The Angelic Doctor on Love of Neighbor and Truth

"We must love them both, those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject. For both have labored in the search for truth and both have helped us in the finding of it."-St. Thomas Aquinas

Indeed! This is so hard, particularly in my school life right now. And I admit it: I'm not the best. I'm pretty horrible at this actually. I will leave the room really frustrated with people, sometimes to the point of seething, and it can go on and on for the rest of the day, into the next. I'm not sure what the cause of this is. Part of it is probably all the other sins I have piled up, and because I'm human, I haven't purged them (yet). For example, when sinful anger still remains, then in all likelihood lust has not been extinguished from the heart.

Part of it is also that I just don't tolerate the mass acceptance of any kind of paradigm. True, the Irish village Catholicism of my great-great-great grandparents requires a different standard: it just makes sense! James Joyce never became a Protestant, and this is reflected in The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man:

 Then, said Cranly, you do not intend to become a protestant?

— I said that I had lost the faith, Stephen answered, but not that I had lost self-respect. What kind of liberation would that be to forsake an absurdity which is logical and coherent and to embrace one which is illogical and incoherent?

I don't accept it when people just accept the default paradigm of cultural Marxism, welfare socialism, and sexual liberation that has pervaded our culture without challenging their premise of belief. They hold it up as religious dogma but for the wrong reasons: it makes life easier and comfortable, and it makes someone in particular-i.e. white Christian males- a bully. Nihilism and existentialism allow us to deny the existence of God. (Maybe that's too harsh of a generalization.).

But, I do have to recognize that this is where they are at with the pursuit of all that it is Good, all that is Beautiful, and all that is True. We are designed for this pursuit as we are made out of love, so that we can freely come back to God our creator.

One has to really try to tolerate-in the Thomistic sense- another's flaws including their incorrect beliefs. It's hard, but it's so worth it. And, give them some time, especially after you don't see them for a while.

But, y'know, we're not Pelagians or Semi-Pelagians. THANK GOD. Grace is freely given if we desire it. If we had to work to purge ourselves of sin and to be sanctified, we'd never make it. We're simply too frail.

So, next time: post something on Facebook to get someone to think. Maybe a quote from a saint, or Mother Teresa. That usually gets better reception than something inflammatory about Obamacare and the HHS Mandate, which doesn't mean don't post about those kinds of things. Just pick and choose your battles in the comment-box.

History and the Catholic Church

I recently read an article on CNN about the former dictator in Guatemala who was convicted of a genocide perpetrated on the local Mayan population towards the end of the 36-year civil war in the country during the Reagan administration. The problem? 83% of the country is Mayan, and they were not just in the guerrilla armies, they were fighting for the government as well.


I love the medieval era, and Christendom. There is something to behold in the standard set by the knight. I personally have concluded that humans were most free in feudal society, and that society, with its safety net of the Church's priests and religious orders, was best provided from the fall of Rome until the Protestant Revolt.

That being said, I think the most necessary book of history right now is an exhaustive study of the Soviet and other Communist regimes, Nazism, World War 2, and the Cold War. In short, a historical study which would dwarf Robert Caro's biography of Lyndon Johnson and would require three or four lifetimes. We must find out the truth of what occurred in every country from 1917 to 1991, and break it down. Then, the facts must be scrutinized keeping in mind that history revolves around the Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Perhaps the daunting level of the tasks should suggest to us that the twentieth century truly was Satan's last chance to destroy the world and lead all souls to Hell. It perhaps is so uncertain, so rooted in lies and falsehoods that the Truth of some matters is reserved to God alone, because when the lies and falsehoods are whipped up one last time by the (perhaps fourth or fifth) Anti-Christ at the End Times, God will have given us faith to know and believe in Him, and the gift of wisdom to recognize the total evil of Communist and other totalitarian/authoritarian regimes which are a direct strike upon God, the author of life and the Truth fully found in and protected by the Catholic Church.

Follow-Up to 'Woman's Ordination' in Louisville

Now that's an ordination!

Recently, a woman participated in the simulation of the conferral of the presbyteral state at a United Church of Christ here in Louisville. Today, the pastor of St. Andrew's United Church of Christ wrote to the Courier-Journal to defend his community from the criticism it has been receiving from the Church. My emphases and comments. I won't place quotes around things that just aren't true, such as woman 'priest' or ordination. That's too tedious, and I think you get the point.

Smead's Ordination 

 A May 2 letter writer asks why Rosemarie Smead's ordination ceremony took place in a Protestant sanctuary. The answer is that there were no Catholic sanctuaries able or willing to host the ordination [Of course they couldn't. It takes a long time for you to want to cross into heresy and/or schism. Not worth it.] As a denomination that values women in ministry, a United Church of Christ  congregation stepped forward to host this remarkable, if not historic, event. We did not do this to be offensive, bigoted, hateful, insulting, degrading, sacrilegious, or to make a mockery out of Catholicism. [Doesn't matter. Simulation of a sacrament is what it is: a simulation, a mockery sprung forth from Satan's lips.] (These are just a few of the accusations leveled against me and my congregation in the days following the ordination.) We did this because we love the Church of Jesus Christ in all its many forms and expressions [Does this include the Eastern Churches, in which no woman's ordination has occurred.]. 

As a Protestant I realize I have no voice within the Roman Catholic Church, but I call on the "Mother Church" [Holy Mother the Church. He paradoxically cknowledges Pope Benedict's reenforcment of the idea that churches have apostolic succession, and Protestants are in ecclesial communities.] to join her Protestant [order matters] sisters and brothers in working  towards a day when institutional sexism will disappear from the Church Universal [Why do they insist that the Mystical Body of Christ has no visible expression, that the Catholic Church with its see in Rome and its brother bishops in Constantinople and across the world is meaningless to one's salvation?], along with all other forms of discrimination that are regularly practiced at the communion table [1 Corinthians 11:27] , the pulpit [the calling of the Twelve, the laying of hands on the deacons in Acts, and thus the unbroken Tradition], and the wedding altar [Genesis 2, and thus Mark 10].

 Dr. Jimmy Johnson

Pastor, St Andrew [on whose authority?] Church of Christ, Louisville 40220 

Of course, they chose a denomination that has no governing body like the Episcopal Church (although they'd love this). Some call the UCC "Unitarians Considering Christ." Oh geez.

I hope the archdiocese follows the example, once, again, of Cardinal Burke. Sorry to send you to Hell's Bible, riddled with lies, deceptions, and falsehoods too numerous to go into five years later! But anyways, he ended ecumenical ties to a synagogue that did this same think in St. Louis in 2008.

A Woman's "Ordination"

Recently, the worship space of St. Andrew's United Church of Christ was used, here in Louisville, for an 'ordination' of a female conducted by the "Association of 'Roman Catholic Woman Priests'." The quotes are not theirs, but since it is self-contradictory they are necessary.

The Courier-Journal covered this event in a piece by the religion writer.  My comments and emphases.

In defiance of Roman Catholic authority and doctrine [to which all men of good will, as baptized Christians, must be in service of], the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests ordained its first Louisville-area priest on Saturday.

Rosemarie Smead of Bedford, Ky., a retired Indiana University Southeast counselor-education professor, was ["]ordained["]during the two-hour service hosted by a ["]bishop["] of the movement, Bridget Mary Meehan.

Several other women priests in the movement, in white robes and red stoles, gathered from around the country to participate in a ceremony patterned on traditional Catholic ordination liturgy but suffused with feminist imagery. About 200 people attended the service at St. Andrew United Church of Christ, most of them coming forward to lay hands on Smead in blessing [So...how many people actually want these woman 'priests' who aren't already one?].

The Vatican [No, the Pope did. Let's not boil this down to politics, with this big, unchangeable, monolithic entity behind it.] has stated that as a matter of unchangeable doctrine, the Roman Catholic Church must follow the example of Jesus, who appointed only men as his apostles [Red was an interesting choice for stoles. It is the blood of the Passion and martyrs as well as the Holy Ghost. the Blessed Mother and Mary Magdalene were both present at Pentecost.].

It says anyone who participates in a ceremony purporting to ordain a woman is automatically excommunicated. Louisville Archbishop Joseph Kurtz reiterated that stance in a statement saying the association has no connection to the Roman Catholic Church and that Catholics should not support or participate in Saturday’s event. 

Janice Sevre-Duszynska of Lexington, Ky. [So now two bishops are involved.], a priest [You get the point. She is pretending to be a priest.] in the women’s ordination movement, gave opening remarks Saturday, saying there is archaeological and documentary evidence that the early church ordained women — interpretations that have been disputed by supporters of male-only ordination [Because it's dominated by patriarchy, surely. The Marxist lies got old fast.].

Meehan said the decade-old Women Priest movement is an act of justice defying what she called an unjust Vatican law [?]. She said the movement’s bishops were ordained by an unidentified bishop in communion with Rome. [That means squat. He could be an Old Catholic or a renegade Western-Rite Orthodox bishop, though the latter is less likely. A Roman bishop would be a bit more public about this.]

“Sexism in church and society is sinful and should always be challenged,” Meehan said. She said if women were in Catholic leadership, the church’s position against artificial birth control would be lifted [Eve sinned, Adam helped. Hence, a man has to redeem both men and women. Hence, his successors must be men. It has nothing to do with a plan to oppress women. Trust me, the most perfect woman on the planet didn't complain about not being a priest.]

The liturgy included invocations to numerous female Catholic saints, to God as mother and father [St. Paul warns us about not being able to call in the name of the Lord...this mother and Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier nonsense is proof of this.] and to “Christ-Sophia,” [Can we get our agreement correct?] invoking a biblical term for divine wisdom that service leaders said reflects the feminine aspect of God.

After a series of solemn ordination vows, Smead prostrated herself before the altar for several minutes during quiet music and prayer [That would be the Litany of the Saints. Firstly, the woman can't get ordained. Secondly, when you have no intention of administering a sacrament as the Church does, it's invalid. Rejecting the liturgical formulas provided indicates you don't wish to be a priest of the order of Melchizedek in communion with Rome.]. Participants presented Smead with ceremonial vestments of priestly ministry, and Meehan anointed her hands with oil.

“You’re in for quite a spiritual adventure,” Meehan told Smead.

“It’s just so overwhelming,” Smead said afterward. Smead, who previously lived as a cloistered nun [Sad], marched for civil rights and worked for years with troubled youth in Alabama before a quarter-century career at IUS, said the ordination “just raised up 70 years of longing in me to be able to fulfill this [St. Therese stayed in the Carmel, because she figured out what the priesthood was for her as a wonderful young woman. And only women of a certain generation seek invalid ordination.]”

Two of Smead’s former IUS students gave testimonials during the ordination, lauding her for providing career and personal guidance, and a niece, nephew and in-law of Smead read Scriptures.

The Rev. Jimmy Watson, pastor of St. Andrew, said the church agreed to host the service after considering a passage in the book of Acts in which the apostle Peter was told by God to bring the gospel to Gentiles.

“I knew there would be some pressure not to do something so illegal,” Watson said. “… We decided that we could not stand in God’s way.” [On whose authority do you declare that? And, there is some major cognitive dissonance going on.]

Ordinatio Sacerdotalis can be read here. This is infallible teaching. It's beautiful, so read it!

Roma locuta est, causa finita est. That is harsh, in a way, I think.  But the Church is open to all, provided you wish to be in the framework given by Jesus Christ through his Father.

Dr Peters tells us that the penalty for doing this is automatic excommunication. This follows his reports of what now-Cardinal Burke had to do, sadly, as archbishop of St Louis.

I would like to say that Abp. Raymond Burke's excommunication of three womenwho recently participated in a pseudo-ordination in Saint Louis is a "text-book illustration" of how (non-judicial) excommunication is supposed to be applied in the Church today, but I can't say that: Why not? Because Abp. Burke's attention to juridic details and his provisions for the pastoral care of the people entrusted to his care so exceed what the textbooks teach, that it is the textbooks that must copy from him, not him from the textbooks.

Read both articles.  Dr. Peters and Cardinal Burke are fine, fine thinkers and wonderful men pursuing holiness, as is my archbishop. Please pray for all of them, and that Archbishop Kurtz might copy the wonderful example set by Cardinal Burke.

An Irish First Holy Communion

Dom Mark Kirby, OSB is the prior of Silverstream Priory, County Meath, Ireland. He had the privilege of administering First Holy Communion to a wee lass on Sunday, as well as her second Holy Communion.

What a delightful sight. I teared up. Please go over to his blog, Vultus Christi, to read his notes and see the rest of the photos. In the traditional Benedictine fashion, he always has excellent insights on prayer especially of the liturgical kind.



What a sweet little child. May God never let her be separated from Him.