Once again proving herself beyond human understanding, Maureen Dowd bemoaned of Obama in her May 29th column, “Oddly, the good father who wrote so poignantly about growing up without a daddy scorns the paternal aspect of the presidency.” The what?!? Am I to understand that Dowd wants the presidency, open to all citizens of age,… Continue reading Another Maureen Dowd Stunner
Author: Joe Heschmeyer
Matthew 23:37, Free Will, and Irresistable Grace
I. Where Catholics and Calvinists Agree on the Free Gift of Salvation.Both Catholics and Calvinists believe that man is justified before God through the free gift of God’s Grace, and that this grace not only precedes anything good we might do, but is a requirement for it. In other words, we can do no good… Continue reading Matthew 23:37, Free Will, and Irresistable Grace
The Twilight of Modernism
A reader writes… Most Catholics and most others are pro life. It doesn’t mean they want to recriminalize abortion, contraception, return to the days before divorce was easily available or further stigmatize homosexuality, neither do they embrace the culture of pseudo celibate, closeted Gay, clergy. They aren’t misogynists, homophobes, child sodomizers or heretic burners. Most… Continue reading The Twilight of Modernism
Do Catholic Sinners and Heretics Disprove the Church?
I. A Perfect CircleFirst of all, I hope you’ll indulge me another art analogies, given this recent one. Giorgio Vasari, in his Lives of the Artists (the book which first named the “Renaissance”), recounts a possibly-legendary story about the famous artist Giotto di Bondone, on pg. 22: Pope Benedict IX, who had planned to have… Continue reading Do Catholic Sinners and Heretics Disprove the Church?
Can a Catholic Be Pro-Life?
That question hopefully seems absurd. A Catholic cannot not be pro-life. But an anonymous blogger named “Steve” has further polluted the Internet with a post over at the hateful-Reformed blog Triablogue about Frank Beckwith. If you’re not familiar, Beckwith was head of the Evangelical Theology Society (ETS), but after reading up on the Early Church… Continue reading Can a Catholic Be Pro-Life?
What About Life-Saving Abortions?
I. The Sr. McBride Excommunication You can tell how fair CNN’s treatment of the recent Margaret McBride case was by the headline: “Nun excommunicated for approving life-saving abortion.” Or from the first paragraph, describing how it was an “agonizing decision” to have an abortion. Or from the second paragraph which describes “The problem: St. Joseph’s… Continue reading What About Life-Saving Abortions?
Brief But Important
Maggie Gallagher argued at National Review Online’s The Corner that the Pill led to abortion, because it made the idea that we could and should separate sex from reproduction seem sane. My only qualm is that it’s not really “reproduction,” but birth, which folks were worried about. An “accidental pregnancy” which can be “taken care… Continue reading Brief But Important
The Elephant-Horse and Catholicism
Michael Novak, on page 43 of No One Sees God: The Dark Night of Atheists and Believers, uses a wonderful analogy: In an inn in the little village of Bressanone (Brixen) in northern Italy, there is a fresco painted many centuries ago, whose main subject is an elephant, by a painter who had obviously never… Continue reading The Elephant-Horse and Catholicism
Ecumenism and the Holy Name of Jesus
Yesterday was an absolute feast on the subject of ecumenism and the Holy Name of Jesus at Mass. I. Acts 23:6-11, the Wages of Disunity The first reading was Acts 23:6-11 (with a prologue from Acts 22:30, setting the scene): Wishing to determine the truth about why Paul was being accused by the Jews, the… Continue reading Ecumenism and the Holy Name of Jesus
Why Do Popes Call Themselves “We”?
In Pope Paul VI’s 1967 social encyclical, Populorum Progressio, he writes: 4. Before We became pope, We traveled to Latin America (1960) and Africa (1962). There We saw the perplexing problems that vex and besiege these continents, which are otherwise full of life and promise. On being elected pope, We became the father of all men.… Continue reading Why Do Popes Call Themselves “We”?