The vices are, indeed, let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. (G.K. Chesterton, from his Orthodoxy)
Year: 2019
Sanity at John Paul II in Washington
Whatever is transpiring at the Pope John Paul II Institute in Rome – the Vatican will have a response, apparently soon, to explain what seems, for now, inexcusable – things are still stable at the sister Institute in Washington. For some inspiration, they have placed the talks of their conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of[…]
Work together in harmony: struggle together, run together, suffer together, rest together, rise together, as stewards, advisors and servants of God. Seek to please him whose soldiers you are and from whom you draw your pay; let none of you prove a deserter. Let your baptism be your armour, your faith your helmet, your charity[…]
Warmed Over Hypocrisy
The hypocrisy of the climate-change-save-the-Earth movement waxes rather warm itself these days, as it has since its incipience under Al Gore in those 90’s yore, when things seemed almost rational by comparison. Rex Murphy’s inimitable ironic prose eviscerates the millionaires and billionaires gathering for a ‘Google Summit’, private jets and private yachts gobbling up fossil[…]
Like a farmer tending a sound tree, untouched by axe or fire because of its fruit, I want not only to serve you in the body, good people that you are, but also to give my life for your well-being. (Saint Eusebius of Vercelli, +371)
Misunderstanding Catholicism—A Primer for Catholics and Other Christians
I pray not only for them, but also for those who believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. (Jn 17:20-21) It is long[…]
Alphonsus Ligouri, John Paul’s Institute and the Battle for Truth
Saint Alphonsus Ligouri died in 1787, two years before the unleashing of the demonic fury of the French Revolution, after a long and fruitful life as a priest, bishop, poet, musician, artist, lawyer, moral theologian, author of innumerable treatises, and, finally, one of the elite 36 Doctors of the Church. As well, he is the[…]
Ignatius and his Band of Brothers
Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) whom we celebrate on this last day of July, in some ways belongs more to the early days of the desert Fathers, or the mediaeval ‘fools for Christ’, than to the many urbane, uber-educated and, sadly, all-too-often heterodox Jesuits of the modern day. Of course, it is the joy, as[…]
Can Popes be Heretics?
Is the Pope a heretic? should sound like the beginning of a bad joke, but is a charge that has been made by a group of level-headed theologians. I was a bit taken aback by the claim, and thought a good place to find an answer is the current Code of Canon Law, which describes[…]
Walking the Opeongo Line with Saint Ann
A brief note from the now-shuttered, yet still beautifully maintained, parish of Saint Joseph’s, on the Opeongo Line, as we, about 90 or so pilgrims, make our way from Our Lady of Fatima in Renfrew to the shrine of Saint Ann’s in Cormac. Begun by diocesan priest Father Scott Murray – a young and vigorous[…]