A few years ago, my wife looked at me, after one of my rants about how bad things were getting in the Church, and asked me a simple question: “If this makes you so miserable, why are you still doing …
Category: The Church
Remaining in a Church That Hurt(s) Me
It seems to be a fact that you have to suffer as much from the Church as for it… ― Flannery O’Connor, “The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor” At mid-life, I have absolutely no patience or charity for …
Extra Ecclesiam, Nulla Salus: How Is the Church Necessary for Salvation?
What does it mean for someone to “know that the Church is necessary for salvation”? The documents of the Church always say: If someone knows this but does not act upon it, he cannot be saved. Are there really such …
The State of the Church and the State of Our Souls
This article was first published at OnePeterFive on March 31, 2015, under the pen name Benedict Constable. It is here republished under the name of its author. Catholics striving to be loyal to “the faith once delivered to the saints” (Jude …
The Flight to Eternal Rome and the Mass of the Revolution
About ten years ago, I was a confused, libertarian, atheist college freshman, and I was about to embark on a revolution – first downward towards Hell and then upwards towards Heaven. As a complacent atheist who grew up in New …
Are Catholics Bound to Assent to Vatican II?
Mr. Dave Armstrong has been a successful Catholic author and blogger for some two decades. To his great credit, he is one of the few Catholics who provides a substantial critique of the traditionalist movement.[1] Without a doubt he has …
Asking Sedevacantists: A Church without Popes Forever?
Recently, an event of significance for sedevacantists came to pass. The last bishop consecrated to be appointed to office in 1958 — i.e., during the reign of Pope Pius XII — finally passed into eternity. That this is so can …
Man Cannot Live on Vatican II Alone
It’s a Friday. A boy and his father head out in their boat to fish. The plan is to catch supper. “Dad, we’ve been out for two hours and haven’t caught anything,” remarks the boy sullenly. “The water is too …
Papal Infallibility After One Hundred and Fifty Years
Saturday, July 18, 2020, marked the 150th anniversary of the definition of papal infallibility by the first Vatican Council in the constitution Pastor Aeternus, as a dogma of the Catholic faith, to be held by all Catholics under pain of …
Archbishop Viganò: Is Vatican II “Untouchable”?
By Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò Peter Kwasniewski’s recent commentary, titled “Why Viganò’s critique of the Council must be taken seriously”, impressed me greatly. It appeared (here) on OnePeterFive, on June 29, and is one of the articles on which I …
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