on Patreon, obviously.) Rerum Novarum [Of New Matters], Pope Leo XIII, 1891. On property and the rights and duties of workers, particularly trade unions. Quadragesimo Anno [In the... Read more
Tonight is the vigil of Christ’s Ascension. Forty days after he rose from the grave, he rose from the earth itself and went bodily into heaven. Most dioceses in the US transfer this solemnity to the following Sunday, but the Ordinariate observes it on the traditional date, the sixth Thursday in the Easter season. Interestingly, this aligns Ascension with two other festivals also celebrated on Thursdays—Maundy Thursday and Corpus Christi. (1) The first opens the Triduum, commemorating the institution of... Read more
I’m working on a new book, non-fiction this time: basically, it’s “Mudblood Catholic, the book.” Collecting my posts to date (mostly from my blogspot days of course), summarizing here, expanding there. I thought I’d share a selection of what I’ve written. It’s easy to whinge about this and that problem, and be perfectly right about them, but if you don’t have hope that things can get better, you’re just picking at the wound. And it is really, really hard for... Read more
Now that I have your attention, SEX! You know, that thing my blog is inextricably tied up with, because I’m a gay dude and Catholic? Well, I really haven’t felt the need to think about it lately. This isn’t to say my sex drive has gone down, or that I’m any more chaste now than I was six months ago. But—I don’t know—I’m not worrying about it like I used to. Trying to think my way out of the problem... Read more
Intro; The Misters President; The Unsafety Net; The Catch Closing out this series, I’d feel remiss not making a few remarks about the pro-life movement, as distinct from pro-life ideas. As I’ve said, I am thoroughly pro-life. This does not stop at birth; it applies throughout life. I can discuss exceptions like self-defense, the death penalty, or war; I’m certainly not going to give any of those things my unqualified approval (1), but they’re conversations we can have. The moral... Read more
Intro; The Misters President; The Unsafety Net So far we’ve taken a look at some different ways of approaching pro-life voting, some data about how Democratic administrations and policies lead to an actual decrease in abortion rates, and some reasons why that correlation seems to be the case. All that, taken together, leads me to the conclusion that voting blue is more pro-life than voting red, even if we (quite artificially) restrict our definition of “pro-life” to the unborn. In... Read more
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