Sometimes it can feel like Heaven uses dates in a providential way. Editors' Notes 13th May 1917 was the date of the first apparition at Fatima, in which Our Lady brought a vital message to a suffering world. But on the same day, Eugenio Pacelli, later Pius XII, was made a bishop by Benedict XV. …
Continue reading Why was St Robert Bellarmine declared a Doctor of the Church? Pius XI
"The Church is visible by reason of the visibility of her members and her organisation. But the edges are very blurred." Objection: Some Catholics profess heretical doctrines in good faith, and they are sometimes called "material heretics." Therefore, the description of the Church's "visible unity" is overly idealised, and arguments about heresy and membership based …
Continue reading Should mistaken Catholics be called “material heretics”?
"It is not fitting that the Emperor should be bound to do the bidding of any of his subjects, especially when by his compliance he injures the state!" Image: The Theodosian Walls at Constantinople, Wiki Commons CC (Source) Theodoric in Constantinople In the previous instalment of this series, we saw that Theodoric the Amal, at the age …
Continue reading The Greatest City on Earth: Theodoric in Constantinople 461-71
"The western half of the empire had been found wanting in the day of its trial, the eastern half had weathered the storm" We ended the last instalment of this series where this one begins, with the birth of the boy who would become known to history as Theodoric the Great.
"The custom of the Church stands for these things: and the Church cannot err." Image: Pope St Leo II, Wiki Commons CC Don't worry! This article appears twice as long on a browser than it actually is, due to the footnotes. This is the concluding part of my reply to Professor Edward Feser, who recently …
Continue reading Questions about Pope Honorius – a reply to Prof. Edward Feser, Part II of II
"For the great mass of the inhabitants of Italy, the old order of things remained unchanged." Image: The Consummation, Thomas Cole, (Wiki Commons CC). The city of Rome was still prosperous in the fifth century. In the previous part of this series on St Gregory the Great we looked briefly at the events leading up …
Continue reading Portrait of a Pope: The Reign of Odovacer in Italy
"Where is the Senate? Where the People? The very buildings we behold crumbling around us." Image: The Favourites of Honorius, John William Waterhouse, (source). The city of Rome was still flourishing in the fourth century. In the autumn of AD 590, as a Lombard army marched on Rome and as the city tried to recover …
Continue reading Portrait of a Pope: St Gregory the Great and the End of Imperial Rome
Sometimes it can feel like Heaven uses dates in a providential way. Editors' Notes 13th May 1917 was the date of the first apparition at Fatima, in which Our Lady brought a vital message to a suffering world. But on the same day, Eugenio Pacelli, later Pius XII, was made a bishop by Benedict XV. …
Continue reading Why St Robert Bellarmine was declared a Doctor of the Church – Pius XI
Here are some brief reflections on what the latest announcement may mean for us. 1. Our Lady said Russia, not Russia and the World, or Russia and Ukraine, or the USSR, or the individual Soviet republic, or the Russian Federation. Without this being a problem - why can't we just do what we're asked? 2. …
Continue reading Thoughts on the Consecration of Ukraine and Russia