Skanderbeg
Yesterday two young Islamic fundamentalists went into a Church in a small village in Normandy, France and murdered the Priest while he was celebrating the liturgy. The attackers were 19 years old and the priest was 86 years old. Fr. Jacques Hamel died a martyr for his Catholic faith.
Liberal Heretic Fr. Richard McBrien
Two Protestant apologists have been commenting on my page recently. They are Sam Shamoun and Ken Temple. I just want to say to the two of you that I deeply respect your intellect and am happy that you read this blog. I’m also thankful for the website answering-islam.org. I make use of the website quite often.
There never was a time, Venerable Brethren, when the salvation of souls did not impose on all the duty of associating their sufferings with the torments of our Divine Redeemer. But today that duty is more clear than ever, when a gigantic conflict has set almost the whole world on fire and leaves in its wake so much death, so much misery, so much hardship; in the same way today, in a special manner, it is the duty of all to fly from vice, the attraction of the world, the unrestrained pleasures of the body, and also from worldly frivolity and vanity which contribute nothing to the Christian training of the soul nor to the gaining of Heaven.
– Pope Pius XII
Mystici Corporis, June 29, 1943
Fathers of the Church
People often wonder what Church fathers to read. That’s a very important question since the Church fathers were the ones that formed the faith in the early centuries and fought many heresies. As stated on previous posts, I like focusing on primary sources when I read Church history in contrast to people like Dr. James White. What I’m trying to say is that we need to read the Church fathers.
During my University years a flurry of atheist books came out. Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and of course Christopher Hitchens came out with polemics against religion. I picked up a copy of God is Not Great and read it through. Hitchens could write really well and he sure could argue. He was not afraid to take any position, no matter how unpopular, even amongst his fellow atheists.
And so on the first page of your letter you have indicated that very many baptized by the impious Arians are hastening to the Catholic faith and that certain of our brothers wish to baptize these same ones again. This is not allowed since the Apostle forbids it to be done and the canons oppose it, and after the cessation of the Council of Ariminum general decrees sent to the province by my predecessor Liberius of venerable memory prohibit it. These together with the Novatians and other heretics we join to the company of the Catholics through the sole invocation of the sevenfold Spirit by the imposition of a bishop’s hands, just as it was determined in the Synod, which, too, the whole East and West observe. It is proper that you also do no deviate from this course henceforth, if you do not wish to be separated from our company by synodal decision.
– Pope Siricius
Epistle to Bishop Himerius of Terracina, 385 AD
On February 28, 2016 I was in my hometown at my parents house and watching the Oscars. At the very end of course is Best Picture. It happened to be Spotlight, a film that chronicles a team of Journalists exposing the ecclesial cover up of priests who had been abusing, molesting, and raping children.
A young lady who reads my blog asked for some advice. Here is her question with my response.
Idolatry
There is an old mindless cliché that goes: “Christianity is not a religion, but a personal relationship with God.” We’ve all heard this garbage at one point or another. This is often used by Evangelical Protestants but it has slipped into Catholicism in recent years. What are my thoughts on this? I think that this is absolutely false and heretical.
Chartres Cathedral
A couple of years ago, several people from my Church went on the Chartres Pilgrimage in France. It is a Pilgrimage that includes a long three day walk from Paris to Chartres Cathedral. The total distance is about sixty miles.