Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others. (Cicero, +43 B.C.)
Month: November 2024
Trying to Build Your Own Do-It-Yourself Magisterium
It’s kind of sad to read Gerald McDermott’s[1] lament on the state of modern Anglicanism, striving to find a locus veritatis – a place wherein they may find the truth. The problem, of course, is that only the Catholic Church founded by Christ has the ‘fullness of truth’, of which she is the ‘pillar and bulwark’.[…]
Duns Scotus and Pope Benedict
BENEDICT XVI GENERAL AUDIENCE Paul VI Hall Wednesday, 7 July 2010 John Duns Scotus Dear Brothers and Sisters, This morning, after several Catecheses on various great theologians, I would like to present to you another important figure in the history of theology. He is Blessed John Duns Scotus, who lived at the end of[…]
Where Has All the Farmland Gone?
RFK, Jr. explains in three minutes, and it’s worth pondering. If this is the case with pig farming, what’s next? And what might be done? If there’s a central message from Pope Leo XIII’s landmark encyclical Rerum Novarum, it’s that private property – and farms especially are requisite for the freedom of a nation. Take[…]
Gregor Mendel, Priest and Scientist
Gregor Mendel of Austria (1822-1884) was a young priest in the Augustinian Abbey of St. Thomas in Brno, Austria, who in his spare time he studied in his monastery garden the reproductive patterns of the garden pea. From these studies Mendel was able to determine certain laws at work which determine the inheritance of dominant[…]
The Commemoration of All the Deceased of the Seraphic Order
On Tuesday November 5th, we celebrated the Commemoration of All the Deceased of the Seraphic Order. On that occasion we recalled to mind and, especially, to our prayers, all those who followed the Lord Jesus in the footsteps of St Francis. We, in the Franciscan Capuchin Province of Malta, had the grace of celebrating this[…]
Might a Pope Be Deposed?
On November 6th in 963, Emperor Otto I called a council in Rome, which condemned and then deposed Pope John XII, on charges that the pontiff had staged an ‘armed rebellion’ against the emperor. The Pope fled, and Leo VIII elected in his place. But the deposition was never really carried out, for John quickly[…]
Deus Benedicat Americae
Well, the polls are in, and so is Donald Trump, for a second term as president of the United States of America. Trump may not be Cyrus the Great redivivus, a pagan king who helped the ancient Israelites rebuild their Temple and their way of life. Put not your trust in the arm of man.[…]
Saint Leonard of Noblac – or Limoges
Not much is known about today’s saint, who, by what accounts we have, died in 559 A.D. And those accounts date only from the 11th century. He was apparently converted under the reign of the first Catholic king of France, Clovis – himself a former pagan, baptized in 508. Leonard was a member of the[…]
A brave man is clear in his discourse and keeps close to truth.” —Aristotle (+322 B.C.)