In case anyone thought yesterday's blog post on Catholic fundamentalists was some sort of hit job on traditionalists, the comments box at CRUX on my most recent article remind us that the wild eyed fundamentalists are not only conservative Catholics. They'e on the other side of the fence too. The radical trendies are just as loopy [...]
Within Catholic ultra traditionalist circles a new wave of ugliness has arisen. Numerous traditionalist blogs, websites and publications spew disrespectful hatred towards the Catholic church. They mock the Mass by despising the "Novus Ordo" they denigrate the Holy Father referring to him as "Pope Frank" or "Bergoglio" and refer to their mother the Catholic Church with [...]
Longenecker and Pearce in Oxburgh's Priest Hole My article at Imaginative Conservative website this week considers the priest's holes which were created during the Elizabethan terror in England. If you visit Oxburgh Hall in England you can tour one of the ancient country houses occupied without break since 1482 by one of the most [...]
Soon after the plans for the new traditionally styled church in our parish were planned, I showed them with some enthusiasm to a liberal priest who happened to be visiting from England. He turned up his nose at the style and asked why we would build such a church which was "against Vatican 2" Knowing that [...]
Following a speculative essay in an Italian paper that women should be allowed to preach at Mass there is now a conversation going on about the issue. My blog post yesterday addresses the issue. It's not about women or men per se, but about clergy and laity. Women are not forbidden from preaching because they're women. [...]
An essayist in L'Osservatore Romano-- the Vatican paper--suggests that women should be allowed to preach at Mass. On Facebook, popular "Public Figure" Fr James Martin agrees. I wholeheartedly agree. Not hearing women reflecting on the Gospels at Mass impoverishes us, limits us, and prevents us from hearing the wisdom and experience of fully half of our church. I am [...]
Why does Catholic worship appeal to men? It has to do with liturgy. This is why the feminization of the liturgy is so unattractive to men. When well-meaning liturgists and priests feel they have to make everything in the liturgy emotionally relevant and “meaningful” to everyone, many men switch off. When Father Fabulous insists on being [...]
If we are faced with the choice of Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump as presidential candidates an increasing number of Catholics are saying, "What do I do? Both of them are awful! Do I vote with two hands--one to hold my nose? Do I have to vote? Isn't a vote a participation in evil?" This is [...]
You can listen here to my homily from Our Lady of the Rosary from last Sunday - the third Sunday in Lent. In the homily I discuss self righteousness and how wrong it is to be "right" and how right it is to be wrong. Go here to listen and share.
One of Mark Shea's memorable (if not eloquent) quotes is "Sin Makes You Stupid." It's another way of echoing St Paul's wisdom in the first chapter of his epistle to the Romans 1 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish [...]