To begin, I should state how the Catholic Church defines heresy. You can find the definition in Canon 751 as well as the Catechism of the Catholic Church §2089. So here it is: Heresy is the obstinate denial or obstinate doubt after the reception of baptism of some truth which is to be believed by divine and Catholic faith. Not just “Catholic” faith, but “divine” faith too. Canon 750 tells us what sorts of things constitute “divine and Catholic faith.”... Read more
In spite of prophesies that he would stay mum, Tim Kaine’s bishop has responded to the senator’s weird and dissident mumblings that the Catholic Church would one day approve same-sex marriage. More than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on marriage, and despite recent statements from the campaign trail, the Catholic Church’s 2000-year-old teaching to the truth about what constitutes marriage remains unchanged and resolute. The Church has taught this for 2000 years, and it’s not going to... Read more
And by his bishop, Francis Xavier DiLorenzo. Here is the long and short of it. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published this document, called “Considerations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons.” Section 10 has to do with the “positions of Catholic politians.” That’s the part that applies to Sen. Kaine. Let’s look at what the CDF says. (The bolding is my own.) If it is true that all Catholics are obliged to... Read more
This is not, or need not be, complicated: Catholics, Protestants, the Eastern Orthodox, Jews, and Muslims all worship the same god. The difference is in what they believe about him. But regardless of what they believe about him, the god they worship is the god of Abraham. Dr. Shabir Ally (he’s a Muslim scholar and apologist) does not worship some different divine figure than Pope Francis does. Now, the Church affirms all this in Nostra Aetate. The Church regards with... Read more
Or that is what Fr. Matt Malone, S.J., claims, in an article at America. It is the kind of article that makes one say: “Yes, Fr. But.” (Leila Miller at Little Catholic Bubble had so many buts she wrote a full rebuttal; hie you to her blog and read it.) I want to stress one of her points. Before I do that, however, I should first say that I sympathize with Fr. Malone’s main concern, which was the presence of... Read more
There is a species of reader who always seems to know better than you what ought to interest you and what you ought to say. Just as often, this reader (or Facebook denizen) knows all the things a writer like you should not bother with. I get e-mails with the instructions, “Hey, Alt! You should write a post about the Johannine comma!” or “Hey, Alt! Did you see this stupid thing that Mr. Y posted at the-pope-is-the-antichrist.com? You ought to... Read more
In reference to my post yesterday, a reader writes (with my emphases): In my opinion, a better question is whether abortion is really the end-all election issue many conservative Catholics make it out to be. What if there were an issue as important as abortion that Catholics need to consider? I think there is. And I think it is conscience rights. Since at least 2009, when the debate surrounding the Affordable Care Act was swirling, I have been appalled by... Read more
If you can convince me that Donald Trump will be better than Hillary Clinton on abortion, then I will vote for him. But here are the arguments you can not use: You cannot make “Trump has promised” appeals. If all you have is what Trump has “promised” to do, you have nothing. Trump claims to have changed his position. How do I know this is not mere expediency as he trumps for votes? Why are Trump’s mere promises enough to... Read more
At the New York Times, Rabbi Mark Sameth asks pertly: “Is God Transgender?” Here’s the short answer: No. God has neither sex nor gender. The former is a biological construct, created by God; and the latter is a linguistic construct, created by man. (See what I did there?) God, being transcendent, is outside both. You can’t gender God. But Sameth attempts to do just that, which is why a longer answer is required here. After some introductory paragraphs involving a... Read more
On August 2, Pope Francis said a few words about gender identity—words that are not at all new with him. In a meeting with bishops that day, he observed: In Europe, America, Latin America, Africa, and in some countries of Asia, there are genuine forms of ideological colonization taking place. And one of these—I will call it clearly by its name—is [the ideology of] “gender.” [Which is, in fact, an artificial construct. The academics and ideologues have co-opted a word... Read more
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