The Eighth Deadly Sin Many people are confused about what the Church teaches these days. So to get us started down a different path, I’ve compiled just a few points of reference from The Catechism of the Catholic Church, still our most authoritative and comprehensive guide to the Faith. Adam and Eve were real people and our first parents (CCC, #375) Human nature is fallen and prone to sin (407) The devil exists and tempts us (395) Marriage is a sacrament and is indissoluble (1601) Regardless of motive, euthanasia is a murder (2277) Contraception is sinful (2370) Abortion is a …
Category: Apologetics
Viva Cristo Rey
In the 1920s, when the United States had a quasi-Stalinist regime on its southern border, “Viva Cristo Rey!” was the defiant battle cry of the Cristeros who fought the radically secular Mexican government’s persecution of the Church. “Viva Cristo Rey!” were likely the last words spoken by Blessed Miguel Pro, SJ, whose martyrdom in 1927 may have been the first in history in which the martyr was photographed at the moment of death. Today, in the United States, “Cristo Rey” has a different, although not wholly unrelated, meaning—for it’s the name of an important experiment in Catholic education for poor …
Underestimating Christ
Underestimating Christ One of the underappreciated sides of John Paul II’s teaching is something that applies to all of us. In his encyclicals Fides et Ratio and Ex Corde Ecclesiae, his overall aim was to show just how vast is the influence of Jesus Christ. This is not influence in a cultural sense. This is influence because: “All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race.” (John 1:3, 4) This is influence, not at the level of …
On True and False Loyalty
On True – and False – Loyalty Loyalty, Fidelity, Trust, and unswerving Devotion – these virtues are prized by almost every association, club, or group; by every business, church, or military organization; and by every society in every historical era. So highly regarded is loyalty that it is accompanied by a retinue of prepositions. Loyalty is said to be up, down, across, throughout, before, after, and during. The Bible, too, speaks regularly about the covenant between God and man, assuring us that God is always faithful (Dt 7:9, Lam 3:22, 2 Tim 2:13, etc.) and urging us to seek friends …
Three Bishops Set the Bar
Three Bishops Set the Bar: What’s Next? Three bishops in Kazakhstan have solemnly professed the Church’s received teaching and discipline regarding sacramental marriage and the limited conditions under which the “divorced and remarried” may receive Holy Communion. (Three more bishops and a cardinal have now joined them.) Presented “before God who will judge us,” their Profession is effectively an apostolic declaration that these are matters of faith and morals that no one, including other bishops, may reinterpret so as to approve sexual activity in “second unions” or to permit Holy Communion for those who continue such activity. This is a …
There is a Hell
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity
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 …
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 …