As expected, the U.S. Women’s National Team won the Women’s World Cup. As also expected, members of the women’s team, led by chief spokeswoman Megan Rapinoe, were known as much for their politics as for their play. Rapinoe got it going with her comment that she wouldn’t visit the “f–ing” White House if she was invited, which was seconded and thirded by players Alex Morgan and Ali Krieger. Rapinoe, who is openly gay, has also refused to sing the national anthem. Then there is the claim that the women’s team is paid less than the men’s team. It turns out, …
Category: Apologetics
How to “Dialogue” Truthfully on Gender Ideology
If the Church invites dialogue about gender ideology and homosexuality, does this signal a possible compromise of Catholic doctrine? This question lies at the heart of the controversy over the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education’s recent document, “Male and Female He Created Them”: Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education. Overall it’s a valuable, courageous, and necessary statement to Catholic educators, but there are some serious concerns which I will briefly summarize. As for the debate that has gained the most attention—about the appropriateness of “dialogue” on gender ideology—the proposal is probably much less …
Bishop Schneider: The Christian Faith Is the Only Valid and the Only God-Willed Religion
Bishop Athanasius (Anton) Schneider is the author of two books: Dominus Est – It is the Lord!, and Propter Sanctam Ecclesiam Suam (not yet available in English.) He was born of German parents on 7 April 1961 in Tokmok, Kirghiz SSR in the Soviet Union, where his family received the pastoral care of Fr. Oleksa Zaryckyj, later to become a beatified martyr for the faith. Bishop Schneider himself received his first holy communion in secret, since the practice of the faith was outlawed under the communist regime. In 1973, he left with his family for Germany. He later joined the …
Go Ask Your Father
For the first forty years of my life, it never crossed my mind that I needed anything else but the Bible to know what I needed to believe to be a faithful Christian. When I was in seminary and preparing to become a Protestant pastor I studied the history of Christianity, but with a certain slant that skirted any acknowledgment of the historical importance of the Catholic Church. For me, as well as most of my fellow seminarians, the important history essentially ended with the closure of the New Testament and picked up again with the sixteenth century Protestant reformation. …
The Long Infiltration of the Catholic Church
Julia Meloni writes from the Pacific Northwest. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from Yale and a master’s degree in English from Over a century before the St. Gallen mafia plotted to seize the papacy, a Freemasonic document dreamed of “a pope according to our heart.” He would be sprung from a generation won over to Freemasonic dogmas from its youth, via the corruption of families, books, and education. He would be elected by a corrupted clergy and would be similarly “imbued with the Italian and humanitarian principles which we are about to put into circulation.” “Let the clergy …
The Greater Mysteries in the Shadow of the Cross
Regis Nicoll is a retired nuclear engineer and a fellow of the Colson Center who writes commentary on faith and culture. His new book is titled Why There Is a God: And Why It Matters. “Jesus and His Disciples on the Sea of Galilee” painted by Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Oesterley in 1833 In the space between the Cross and the Parousia, we are prone to wonder: What really happens when we die? What does it mean to be absent from the body and present with the Lord? What is heaven like? Will our deceased pets be there? At the resurrection, …
U.S. Bishops Approve the Pope’s Capital Punishment Ban
Fr. George W. Rutler is pastor of St. Michael’s church in New York City. He is the author of many books including Principalities and Powers: Spiritual Combat 1942-1943 (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press) and Hints of Heaven (Sophia Institute Press). His latest books are He Spoke To Us (Ignatius, 2016); The Stories of Hymns (EWTN Publishing, 2017); and Calm in Chaos (Ignatius, 2018). Sæva indignatio. Few writers in the history of English letters could express “savage indignation” at human folly as did Jonathan Swift who wrote those words for his own epitaph. Our times give ample opportunity to empathize …
15 Heresies and the Manly Saints Who Fought Them
The history of the Catholic Church is full of all sorts of heresies that have assailed the truths of the faith. From the earliest days of the Gnostics and Docetists all the way down to the Jansenists and Quietists of later centuries, it seems there has never been a shortage of heretical thought. But in each age, God has brought forth bold and courageous men to combat each one. These warrior saints gave their life in service to Christ and His Church in their own way, either as martyrs, confessors, or simply as servants to others for the sake of …
Natural Law & The Ten Commandments
The Natural Law The natural law, known by reason, is the universal moral law of human nature for living well. It is ‘natural’ because it is founded on what is good for human nature and because we can know it by our natural faculty of reason. The natural law is valid for all people in all societies. Its principles can be understood by reason, even without faith. For example, dishonouring parents, murder, theft, adultery and lying are recognised by practically all human societies as being contrary to what is good for human life. Christians have a duty to uphold the precepts of the natural law, both because these …
Why I Oppose Changing the Words of the Our Father
“Why I Oppose Changing the Words of the Our Father. In asking that God not lead us into temptation, we are asking that he not lead us there without sufficient graces.” Msgr. Charles Pope Given the recent decision of Pope Francis to approve a change in the translation of the Our Father in Italian from “lead us not into temptation” to “do not let us fall into temptation,” I want to repeat what I have written before and intensify my opposition to such a change. I will state, for the record, that I do not speak Italian and accept that …