Virtus In Medio Stat

Assisi Inter-faith Day of Prayer for Peace “We must admit realistically and with feelings of deep pain, that Christians today in large measure feel lost, confused, perplexed and even disappointed; ideas opposed to the truth which has been revealed and always taught are being scattered abroad in abundance; heresies, in the full and proper sense of the word, have been spread in the area of dogma and morals, creating doubts, confusions and rebellions; the liturgy has been tampered with; immersed in an intellectual and moral relativism and therefore in permissiveness, Christians are tempted by atheism, agnosticism, vaguely moral enlightenment and by a sociological Christianity devoid of defined dogmas or an objective morality.” ~ John Paul II

I decided to sit through this debate with great interest. Sedevacantism is an interesting subject for me and has been irritating me as well as attracted me for the last five or so years. This was an interesting debate. I have to say first off that I don't think this ended up being a debate on Vatican II ecclesiology. It quickly became a debate on submission to the Roman Pontiff versus alleged schism. I believe that the debate should have been: "John Paul II, is not a valid successor to St. Peter, the Pope". I don't want to make this review too long and so I will just note some strengths and weaknesses. Strengths: Bishop Sanborn did an excellent job in identifying the key issues regarding Vatican II and post-Vatican II ecclesiology, in contrast with classical understanding of the nature of the Church, pre-Vatican II. To which, I do not believe Dr. Fastiggi did an adequate job in defending. Dr. Fastiggi seems to see the Vatican II and following teaching as a de...

The Stuff of Materialism “The man does not possess his estate; his estate possesses him.” ~Anonymous For years after my college and graduate education I found myself in a seemingly never-ending holding pattern in terms of my remunerated work situations. For a period my solution was to once again get more education. I was once told what Ph.D. stood for, “piled higher and deeper”, the humor of which was much more salient after I decided to leave that institution. It didn’t become clear to me until much later on, recently in fact, that I came away from my university years with more than just degrees. I came away with a sense of materialism that was so insidious that I didn’t even see it as such. Growing up in the family that I did, which perhaps by extension, comes from the culture and subcultures which shaped my family’s values, it just seemed natural to get into my various phases of acquiring material possessions. I had my clothing phase, then my comic book card phase, t...

"Too much and too little wine. Give him none, he cannot find truth; give him too much, the same" - Blaise Pascal, Foundations of the Christian Religion

About an hour ago, I saw a post by Father Paul Kramer, of Consecrate Russia Now fame on his Facebook page. I can't find it now after I did a bit of poking around. He commented on how the word "Bergoglio" in the Basque language translates to variations of "Antichrist" in Spanish and Tagalog, and almost every language that Google Translate offers. When I checked this out myself, my closet sedevacantist tendencies started to consume me. I started to get suspicious, however, when it would not translate small case "bergoglio" in the same way. Furthermore, it would not translate "Antichristus" back to "Bergoglio" in the Basque. Could this be a gag by Google? Could this be bait for the sedevacantists who number in the tens of twenties all across the... country? Why would Google even care? In any case. It doesn't hurt to say. Come back home to Mother Church (and go to confession), outside of which there is no salvation....

In Christopher Hitchen’s “the Portable Atheist: Essential readings for the Nonbeliever,” we find a selection from neuroscientist Sam Harris as chapter 45 titled, “In the Shadow of God” from his book, “The End of Faith”. I don’t intend this to be a lengthy treatment of the chapter, because the validity of this chapter stands or falls on the veracity of the historical claims he makes therein. I would only submit to you that even if I were to accept all historical claims made in this chapter, it does not in any way prove that God does not exist. Reading this chapter elicited a number of reactions in me. The most salient of which was a sense of abhorrence for the historical points brought up. If true, the Witch Trials, the Inquisition, executions of unbelievers, heretics, and apostates, the extermination attempts on the Jews, etc., it would rightly disturb most of us. There’s probably dozens more atrocities that could be levied against ...

2 Timothy 3:14-17 [14]   But continue thou in those things which thou hast learned , and which have been committed to thee: knowing of whom thou hast learned them;   Tu vero permane in iis quae didicisti, et credita sunt tibi: sciens a quo didiceris: [15]   And because from thy infancy thou hast known the holy scriptures , which can instruct thee to salvation , by the faith which is in Christ Jesus.   Et quia ab infantia sacras litteras nosti, quae te possunt instruere ad salutem, per fidem quae est in Christo Jesu. [16]   All scripture, inspired of God, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice ,   Omnis Scriptura divinitus inspirata utilis est ad docendum, ad arguendum, ad corripiendum, et erudiendum in justitia: [17]   That the man of God may be perfect, furnished to every good work .   Ut perfectus sit homo Dei, ad omne opus bonum instructus. A few things I would like to point out here. This is th...