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 …
Category: Theology
Climbing the Ladder of Creation with St. Bonaventure, the Seraphic Doctor
Most Catholics who have a decent acquaintance with theology will be familiar with the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) — at least, with questions from his Summa theologiae. Apart from Franciscans who are devoted to their own tradition, however, …
How Students Should Learn, and How Teachers Should Teach
The term “Magisterium” is a relatively new term that became prevalent in the past few generations of Church history. Before this, there was a distinction made within the Church Militant between the Ecclesia Docens (“Teaching Church”) and the Ecclesia Discens …
Purgatory: They Shall Be Saved, but Only So as by Fire
When Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ instituted the Holy Mass as a perpetual sacrifice of His Body and His Blood for the remission of our sins (Mt. 26:26–28; Mk. 14:22–24; Lk. 22:19–20; 1 Cor. 10:16–18; etc.), it is clear …
On Vatican II, Piety, and Being an Obedient Catholic
Liberals and Modernists of every stripe attempt to defend their own identity as Catholics by an appeal to infallibility. This appeal is not an effort to safeguard the Tradition of the faith, but an effort to excuse one’s conscience from …
Messianic Prophecies and Their Utility in Evangelization
Our Lord Himself, His apostles, and the first evangelists frequently make use of the prophetic witnesses in the O.T. Scriptures in their arguments and their preaching. Thus, Our Lord taught the Pharisees — who considered the Messiah to be only …
Understanding the Literal and Allegorical Senses of Scripture
The traditional liturgy of the Church is filled with allusions to figures and types in the Old Testament that are taken in an allegorical sense. For example, in the traditional Roman Rite, the story of Daniel in the lion’s den …
Christ Could Not Have Been More Clear: ‘Eat My Flesh’
Chapter 6 in the Gospel of John is usually the main source cited for the Catholic teaching on the Eucharist: that in the sacrifice of the Mass, bread and wine are transubstantiated into the actual body, blood, soul, and divinity …
Did the Church ‘Forget’ the Holy Spirit until the ’60s?
When I was growing up, I distinctly recall hearing, more than once, presumably well-meaning teachers and preachers say something like the following: “The Church kind of forgot about the Holy Spirit for a long time, and with Vatican II, we …
Remembering ‘Remember, Man’
“Remember, man, that thou art dust, and unto dust, thou shalt return.” I’m old enough to remember the priest murmuring that as he smeared ashes on my forehead, conveniently bared of my perpetual bangs by my Catholic school beanie. The …