The Church celebrates in May the solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. This mystery of mysteries — “the central mystery of Christian faith and life” (CCC 234) — is especially difficult to understand. We gain a way in by calling to mind a revelation of Saint John: God is love (1 Jn 4:8). The Church teaches that the Trinity is one of the divine mysteries that can never be known unless they are revealed by God. All the same, as the Catechism tells us, “God has left traces of his Trinitarian being in his work of creation” (237). One of …
Category: Apologetics
The Religion of the Day
Blessed John Henry Newman was born on 21 February 1801, and died on 11 August 1890. Through his published writings and private correspondence he created a greater understanding of the Catholic Church and its teachings, helping many persons with their religious difficulties. At his death he was praised for his unworldliness, humility, and prayerful contact with the invisible world. Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman is the author of many books including, Parochial and Plain Sermons, Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent, Difficulties of Anglicans, The Idea of a University, Fifteen …
The Prince of Lies
Different Drum, Same Drummer Sacred Scripture documents the behavior problems of the Devil. He has trouble with the truth, has a wildly excessive opinion of himself, and is an expert at disguising his hatred for humanity. He tempted Adam and Eve with a half-truth. The newlyweds would indeed “know” good and evil by eating the forbidden fruit. They would henceforth know evil, but they could never be the final arbiters of good and evil. (Cf. Gen 3:4) That belongs to God alone. So through their disobedience to God, demonic suffering and death were unleashed upon the world for all time. The Prince of Lies …
The Paramount Issue
Saving Babies and Time Off in Purgatory As I write, Washington lies under light snow and, with wind chill, is 90 F. In most of the country, not too bad for January. In Washington – between the incompetence of government and a population that rarely encounters (read: “drives in”) snow – it means near paralysis. During the Cold War, I used to say that the Soviets were wasting money on nukes and sophisticated weaponry; a few well-placed snow machines would have crippled the capital of the West. But as decades of experience have proven, none of that will stop tens …
The Moral Crisis of Our Time
The Moral Crisis of Our Time Nineteen sixty-eight is rightly remembered as a year of chaos, confusion, and confrontation. As the year began, the noted sociologist of religion, William “Will” Herberg (1901-1977), published an essay entitled “What Is the Moral Crisis of Our Time?” in the Intercollegiate Review (January-March 1968). As a college senior reading that essay, I was struck by its analytical and prophetic power. In Catholic tradition, the word work means efforts that bring order out of chaos. Will Herberg’s essay “worked” for me. Its thesis was – and, I believe, is – so clear and so compelling …
The Irish Referandum
Well, the Republic of Ireland is gone. Gone to the dark side. It has repudiated the Catholic religion. It did this on Friday May 25, 2018, when the citizens of Ireland, the great majority of whom are at least nominally Catholic, voted by an overwhelming majority (roughly 2 to 1) to repeal the article of their constitution (the 8thAmendment) that banned abortion except to save the life of the mother. After having stood by the faith during hundreds of years of Protestant oppression and persecution, they have succumbed to atheistic seduction. More than 1,500 hundred years after St. Patrick, they’ve …
The Glorious Mission of Theology
I recently mentioned to my new boss that I was pursuing a masters degree in theology. “Oh, theology!” he said. “I met some people when I studied in Europe who were into theology. It must be nice to get to sit back and just ponder those big, impenetrable questions.” It was probably meant as a compliment, but it made the field sound obscure and impractical. To an outsider, the doctrine of the Trinity, the homoousion (or sacramental theology) can seem opaque. Yet I’m increasingly convinced that if your theological study results only in esoteric musings, completely detached from your Christian …
The Decipherment of Cupich
The Decipherment of Cupich Basilides Melchischyros offers thoughts on Blase Cardinal Cupich’s recent elucidation of Amoris Laetitia. Having recently returned to Utopia from a scholarly visit to Cambridge (England), Basilides Melchischyros, of the Academia Moriae in Amaurote, offers these tentative thoughts as a reflective accompaniment to the cardinal archbishop of Chicago’s recent elucidation of Amoris Laetitia, which he was privileged to hear at the Von Hügel Institute. He argues that, widespread criticism notwithstanding, the cardinal’s pronouncements are, when properly interpreted, not only consistent with traditional Catholic teachings but a ringing endorsement of them. Of course, he submits all that he proposes here …
The Church Teaches and Judges Consciences
The Church Teaches – and Judges – Consciences A number of bishops have announced that Catholics in irregular unions whose consciences are “at peace” with God must be allowed to receive Holy Communion. This has never been the belief or practice of the Church, yet they assert it is rooted in the traditional teaching that conscience must be respected, even when mistaken. They fail to mention, however, that only the dictates of conscience are binding, not all its judgments, and that conscience is subject to the teaching and judgment of the Church. Once these truths are taken into account, the …
The China Syndrome
The China Syndrome In several decades of living in Washington, D.C., I’ve met my share of scamps and scalawags, fabulists and outright liars. It would take a modern Dante to determine which circle of Inferno each type of misbehavior merited. But of one thing, I am certain: at least in my own experience, I’ve never encountered more brazen and manipulative liars than Communist Chinese officials responsible for relations with religious believers. Which is what makes it so disturbing that last week reports surfaced that the Vatican asked two underground Chinese bishops, loyal to Rome, to step aside in order to …