Maybe it's just me, but I seem to hear an increasing amount of grumbling from about the state of the church. Some folks complain about the new generation of priests, "All these guys seem to care about is lace and china tea cups! Are they all pansies? What's going on? Why do they have to return [...]
I once attended a seminar on the deliverance ministry conducted by the author and psychiatrist Kenneth McCall. During the questions and answers three rather excitable women told Dr McCall that there was a witches coven meeting in their town and they wondered how to get rid of it. Dr McCall was a very softly spoken man [...]
Jesus Eats With Sinners Some Catholics are up in arms over Cardinal Dolan agreeing to be the Grand Marshall of the St Patrick's Day Parade in New York which has been infiltrated by homosexual activists. Elizabeth Scalia has stirred the pot with this post comparing Dolan to Jesus who ate with sinners, did not condemn [...]
The last few years have seen a shelf load of worthy books de-bunking what is called the New Atheism. I’m sure it is a mighty good thing to explain and expound the five proofs of God’s existence, but it seems to miss the point. I’d rather present the reality of God’s work in the world and [...]
Powerful St Patrick Some time ago I had a dream in which I saw a young boy swimming in a river. As he was swimming happily downstream I saw that around the bend was a large crocodile. I watched in terror as the boy swept past the crocodile and the beast slipped out from [...]
During the twenty years it took me to convert from a Bob Jones University student to a Catholic I considered many of the Marian dogmas to be pious opinions. It was okay for Catholics to believe them, but why did they have to go and make them dogmas and therefore make it more difficult for me [...]
Confused? Don't be The sudden death of Tony Palmer--the friend of Pope Francis--has raised the question whether he could be saved even though he never converted to the Catholic faith. Some Catholics would shake their head sadly and quote the famous phrase, Extra Ecclesiam nulls salus- Outside the Church, No Salvation. Does this mean that everyone [...]
I get an increasing number of requests to assist Protestants who are interested in the Catholic Church. One came in today in which a Presbyterian has come to believe in the Apostolic Succession but wonders if that necessarily means he must become Catholic. In the creed we profess the four marks of the Church: that she [...]
Some time ago I read a blog post identifying the degradation of American Christianity into what was termed Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. It's given me much pause for thought and the analysis seems to me to be spot on. Today's post is a further speculation on this analysis with a long contribution from a regular reader to [...]
Pope Francis has been criticized in some quarters because he has said, “Proselytism is solemn nonsense.” He has also told Evangelical Christians and an atheist interviewer that he “doesn’t want to convert them.” In a meeting last week in Caserto he explained to his priests that their job was not “proselytizing” and he quoted Pope Benedict [...]