Note: Skip to the On the Contrary if you are not familiar with a Thomistic article. Objection 1: It seems that Patriotism is not a virtue. For our Lord said, My Kingdom is not of this world (Jn. xviii. 36) and, further, we are strangers and pilgrims (I Pt. ii. 11) whose citizenship is in heaven…
“Hi, my name is Paul, and I’m an ex-Protestant.” Telling my conversion story can sometimes feel as though I were attending some sort of “Church Anonymous” meeting. God and the Bible and prayer have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Growing up, we went to services every week…
Anyone paying attention will have noticed the steady decline of morals and Christian values in mainstream entertainment. Conversation among Christians, in person and online, is filled with statements such as “Don’t give your money to Hollywierd” and that we are “slowly fed poison” by movies and TV. These are too often correct: much in the…
In a recent interview with America magazine, Archbishop Rino Fisichella praised the “dynamic nature” of sacred Tradition. Such Tradition, he maintained, is “first and foremost living.” We must not view Tradition as hidebound, the archbishop implied, because denying the “dynamic nature of tradition is tantamount to denying the contemporaneity of the Christian faith.” Here I…
In a homily delivered at Chartres on Pentecost Monday in 2015, His Excellency Bishop Athanasius Schneider offered to the pilgrims gathered there both an analysis of the most pressing challenge facing the Church today as well a strategy for meeting and, with the grace of God, mastering that challenge: “In our time, the natural family…
(Note: In some areas, this Sunday is celebrated as the Third Sunday after Pentecost. See last week’s reflection for an explanation of “External Solemnities.”) Epistle: Ephesians 3:8-19 Gospel: John 19:31-37 O God, who in the Heart of Thy Son, wounded by our sins, dost mercifully vouchsafe to bestow upon us the boundless treasures of Thy love:…
On Saturday, May 18, 2019, a Solemn High Mass was celebrated in the Mariners’ Memorial Chapel on the campus of the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA), the first traditional Latin Mass celebrated there in fifty years. The following is an interview with Midshipman Brian Rainwater, 1/C, who organized and coordinated this historic event. Tell…
On 16 May OnePeterFive described the takeover of power in the Order of Malta by the German, secularising party led by the Grand Chancellor, Baron von Boeselager. The story goes back to December 2016, when the then Grand Master, Fra Matthew Festing, attempted to dismiss Boeselager. The latter got Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of…
Editor’s note: We share the following exchange to show the widening rift between two liturgical camps in the Catholic Church, what exactly that rift entails, and what might be done to fix it. Our goal is to shed light on the truths of the Catholic faith, even when those truths are uncomfortable. Dear Dr. Kwasniewski,…
Spain is blessed with a deep Catholic soul. Yes, despite the gradual apostasy of Western civilization. Yes, even despite the unhappy post–Vatican II “reforms.” And yes, despite even the ever accelerating and ever deepening quagmire in which the Church finds herself of late. The Archdioceses of Toledo (Castilla–La Mancha) and Valencia are especially renowned in…
Again and again as of late, we see Catholic bishops and the pope making statements that seem to call into question the basic attributes of Hell, particularly the insistence of the Church that Hell is a place of eternal punishment and separation from God, and that it is not empty of human souls. Most of…
