Best Posts of 2014

It's time to wrap up another year here at Unam Sanctam Catholicam. And what a great year it was! Back in February we announced the addition of two new contributors, Noah Moerbeek of Alleluia Audio Books, as well as Maximus, who is now residing in Italy as our "Roman Correspondent" (LOL). A shout out of course to my very old and dear friend and co-blogger Anselm, who still pops in once or twice a year with some commentary or book review.

Thanks also to John Goodall for meticulously editing all of the articles on the Unam Sanctam website, to Throwback from Popin' Ain't Easy for his movie reviews, and A.R. Danziger Art & Design for occasional design work over the years.

Finally, shout outs to those other sites and Facebook pages who are instrumental in spreading our writing, especially: Tantumblogo from the always pleasant Blog for Dallas Area Catholics, Bruce from Catholic Faith: In the Light of Tradition, which is a neat Facebook page that kind of serves as an aggregator of good traditional content from all over the web. Please go give them a few likes, as well as Catholic Issues,  New Zealand. Also worthy of mention in this regard are Pewsitter, who gave us more traffic this year than any other site, as well as Dr. Blosser at Musings of a Pertinacious Papist. I'm sure I'm missing some, but God bless all of you.

Special thanks to that blogger who variously goes by the names of Immature Brain Surgeon, Mighty Joe Young and I Am Not Spartacus. He has given me a lot of encouragement over the years and is always great at tipping me off to excellent little nuggets.

And now, on to my favorite posts from 2014:

God is Not Impressed by Numbers:Yes, our Lord wants all men to be saved. But they will be saved on His terms, and if they will not heed Him on His own terms, He is willing to wipe them away and start all over again. He has delivered His truth and His commands, and if people are not willing to keep them, He will blot them out - even if He has to blot out an entire nation or even a race and start all over again from scratch.

Ecumenism is the Church's Bad Dream: Just like the bad dream where you know you have to leave to go somewhere but keep finding yourself bogged down by various details, so the Church speaks of reunion but never actually moves towards it. It has repudiated the only path towards real reunion - return to Rome.

Jewels for Your Crown: Whatever evil afflicts us we should like valiant warriors go to fight the dragon. To bear wrongs patiently is not to run from battle, but to fight bravely with the arms that God has given us: meekness, patience, goodness and all the other Fruits of the Holy Ghost.

Lost Practice of Christian Shunning: We do not go out of our way to avoid the sinners of the world – those folks are targets for conversion and anyhow its impossible to get away from them ultimately. But we do expect a certain degree of behavior and fidelity “on the inside” of the Church, to use St. Paul’s language. Those Christians who obstinately refuse to maintain it ought to be avoided. 

Synod Wrap Up: Our analysis of the epic Synod on the Family of October, 2014.

Steel or Platitudes: There was a time when the Church defended her flock with steel instead of empty platitudes and fuzzy feelings.

Critiques of the Brick by Brick Mentality: Why not denying that reform happens incrementally, this post examines some of the questionable premises associated with the movement that has become known as the 'reform of the reform', or also, the 'brick by brick' approach.

Two Tales of Tradition: A very straightforward way to underscore the importance of Tradition by reference to the experience of two small European villages.

Profile of a Theological Liberal: What does it mean to be a "liberal" theologian? Catholics have appropriated secular-political definitions of what it means to be "liberal" or "conservative", essentially equating indicators of political liberalism with theological liberalism. We defer to Pius IX and Pius X to set us straight.

Is the Novus Ordo a New Rite of the Church? Discussing a perennial problem in Catholic Traditionalism - is the Novus Ordo of Paul VI to be understood as a new rite of the Church or not?

Right Reading of the Old Testament: First in a three-part series about the right way to read the Old Testament.

This is Not About Chesterton: Objections to a prospective candidate's beatification should be addressed, not simply swept aside because we "like" him.

The Great Inversion: One of the greatest inversions of modern theology is found in the notion that love has primacy over truth. In this blog's 1000th post, we examine this inversion in the writings of Joseph Ratzinger.

A Counterblast: Discord and Contention: Why it is not sinful to point out the problems in the Church; refuting the common accusations about 'grumpy' traditionalists fostering discord and disunity in the Church.

As always, please visit our sister site for more in-depth articles on items of interest to Catholic Tradition. There are a lot of great Traditional Catholic websites out there, but it is my experience that very few of them offer original content or research. We try here to make our little poor contribution in this field. May the Lord richly bless you.