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All Catholic commentary from September 2024
Priests Preaching Politics
The words of Jesus are often harsh, and apply to all of us who, like the Pharisees, take sinful pride in our religiosity.
God’s justice or God’s mercy?
The line between depending on God’s mercy and seeking to conform ourselves ever more fully to God’s will can often be hard to cross. Or, to put it another way, even devout souls are far more likely to pray for God’s mercy for “sinners” or “poor sinners”, considered as a category in which we do not include ourselves—except perhaps by rote in the Our Father and the Hail Mary.
Angel Studios: questioning the hype
In just four short years, Angel Studios has become a household name among Christians, and for some it represents the cutting edge of religious cinema. But does the distributor of The Chosen, Sound of Freedom, and Cabrini really merit the hype?
No, your parish is not ‘vibrant’
Is your parish or diocese oscillating or pulsating rapidly? No. Nor should it. So why is the word “vibrant” invoked with such mind-numbing frequency to describe Catholic communities?
Why aren’t there more Catholic Bibles?
The Catholic apologetics movement of the last several decades has done incredible work to better educate lay Catholics in our faith. One mountain still to climb, though, is to get Catholics to buy Bibles in as large a number as our separated brethren do, and to read them. Why is the Protestant Bible-selling market so much more gigantic than the Catholic one?
Dancing with the devil
Want to tempt someone to anger? Give him a newspaper. To envy? Magazine advertisements. To lust, or greed, or gluttony? Log onto the internet. Your ticket to perdition may be purchased with a click of the mouse.
Church Teaching on Cinema: Vatican II and Beyond
In the Vatican II era, official Church engagement with cinema as a distinct art was largely replaced by discussion of "social communications" generically. However, there were still some important things said in Church documents dealing with film under the pontificates of St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II.
On hacking Planned Parenthood
It is perfectly clear that when evil actions are protected by law and government, the means of combatting such evils will often violate the law. That in itself is not a legitimate moral deterrent, even if one must take into account the consequences of any increased disrespect for the law. Consider for example the many laws one must disobey in totalitarian societies merely to avoid complicity in evil.
Self-Portraits
As we strive to identify our temperaments in need of God’s grace, we look to the Scriptures for hints of the temperaments of certain biblical characters.
183—Does Angel Studios merit the hype?
James Majewski plays guest host in this episode, asking Thomas about his recent essay critiquing the well-known Christian film distributor Angel Studios (associated with The Chosen, Sound of Freedom, and Cabrini).
Athenagoras the Athenian: Apology Not Accepted
The early Christian apologist Athenagoras may not be as famous as some of the other Church fathers, but he’s a great example of someone who started out as an apologist against Christianity, but when he actually learned what the apostles and the Church taught, he was converted. He teaches us about the doctrines of the Trinity, and the Resurrection.
Vocation shortage? There’s no such thing.
When a priest or a nun is asked when he or she began thinking seriously about a vocation, the answer is often disarmingly simple: when someone asked.
Did Trump really lose the debate?
No, Kamala did not best Trump in that debate. Trump rebutted her points and frequently turned them back on her. Not a knockout, like he scored against Biden. But a win. Or, at worst, a draw. Which, given the numbers right now, is still a Trump win.
Spiritual Preparation—Turning and Becoming a Child
Dr. Montessori encouraged the adults who work with children to first focus on spiritual preparation of the adult, inner preparation, transformation, especially in virtues of openness, humility, patience, love and respect.
The threat of a runaway Synod
Having spent the last three years insisting that the Church must be practice “synodal” government, would the Pontiff now countermand a decision by the Synod?
Fruits of the Vatican-Beijing agreement: just the facts
At the going rate of 1.5 episcopal ordinations a year, it would take a bit more than 30 years to provide every Chinese diocese with a bishop.
Love proclaims that all “faiths” do NOT lead to God
The history of the Jews under the Old Covenant is one long Providential path in which God acts decisively to separate His People from the surrounding nations, all of which worship false gods. This is so obvious that I presume I need not spend much time on it. The Jews are warned again and again to keep themselves separate from all the other nations, including the avoidance of any intermarriage, because the other nations all worship “strange gods”—that is, non-existent gods or idols.
Hot Buttons of the Faith
Mary is the model of the Church. The Church is holy and sinless. Peter and the Apostles are the models of the hierarchy. The hierarchy is never without sin.
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