The Pity and the Pretense “Fidelity, fidelity, fidelity!” –Father Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009) Father Frank Fourberie (fictitious) is fifty-eight years old. He has been a priest for thirty years, and he is now pastor of a large urban church in a major American city. Father Fourberie is a generally kind, thoughtful, and generous man.…
The whole medieval period bears what may be called the Gregorian imprint; almost everything it had indeed came to it from the Pontiff – the rule of ecclesiastical government, the manifold phases of charity and philanthropy in its social institutions, the principles of the most perfect Christian asceticism and of monastic life, the arrangement of…
Read the last chapter before this one Table of Contents Start reading from chapter 1 *** CHAPTER 10 Malthus my boy, I consulted your instructors at the Academy and my suspicions were correct; the standards in that blasted school really have dropped through the floor. It seems that the lazy devils have grown complacent…
“Russian Roulette” pt. 2 Read part 1 here Ruined! Ruined! My time has clean run out! The clock has stopped, the pygmy house has crumbled. Soon I shall embrace eternity to my breast, and soon I shall howl gigantic curses at mankind. … If there is a Something which devours, I’ll leap within it, though…
I am reading through a letter issued recently by my bishop. Before I say anything further, I must point out that he was consecrated as bishop just last June. However, given the frequent mention of masks and hand sanitizer, the letter tells me he is already quite familiar with the ways and workings of modern…
What does it mean to be a “traditional Catholic?” If you listen to some of our critics, it means we must slavishly fit their stereotype of a 1950s white suburban middle class American Catholic. And if we are honest with ourselves, perhaps sometimes we also have that expectation. To be a traditional Catholic in this…
The holy season of Lent has taken on a new meaning for Catholics in the Archdiocese of Chicago, as they continue to be denied the Traditional Latin Mass on the first Sunday of the month in archdiocesan churches per directives from Cardinal Blase Cupich. But, in typical Chicago fashion, they aren’t taking the Cardinal’s bullying…
The claim is often made that the traditional Roman Rite brings out more clearly than the Novus Ordo does that the Mass is a true and proper sacrifice—the unbloody re-presentation of the bloody sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. As this dogmatic truth is a point of central importance for living the Catholic Faith and…
We so heartily approve the magnificent tribute of praise bestowed upon this most divine genius that We consider that Thomas should be called not only the Angelic, but also the Common or Universal Doctor of the Church; for the Church has adopted his philosophy for her own (Studiorum Ducem, 29 June, 1923, Pope Pius XI).…
With the “Gesima,” pre-Lent Sundays we added a layer of context to our contexts: Roman Station churches. Each day of Lent has, by millennial tradition, an assigned church in Rome. On weekdays, people gathered at a nearby “collect” church and then processed singing penitential litanies and hymns to the “stopping” church, or “statio” where the…
The doctrine of the Gospel on the necessity of mortification is explained at considerable length by St. Paul in his epistles. Frequent quotation is made of his words: “I chastise my body and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway” (I Cor. 9:27). Likewise…
