A Treasure To Be Shared

The Catholic Church's teaching on the Filioque , the doctrine that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, can be summarized as follows: The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (CCC 246). This is based on the Council of Florence in 1438, which explained that "the Holy Spirit is eternally from Father and Son; He has his nature and subsistence at once ( simul ) from the Father and the Son. He proceeds eternally from both as from one principle and through one spiration". The Catholic Encyclopedia further clarifies that this "dogma of the double Procession of the Holy Ghost from Father and Son as one Principle is directly opposed to the error that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father, not from the Son". This doctrine was first explicitly denied by heretics in the 7th century, but the Church has consistently affirmed the Filioque as part of its Trinitarian faith. The Catechism notes ...

Satire may be mad and anarchic, but it presupposes an admitted superiority in certain things over others; it presupposes a standard. -  G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy A poke at folk whose actions past and present could invite considerably more. (T)he real disloyalty is not speaking the truth with love. And that word “love” is not some free-floating balloon of goodwill. It’s an empty shell without the truth to fill it. In Brazil in 2013, the Holy Father encouraged young people to “make a mess.” That’s come to pass in ways surely unintended by the pope. But in the end, pastoral leaders are accountable for their words and their actions. Because, as St. Paul said so long ago, “God is not the author of confusion but of peace.” - Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., is the Archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia Afflict the comfortable; comfort the afflicted. That 70s Vatican Show , a fashion extravaganza, featured designs promoting a rabid retro vibe. Organizer Fr. James Martin SJ, taking his cue fr...

Icon of Christ the Redeemer toppled by a gust of wind, Easter Day 2024 Oh dear! A belated April Fool's joke? According to an NBC report - not the most reliable source, granted, but... - Pope Francis has said that Pope Benedict agreed with his thoughts about civil partnerships for same-sex couples. https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/benedict-backed-rights-lgbtq-couples-pope-francis-says-rcna146014 Political and social issues aside, Pope Francis' attempt to gain credibility by linking his thoughts to Benedict XVI's supposed position on the issue is more than a little weak. Francis' appeal to the authority of Pope Benedict XVI, one of the great theological minds of the 20th Century, amounts to an attempted theft of reputation. The Church has witnessed similar attempts to appropriate credibility in the past. Fr. Annibale Bugnini, the architect of the liturgical reform and the chair of the Consilium charged with the renewal of the liturgy in the wake of the Second Vati...

Fr. Nicola Bux, former consulter to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, weighs in on the Fiducia fiasco and the incremental attempts to insert confused teaching into the Church. Readers should take note of the clarity of Father Bux's challenge. Such precision and faithfulness to Tradition is an example that all Catholic clergy should practice. All clergy - from priests to popes. - - - Excerpt from: http://www.ilpensierocattolico.it/new/nicola-bux-non-esistono-benedizioni-non-liturgiche/ Infine, conviene affermare che la benedizione, in ebraico berakah , quale atto spirituale e sacro, fa memoria, loda la presenza di Dio e intercede, affinché la sua potenza discenda sulla persona o sull’oggetto e li santifichi; presenza e discesa possono essere ricondotte rispettivamente a Cristo e allo Spirito Santo: come, nei sacramenti, l’anamnesi e l’epiclesi. La benedizione nutre ed esprime la fede, attraverso il segno di croce e l’aspersione dell’acqua benedetta. La benedizione è un sa...

Coypel, Charles-Antoine | Fury of Achilles Richard John Neuhaus In the absence of truth, power is the only game in town.  Robert B. Greving, The Good News About Fiducia Supplicans, Crisis Magazine You see, both sides of the fence agree about what (Fiducia Supplicans) says. Whether you are Cardinal Müller or Fr. Martin, whether you’re the bishops in Germany or the bishops in Africa, you see the document as granting some form of Church approval of those living in “irregular situations,” and by “irregular situations” it means what had been called sinful. It has become the latest and most telling Rorschach test of the Catholic Faith.  Richard John Neuhaus Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion.  Barbara Nicolosi, NCRegister In storytelling, the theme is the unifying principle of the whole narrative. This goes back to Aristotle’s Poetics, where the greatest of the philosophers asserted that it is a big idea about life that gives a story a unive...

Los Angeles Cathedral | Ximo Michavila photo [ 5 minute read ] Pope Francis, i.e., to be Frank, has dug a very large hole and filled it with not an insignificant amount of silliness for the next pope - whoever that might be - to step into. The word of the season is, of course, the word 'confusion'. Here's another word which, by now, is entirely familiar to concerned Catholics: mess. Christmas 2023 was turned into Crassmess by that now infamous document issued by the DDF, written by Cardinal Tucho the eroticist. Eroticist, to put it politely. Here is another word: chaos. Chaos: the state of things wherein faithful Catholics are tempted to indulge a variety of useless distractions, emotions, and what-have-you, as a result of the introduction of the imprudent actions of hierarchs who should know better than to put souls at risk. Candy Not Candy We Catholics are not prudes. Witness the sublime Catholic art of Michelangelo, for starters, and his virtuosic respect for and renderi...

I think that gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman. ― Arnold Schwarzenegger Huh? As Catholics, we hold the Bishop of Rome in the highest regard. He is our spiritual father. He is the shepherd of shepherds. He is the Successor of Saint Peter, the Rock upon whom Jesus Christ built His Church. And yet, like us, the pope is a human being, a creature of God, in need of our prayers. Chaos, turbulent times, fractious debates. In earlier days, days before the torrent of information provided by or through social media, information spread at a slower pace and was most often constrained by what we would now refer to as technological limitations, sparing the average pew dweller a veritable flood of news, good and bad, issuing from various Church closets. Nowadays, we have immediate access to the thoughts of hierarchs and lowerarchs casting innumerable comments our way. How are we to process so much information? The obvious comes to mind: ask the Holy Spirit for the gif...

Russell Nelson NYTimes screenshot The current President of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints has decreed that the terms 'Mormon' and 'LDS' are not adequate and should no longer be applied in official and common discourse. In the wake of that 2018 decision, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir has changed its name to conform to their president-prophet's recommendation. After more than 100 years, the world-renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir is changing its name to “The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square.” The name modification, which drops the long-standing word "Mormon," follows an August 2018 statement by President Russell M. Nelson requesting the use of the full name of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the choir’s sponsoring organization. All those sporting tattoos reading 'Mormon Tabernacle Choir' should make the necessary changes to any offending body art. As of 4APRIL2020, Mormons have a new logo, too. ...

Given their extraordinary depth of understanding, the exceptional quality of their orthodox theological works (eminens doctrina), the tremendous influence of their writings, and their proven sanctity (insignis vitae sanctitas) and intercession before God, is it not good and true that Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman and Saint John Paul II (Karol Karol Wojtyła) be acknowledged (Ecclesiae declaratio) as Doctors of the Church ? https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/polish-bishops-call-for-john-paul-ii-to-be-named-a-doctor-of-the-church-80686 In October of 2019, the Polish Catholic Bishops Conference formally petitioned Pope Francis to consider making Saint Pope John Paul II a Doctor of the Church in an official proclamation, in recognition of his contributions to theology, philosophy, and Catholic literature, as well as the formal documents (encyclicals, apostolic letters, bulls, motu proprio documents, homilies, and speeches) that he issued. https://www.ewtn.com/catholic...

Catholic Australia reports a very un-Catholic doing that should be undone. https://www.catholicweekly.com.au/qa-with-fr-john-flader-a-new-sign-of-the-cross/ An excerpt from a column by Fr. John Flader at Catholic Weekly (Australia): 'A friend recently told me that in the Catholic school his son attends some teachers are now making the Sign of the Cross "In the name of the Father and of the Mother and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." I was astounded. Is this acceptable?' When I read your question, I too was astounded. In total disbelief. Is this acceptable? Of course not. Why would teachers at a Catholic school venture down a path taken by liberal protestants, i.e., liberal religionists that claim to know better than Jesus Christ, other than to impose a heresy that, disease it is, infects and weakens the Church? Perhaps they think they are doing some good. Perhaps they presume to know better than Holy Mother Church. The Church that, because they...

Quoted here, Archbishop Chaput reflects on Benedict XVI's recent essay. https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2019/04/benedict-and-the-scandal Writing nearly half a century ago (1970), the Italian Catholic philosopher Augusto Del Noce noted that I often find myself envying unbelievers: Does not contemporary history provide abundant evidence that Catholics are a mentally inferior species? Their rush to conform to the opinion about Catholicism held by rationalist secularists is stunning. Those words from his essay “The Ascendance of Eroticism” open Del Noce’s brilliant reflections—part analysis, part prophecy—on Europe’s then-current sexual revolution. At a time when a young priest named Joseph Ratzinger was predicting a smaller, more hard-pressed, but purer Church of the future in his 1969–70 German and Vatican radio interviews, Del Noce was explaining how it would happen. He foresaw that “the decisive battle against Christianity [can] be fought only at the le...

The Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace (D&P) has come under appropriate scrutiny in recent years, far too late for those who long knew (but whose concerns were ignored) D&P was in bed with groups not well aligned with Catholic teaching. Tantrum  a fit of bad temper Certain groups, groups under investigation, now are complaining that... . https://www.catholicregister.org/item/29314-philippine-catholic-groups-criticize-canadian-agency-for-opaque-review ...the investigation, conducted by an "opaque" committee that included staff of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops and Development and Peace, was surrounded by secrecy. The four Philippine partners affected by the moratorium have never been told why Development and Peace is withholding funds raised from its Share Lent campaign. Philippine groups also have "no way to know the charges against them," said the signatories, upset that "the truth of the c...

Bishop Schneider (Auxiliary, Astana, Kazakhstan) : Pope Saint Agatho did not let himself be confused and shaken by the lamentable behavior of his predecessor Honorius I, who helped to spread heresy. In spite of this, Pope Agatho kept his supernatural view of the inerrancy of the See of Peter in teaching the Faith, as he wrote to the Emperors in Constantinople: “This is the rule of the true faith, which this spiritual mother of your most tranquil empire, the Apostolic Church of Christ (the See of Rome), has both in prosperity and in adversity always held and defended with energy; which, it will be proved, by the grace of Almighty God, has never erred from the path of the apostolic tradition, nor has she been depraved by yielding to heretical innovations, but from the beginning she has received the Christian faith from her founders, the princes of the Apostles of Christ, and remains undefiled unto the end, according to the divine promise of the Lord and Savior himself, which h...

Fr. Ian Ker: In today’s secular world, where holding even basic Christian moral convictions is regarded as “extremist” and therefore by definition irrational, Newman is a powerful champion of the reasonableness of faith. Indeed, he is himself one of the great Christian apologists, who continued his defence of Christianity as a Catholic in his philosophical magnum opus, the Grammar of Assent . The canonisation is also significant in that it opens the way to the Church’s recognition of Newman the theologian as a “Doctor of the Church”. Often called “the Father of Vatican II”, he is surely the counterpart in the post-conciliar Church of St Robert Bellarmine, the Doctor par excellence of the Tridentine Church. https://catholicherald.co.uk/magazine/newman-should-be-the-next-doctor-of-the-church/ And this: https://aleteia.org/2019/02/21/cardinal-newman-could-be-declared-a-doctor-of-the-church-expert-says/ And, still more from a few years back, 2010 to be exact: h...