Localism: the Old World Order I spend every day wishing for the Old World Order (c. 1200s A.D.). Something (secular) I recently read used the phrase “technocratic hellscape” to refer to our current economy in the United States. How accurately put: our intertwined economic and social systems, destroying minds, hearts and souls as well as creation’s ecosystems and men’s…
Above: the celebrated heretic, Hans Küng (1928-2021). One can only hope and pray that the celebrations for him have not continued for eternity in the fires of hell. Requiescat in pace. Ave Maria. In our last essay we discussed some of the trends of decline in theology before Vatican II. These were the aspects that produced…
“We will not do it!” declared Carmelite priest Fr. Titus Brandsma, the spiritual director of the Catholic press during Nazi-occupied Holland. “Our limit has been reached! We cannot serve them!” He was reacting to the latest Nazi edict insisting that Catholic newspapers publish Nazi propaganda. This was not the first time that Fr. Brandsma had…
A concise and profound manual of spiritual life, without rhetoric and without compromise: an antidote to modern, nebulous and sentimental pseudo-spirituality. This is Lived Christianity, the magnificent text by Dom François de Sales Pollien, just published by Calx Mariae Publishing in the first English edition (London: 2022). Joseph Pollien was born on 1 August 1853…
Since my conversion to Catholicism years ago, I had been told the New Mass was created by the Second Vatican Council. Many times, a friend had to remind me that “the Novus Ordo was not created by the Council.” At the time, I thought that whatever infallibility means when you parse it out, it surely…
The season of summer is often seen as the best of the four seasons for people of the Northern hemisphere. This time of the year also coincides with one of the greatest feasts of the Church, notably Pentecost. The Church has tied the two events together through the Pentecost Ember Days, which is ordered towards…
If we want to address the problem of hyperüberultramontanism, we are going to need to talk about a decline in theology that occurred before Vatican II. We need to understand the roots of these issues and how they developed in our history of Catholicism in modernity. To do that, we have to cover some basics…
I have an image from a particular event playing in my mind. The event takes place in a large entertainment auditorium. The auditorium is modern par excellence, meaning it’s as ugly as sin. The ceiling is comprised of funky clam-shaped lighting. The walls look like an alien exploded onto two large panels of stained glass.…
Above: Pope Francis on May 14, 2022. Editor’s note: we ask our readers to pray for our Holy Father and his health. It is the duty of every Catholic to love and pray for the Roman Pontiff. Let us continue the pious custom of including Pope Francis in every Rosary every day. On Sunday, while…
Read the last chapter before this one Table of Contents Start reading from chapter 1 Epilogue Attn: Blockleiter Tribunal for the Discipline of Delinquent Devils 6662 Undying Worm The Pit At the request of the Administration in the ongoing case of the devil called Malthus, I will present in the following report all the…
Pentecost is perhaps the richest of all the liturgical Feasts of the Holy Roman Catholic Church… in the Vetus Ordo, at least. In the Church’s Vetus Ordo, like Easter, Pentecost has a Saturday Vigil with the blessing of baptismal water and an Octave, during which we sing the stunning Sequence Veni Sancte Spiritus, and the…
