How should laymen go about learning sacred theology? Should we just read spiritual books, popular apologetics, the Fathers, works by this or that theologian, modern crisis polemics, and papal encyclicals – and hope for the best? Theology is a science, with its own proper end and methodology. This three-part series is about how laymen can …
There are many moments of beauty and pathos in the Church's year. But, in my opinion, few are so equally filled with both bitterness and glory as the feast of the Holy Innocents. It is very noticeable that Christ's coming to the world is marked with blood from the very beginning, both in time and …
This article is a set of reflections and observations, rather than a more tightly-argued essay. While it has arisen from my ongoing study of de Mattei and his concept of a “heretic pope,” and addresses certain relevant points, it is supplementary and informal. As a very wise man once asked: If the pope dies and …
"I have married a wife; and therefore I cannot come."Luke 14.20 In Preparing for Tyranny Part I, we considered Solzhenitsyn's advice for those who fall into the Gulag apparatus, including his hard words on how they should consider their loved ones: "For me, those I love have died; and for them, I have died."SOLZHENITSYN, THE …
Continue reading Preparation for Tyranny II: What about our Families?
... If pow'rs divine behold our human actions (as they do): I doubt not then, but innocence shall make false accusation blush, and tyranny tremble at patience. Hermione in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, 3.2.27 The world is in eclipse. It looks like we have almost entered the stage known as “totality,” in which the whole …
Continue reading Preparation for Tyranny I: Becoming Strong by Rejecting False Hope
From the organisers of the First and Second 54-Day Rosary Novena Crusade against our current world crisis. We are approaching the end of the second Rosary Novena Crusade. While, as Englishmen, we give thanks to God that our country has so far been preserved from passports and mandates, we cannot ignore that many other countries …
The proximate matter of Baptism is the use of the water [...] in such a way that in the common estimation of men an ablution has been performed. Prümmer, Handbook of Moral Theology 1956, 552.3 (paid link) Defects of matter (and related issues) and necessary actions Explanation of this table follows below. Defect:verdict:The water is poured once, rather than in …
Continue reading Is it valid? The proximate matter of Baptism