Archbishop Viganò and our Vale of Tears

Greetings in Christ our Lord, my friends. I want to ask your forgiveness ahead of time for the length of this post, but as you know, these are very extraordinary times in the life of our beloved Church. News has been developing almost hourly. We are in a state of crisis.

The following post are simply some observations that have come to me over the past few days since the publication of Archbishop Vigano's letter on August 25th.

1. It is ridiculous how the media has played this as a "conservative coup" against Pope Francis. It is the Achilles heel of the secular media that they can only view any issue as part of a conservative versus liberal dichotomy. This is what the stupid two-party system has done to the American mind; binary politics leads to binary thinking. It's not unexpected, but it is sad. To secularists, this is just a political power struggle between conservatives and liberals. Unfortunately, many Catholics are buying into that thinking as well; for example, this dimwitted statement by Ave Maria University President Jim Towey. Yes, Catholic defenders of Pope Francis are also turning this into a political football, as when Cardinal Blaise Cupich said the accusations of Vigano were just a "rabbit hole" and that Francis was too busy to deal with the matter because of the "bigger agenda" of environmentalism and migrants' rights.

Of course, this "conservative reaction" narrative is ridiculous; I am not supporting a full investigation of American dioceses because I am a bitter conservative, nor am I suggesting Wuerl or Francis or anyone else resign because they are liberals. Wanting justice for those who have been sexually abused by clergy—and wanting to make sure Catholics of all ages and states in life can live their faith in an atmosphere of safety—is something that transcends the liberal-conservative divide. It is just a basic, fundamental good that everybody should agree on. It's disgusting that it is being politicized. But rest assured, Cardinal Cupich, this time Catholics are not going to be thrown off the scent. This time, no appeal to immigrant families or the environment or the death penalty or anything else will be able to save you. You tried to tweet a quote from John Paul II about peace and your followers simply responded with "RESIGN!" No, we're not being distracted again. This time it's your head. And Wuerl's. And Tobin's. And all the rest of you ilk. Even if you all somehow manage to avoid resignation in disgrace, the small semblance of moral authority you still think you possess is obliterated. The Vigano letter is just the beginning.

2. The story of how the Vigano letter came to publication is almost as fascinating as the letter itself. In case you have not familiarized yourself with the back story, I recommend the article "The Amazing Story of How Archbishop Vigano's Report Came to Be" on One Peter Five. It contains the English translation of the account of Italian journalist Dr. Aldo Maria Valli, who received and published the Vigano letter. Dr. Valli's story is illuminating and heart-wrenching; it presents Archbishop Vigano as a man wore out from a lifetime of dealing with the Vatican bureaucracy who is seeking to simply make his peace with God and his conscience before facing the judgement seat of Christ. But what is especially intriguing are Vigano's last words to Dr. Valli. Valli reports:

"He tells me he has already purchased an airplane ticket. He will leave the country. He cannot tell me where he is going. I am not to look for him. His old cell phone number will no longer work. We say goodbye for the last time."

Is the corruption in the upper echelons of the Church so advanced that a man must go into hiding and get off the grid for merely telling the truth? Clearly Vigano thinks so; clearly he fears for his very life. What powers does the Vatican have at its disposal that Vigano would be in fear of his life? Does it not put the sudden death of Cardinal Caffarra, one of the four signatories to the dubia, into a new perspective? This should really give us pause as we contemplate what sort of darkness we are facing.

3. Even the Neo-Catholics are getting on board. Steve Ray is calling for the resignation of Cupich, but more notably said "Even if the Lord doesn't come back for 1000 years, there will never be a pope who takes the name Francis II." He also tweeted "I never liked this pope...something from the beginning told me something was wrong with this guy." In a controversy with Ave Maria University President Jim Towey, Ray said, "Being loyal to the pope, THIS pope, is not remaining Catholic but denying it and being way out of touch with reality." Scott Hahn publicly thanked Archbishop Strickland of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, who had said the Vigano letter was credible and called for a full investigation into everyone implicated in the letter, including Pope Francis. Dr. Taylor Marshall apologized to Rorate Caeli. Karl Keating blasted Bill Donohue of the Catholic League, the latter of whom is publicly opposing a full investigation; Keating says the church should "welcome the sunshine" as a disinfectant, no matter who it brings down. It is getting harder and harder to remain neutral and aloof. Those who continue to defend the status quo are looking increasingly ridiculous. Everywhere people are being forced by circumstance to line up.

4. Of course, the big news on this front is that Michael Voris and Church Militant TV have finally gotten on board with criticizing the actions of Pope Francis. In order to not appear contradictory, Voris has offered the explanation that lay people should not judge the pope in theological matters, but that lay criticism is warranted when the pope's failings are moral. There is some truth to this; for example, if we look back at history, it took a body of professionally trained theologians to rebuke Pope John XXII for his erroneous teaching on the beatific vision; however, moral scandals of a pope (fornication, simony, nepotism, etc) have traditionally been more publicly derided by lay populace at large. I get the angle Voris is trying to take. That being said, I don't find the distinction of CMTV personally convincing, as in this particular case, theology and morality are all wrapped up together and have been for some time. The cover up of sex abuse has to do with preserving the homosexual networks within the Church, which is intimately bound up with clandestine efforts to weaken the Church's doctrinal teaching on homosexuality, which in turn is bound up with the rest of the post-Conciliar novelties. This problem cannot be compartmentalized. It is all part of the same general movement towards apostasy. The problem must be viewed in totu.

Of course, everybody has their thresholds; it's any writer's editorial decision whether they will or will not criticize a sitting prelate. All of us bloggers have had to make that call. I once got into a private argument with New Catholic at Rorate because he believed something Cardinal Kasper said was qualitatively racist whereas Kasper's statements did not meet that threshold for me. That doesn't mean I would ever attack or insult Rorate for making an editorial judgment different than my own. I have a priest friend who reads this blog. Sometimes he agrees with me, other times he tells me I'm full of shit (God bless you, Fr. Scott). We smile and go on as friends. That's the way it is—or ought to be—when you do this. One can't take oneself too seriously, even though paradoxically the things we write about are very serious.

It is thus unfortunate that Church Militant couldn't simply make that call on their own without calling other outlets—such as Rorate, The Remnant, and Steve Skojec—spiritual pornographers. It's one thing to make an editorial call, but quite another to insult others who haven't made the same call as yourself. Really what's happened, as I see it, is that Francis has transgressed in what, for Mr. Voris, is his particular pet issue and now he is comfortable jumping in to the fray because his particular threshold has been crossed. I would like to see Mr. Voris apologize to Michael Matt, Steve Skojec, and The Remnant the way Dr. Taylor Marshall did. But either way, I am happy Church Militant has finally come around, and I have to say their coverage of this unfolding scandal has been top-notch. I like CMTV, and I also like The Remnant, Skojec and a lot of other bloggers. A lot of people have done a lot of good work; I've been reading Steve Skojec's Facebook thread daily to keep up on the developments. Everybody deserves commendation who has helped bring this filth into the light, regardless of how late they got in to the game. The important thing is that light is shining and the wheat and the chaff are being separated. God grant me that I may stand with Him and His saints. God grant treasure in heaven to those who have truly merited it.

5. When the McCarrick scandal was first breaking, I posted an info-graphic on the Unam Sanctam Catholicam Facebook page with some statistics from the John Jay Center, which researched the demographics on clerical abuse victims since 2002. The John Jay research clearly indicates that the abuse problem in the Catholic Church is predominantly homosexual in nature; that predatory homosexuality, not pedophilia, is the primary problem. My goodness, I have seldom got so much hate and ridicule as for drawing the rather obvious connection between homosexuality and sex abuse! So many people want to believe that the real problem is "clericalism", or a culture of secrecy, or pedophilia, or anything but secret networks of predominantly homosexual priests who use their positions of power to gratify their homosexual lusts. Anything but that.

That position may have been tenable even as recently as a few weeks ago. But now, with so many clergy speaking up about what they know and have experienced, with the fallout from the Vigano letter, I notice the chorus shouting "This is not a homosexual problem!" has grown far quieter. This is because it's becoming increasingly ludicrous to argue such. The real issue is summed up aptly by the official statement of Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison, Wisconsin, who wrote (emphasis mine):

"But to be clear, in the specific situations at hand, we are talking about deviant sexual—almost exclusively homosexual—acts by clerics. We’re also talking about homosexual propositions and abuses against seminarians and young priests by powerful priests, bishops, and cardinals....There has been a great deal of effort to keep separate acts which fall under the category of now-culturally-acceptable acts of homosexuality from the publicly-deplorable acts of pedophilia. That is to say, until recently the problems of the Church have been painted purely as problems of pedophilia—this despite clear evidence to the contrary. It is time to be honest that the problems are both and they are more...While recent credible accusations of child sexual abuse by Archbishop McCarrick have brought a whole slew of issues to light, long-ignored was the issue of abuse of his power for the sake of homosexual gratification. It is time to admit that there is a homosexual subculture within the hierarchy of the Catholic Church that is wreaking great devastation in the vineyard of the Lord" (Bishop Robert C. Morlino's "Letter to the Faithful Regarding the Ongoing Sex Abuse Crisis in the Church")

Archbishop Vigano, who in his position as nuncio to the United States had a unique and privileged view into the situation in the American Church, noted in his letter:

"Regarding Cupich, one cannot fail to note his ostentatious arrogance, and the insolence with which he denies the evidence that is now obvious to all: that 80% of the abuses found were committed against young adults by homosexuals who were in a relationship of authority over their victims... In fact, Father Hans Zollner, S.J., Vice-Rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University, President of the Centre for Child Protection, and Member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, recently told the newspaper La Stampa that “in most cases it is a question of homosexual abuse.”"

More poignantly, in his conclusion he calls for the destruction of "homosexual networks", which he says are at the heart of the crisis:

"The deeper problem lies in homosexual networks within the clergy which must be eradicated. These homosexual networks, which are now widespread in many dioceses, seminaries, religious orders, etc., act under the concealment of secrecy and lies with the power of octopus tentacles, and strangle innocent victims and priestly vocations, and are strangling the entire Church."

It is definitely a homosexual problem, and Vigano should be in the position to know. But if you don't believe Vigano, read about the investigations of the lay association Christifideles into the homosexual networks of the Diocese of Miami. Or check out the candidly honest assessment of gay Catholic Daniel Mattson in his article "Why Men Like Me Should Not Be Priests" (First Things, August 2018), who notes:

"What unites all of these scandals is homosexuality in our seminaries and the priesthood...Because the sex scandals of the Church are overwhelmingly homosexual, the Church can no longer risk ordaining men with homosexual inclinations in the hopes that those inclinations turn out to be transitory."

Or read Rod Dreher's "Inside the Seminary Closet" in The American Conservative. It is a painful article, highlighting the first hand experience of a seminarian who had to undergo constant homosexual harassment and was even told "Come on, you must know that everyone is staring at you all the time. You know full well that every guy here including the priests and even the bishop would f*ck you if they had the chance.” Heck, go back and read Goodbye, Good Men again. Any of these sources will demonstrate that this is not a problem with sexual secrecy and the fact that some of the perpetrators happen to be gay is incidental. No; this is essentially and primarily a homosexual problem.

Can anyone read through all this material—the grueling experiences of men who have been through the seminary or (like Morlino and Vigano) are intimately familiar with clerical culture—and tell me straight-faced that this is not a homosexual problem? It's so painfully, ridiculously, hideously obvious that you'd have to be intentionally negligent and/or intellectually dishonest to deny the homosexual nature of the current crisis. Yes, I know there are other aspects to the problem. Of course, reality is complex. But from here on out, after everything that has been revealed, if you still deny this is primarily a homosexual problem, then you have zero credibility in my opinion.

6. John Kass of the Chicago Tribune has a poignant piece entitled "The Silence of Pope Francis and the Pain of a Church" which discusses how devastating it is for the faith of ordinary Catholics that the pope will offer no response whatsoever to Vigano's letter. Kass seems a little confused by the pope's silence, as he notes that Francis is "revered as a humble and good man" and he's not sure why such a "humble and good man" would drop the ball so colossally. I'm sorry, but I am just astonished at how could anyone have ever thought Francis was humble. I am actually appalled. This may be a little bit of a rant, but I need to get this out. I am so disappointed at how many Catholics went along with this idea that Francis was "humble." He's not humble. He's never been humble. Nothing he has ever done has led me to believe he was humble. I'm seriously astonished that anybody was ever fooled. From the first moment he stepped onto the loggia of St. Peter's I knew the man was not humble.

I remember, in my professional life, I was once in a job where I had to screen resumes. Every now and then I would get a candidate who would write about how he was perfect for the job because he was going to come in and improve all our internal operations, show us how to be more efficient, and bless us with his wealth of knowledge. I used to toss these in the trash. They reeked of arrogance, of a person who doesn't know how to simply learn and receive what is being handed on—the sort of person who isn't satisfied unless he's remade everything he touches with his own personal stamp. Such did Francis' gestures all seem to me: asking the people to pray for him on election night, shunning the red shoes and the papal attire, living in Domus Sancte Marthae, and on and on and on. He has never ever appeared as humble to me and I'm frankly astonished that any thinking person ever thought he was. But everyone seemed so carried away with the galactic humility of this man it was astounding (Related: "Humility and Station in Life").

7. Not long ago I did a post entitled "Bad Liturgies Cripple Evangelism", in which I lamented that limp-wristed, anthropocentric liturgies constituted a real barrier to evangelism of non-Catholics. Talk about obstacles to evangelism! This current round of sex-abuse scandals takes the cake. I honestly can't imagine why a non-Catholic would want to join the Catholic Church right now, and no, saying "They just need to understand it's Jesus in the Eucharist!" isn't going to change it. As I said in my previous essay, why would anyone care what we think is in the Eucharist if it appears (and quite reasonably at this point) that our institution is a criminal racket organized for the purpose of institutional sexual abuse? There are some who are leaving the Church now over these scandals; predictably, other Catholics are piling on them and shaming them for leaving, or suggesting their "faith wasn't strong enough" or whatever. But Jesus wants us to go after the one sheep who goes astray, not condemn them for leaving. This is only going to shrink the Church's credibility more, and this will only continue until, in the words of Vigano, the homosexual networks are eradicated. Heads need to roll this time. No more "we are deeply saddened" statements, no more committees with new plans, no more useless platitudes. Action. Everyone involved needs to resign and possibly face criminal charges depending on the gravity of their complicity.

8. One final consideration. Take a look at this chart of all the prelates named in the Vigano letter. I offer no comment on how complicit any of these men are in any abuse or cover up; I only list them here because Archbiship Vigano has implicated them in some degree. Look at it carefully and deeply consider it:

 I know there's a lot of things to consider and it's not this easy. Yes. But....I do want to say, this is way "Santo subito!" is never a good idea. This is precisely why you wait for the patient judgment of history before you rush to canonize a prelate.

9. This is a painful time for all of us. Has my faith in Christ and His Church been shaken? I honestly have to say no, but only because I never believed that this sort of thing couldn't happen to begin with. When the scandal first broke, my first impulse was not to blog about it, but to have a difficult conversation with my 16 year old daughter, who obviously has many questions and concerns over the current situation. I grieve for the souls who will be scandalized because of this. I think my faith isn't shaken so much because anyone who has extensively studied history knows that this kind of corruption is absolutely possible within the Church. It's only those who have deluded themselves into thinking this is a new Springtime and Francis is a saint that have to deal with the full brunt of this. As for me, I've never lost sight of the Church's human side. Am I horrified? Yes of course I am. Surprised? No. Unfortunately not.

And so we go on, through the Vale of Tears until Christ makes all things right.

+AMDG+

Comment Problem

Good day. I want to apologize to my readers who have left comments for the past few months and not seen them published. I realized recently that Blogger has not been notifying me that people are leaving comments. I don't know why; I have double checked my settings and nothing has changed, but for some reason, beginning around March, when people leave comments pending my approval, I have not been getting notified and hence not approving anything. I had kind of noticed I was not getting any comments and I just assumed it was because people had finally realized I am a crummy blogger and given up on me. I'm happy to discover it was only a glitch.

At any rate, I have not figured out how to fix it. I am currently logging in to Blogger a few times a week to look for pending comments and approving them. I have also retroactively approved all your comments going back to March.

So, if your comments have not been getting through, please accept my apologies. Things will get better now. Pax.

~Boniface

Eleven Year Anniversary

Today, June 29th, the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, is the 11th year anniversary of the launch of this blog. Since June 29, 2007, this blog and the sister site have been viewed 3,063,832 times with an average of 24,683 views per month for the previous year.

Not too shabby!

I cannot believe it has been so long; when I registered this domain name, St. John Paul II was still pope and even had a year left in his pontificate. When I started posting regularly, Benedict XVI had not yet even issued his motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. Since those early days, the two USC sites have featured over 1,700 essays. Just looking at that number kind of astonishes me—that I've ever had the time to write so much. Of course others contributed to that as well, for whom I am truly thankful.

It's surreal how much things have changed since then. Back in the old days, I felt like, even though the American Church collectively might have a profound case of rectal-cranial inversion, at the very least the Big Man in Rome had our backs. I could make a bold and determined stand against the problems that beset me because I stood with the Universal Church and the Pope Over the Water who was reigning justly and speaking the truth to a rebellious, stubborn people. Now, in 2018, the feeling is quite different.  The landscape is a littler grimmer. I feel less like a soldier making a brave stand before the walls of his city and more like a rogue wanderer, a kind of Catholic Johnny Appleseed roaming about an unsettled land scattering seeds and hoping they will take root wherever they may fall. And I am more uncertain of my own standing. That's how I feel. And note I am careful to say feeling, because obviously there is a lot of room for subjectivity here.

As always, I am sorry I could not write more. I remember one reason I had the time and initiative to begin this blog was because it was an outlet to write for fun about subjects important to me; nobody cared what I wrote and everything was just a hobby. Now I write professionally and I have so many projects bogging me down that I can't see the end of it. Don't get me wrong, I am very happy to be writing professionally now, but there is a tinge of sadness that I can't just be a hobby blogger anymore. 

That being said, I am finding myself with a bit more free time than last year and hoping to do some more writing. I'm also really wondering what to do about the other site; it's a very old Joomla platform and it is starting to get kind of glitchy. A lot of times the images aren't showing up anymore and the formatting gets off at times. I don't really have the money to invest in a new website, nor the time to transfer it all over to something new, but I also don't like the idea of the old site just continuing to get glitchier as its plug-ins go out of date and stop being supported. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

One thing I am planning on doing in the near future is making an appeal to help me get my RCIA notes and outlines translated into Spanish. I have a native Spanish speaker ready and willing to do the translating work but I just need to raise the funds to pay for it. I will be doing a post or video about this in the near future; if you are interested in contributing, email me at uscatholicam[at]gmail.com. If this is successful, I will then go on to getting them translated into Arabic and then who knows.

Thank you again for a wonderful year; the comments and feedback I get from my readers is what makes this endeavor so rewarding. An active and well-regulated combox is a gift to readers and the blog owner alike. Even Lionel with his ridiculous spam has a soft spot in my heart.

One final thing: keep in mind, we do have a Youtube Channel with a modest amount of videos, and a Facebook page if you'd like to stay in contact other ways.

God bless you all.

~Boniface

Boniface hath returned from exile

Peace and grace in Jesus Christ our Lord!

As you may know, I have been on an extended vacation since November. When I decided to take some time off, I was stressed out, overworked, and had to rectify a lot of chaos in my personal life. It's been almost three months, and a lot has changed since then. Am I still stressed? To some degree. Still overworked? Oh yes. Still a lot of chaos? Yes, but much less so. I feel things are much more ordered now than they were in the fall and I am feeling a lot happier about life in general.

Ergo, I'm going to announce my official return to blogging - tentatively at least. I offer no promises on how frequently I will post, but I definitely am starting to feel the bloggy itch again.

What have I been doing with myself these past three months? A lot. Living life. In many respects, I've been doing things I should have been doing a long time ago. I do not want to go into a lot of detail out of fear of sounding virtuous, but essentially I've been working on just trying to be a better Christian in the ever-changing circumstances of my life. I've been able to spend more time with my children; I've made unexpected friendships with people I never would have probably been open to befriending before; I've stepped outside my comfort zone and engaged with people suffering from all manner of problems, sometimes being able to offer valuable help, sometimes having to stand by helplessly while I watch them destroy themselves. I got caught up writing letters to old friends. I've been able to attend to my health more and am in the best shape of my life. Rectified a lot of issues in my personal life that needed attention. And I've learned many valuable lessons about grace, honesty, love, and humility.

Professionally, things are going better than they've ever gone. Spiritually, I suppose I am responding to the continuing crisis in the Church by enfolding myself further in my own spiritual life - on letting Christ be formed in me, and worrying less and less about following up with the latest cluster at the Vatican. Earlier this month, a certain neo-Catholic apologist contacted me and asked me to participate in a debate with a well-known theologian on Amoris Laetitia and whether Francis is a good pope or a bad pope, in which I would represent the "traditionalist position." Aside from noting that what constitutes a "good" or "bad" pope can be riddled with subjectivities, I had to tell him I was not interested, because I had not even followed the debate. I haven't read Amoris Laetitia, and not following the controversy around it, I am not competent to argue about it. I'm just...past the point where I see what is going on in Rome as vitally connected with my own day to day walk with Christ.

Yes, my friends, I know the big stuff matters. I'm not suggesting it doesn't. But I do think the best we can do in times like this, if we are not to go mad, is to keep our hearts focused on the truth, maintain our integrity, perform our duties, and cling to the cross. Ultimately, my faith does not hinge on what happens in the Vatican. In the Middle Ages, there were plenty of Catholics in places like Ireland or Poland who, by virtue of their distance, might not even know who the current pontiff was, let alone be following what was going on in Vatican politics. That's what I have been doing...living as if I was a Catholic in Greenland circa 1150 AD. And living in Michigan in the winter, it might as well be Greenland. The picture atop this post is one I snapped of my yard and the field across the road last month.

So yes, dear friends, I am back and happy to bring Unam Sanctam Catholicam into its 11th year. Bless you all!

Best Posts of 2017

Well it's time for my belated annual Happy New Year post! Another year has passed us by; 2017 was a very crummy year for me that saw a variety of personal and professional challenges. I regret I was not able to give this blog more attention, which means my annual "Favorite Posts" list is unfortunately small this year. I think I posted like twice a month on the blog and barely did anything on the sister site.

I was very busy writing for one thing, and 2017 saw the publication of two very successful books for me, first, the self-published The Book of Non-Contradiction, which is my magnum opus on reconciling discordant biblical passages; second was Heroes and Heretics of the Reformation, available through TAN, which tells the story of the 16th century through the lives of the men and women who lived through it.

That being said, 2017 was an amazing year in the life of the Church and I am happy I got time to write that which I did. I'm still on sabbatical but have some great ideas for upcoming articles. In the meantime, here are some of my favorites from the year.

Reflections on Magnum Principium: On the Holy Father's motu proprio calling for a further extension of vernacular in the liturgy.

Benefit of the Doubt Presumes Doubt: To give the "benefit of the doubt" in the face of plain evidence to the contrary becomes no longer a benefit accorded to a doubt, but rather wishful thinking of the most fantastical sort.

The Many Faces of Catholic Social Teaching: It's amazing that Catholics can have such divergent opinions on what Catholic Social Teaching actually is.

The Black Hand of the Madonna: The hand of the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima has turned black. 

Pope Francis & Populism: It is astonishing how Pope Francis speaks of populism as if he is totally unaware that he is the world's most eminent populist.

The Transitory Nature of the Mosaic Law: Sequel to an older post on our Lord's comment that He did not come to abolish but fulfill the Law of Moses. Explaining the "temporary" nature of the Mosaic covenant.

Current Events Round Up: Francis and the death penalty, the Institute on Marriage and Family, Burke, football players kneeling, the Filial Correction and more!!!

Political Freedom Would Make Our Parishes Stupider: In the absence a coherent Catholic social ethos, lifting the ban on political activity by churches in the USA would cause each parish become a tool of the Democratic or Republican parties, and we would see the politicization of parish life in the basest manner. Catholic social life, already anemic, would become that much stupider.

Chris Cornell (1964-2017): One of my favorite posts of the year, exploring the faith of musician Chris Cornell, who tragically died in spring of 2017.

"God cannot be God without man": In which, just for the record, I defend one of Pope Francis' confusing statements about the relationship between God and man.

Scientists Executed by the Catholic Church: Historical apologetical article deconstructing the myth of the Church killing scientists for their beliefs. 

Muller and Ladaria: Reflections on the replacement of Cardinal Muller by Ladaria at the CDF.

St. Maria Goretti: Martyr to Chastity: Reminding everybody that St. Maria Goretti is a martyr because she shed blood to preserve her chastity, not because she forgave her attacker.

"That the seat of Peter might not be dishonored by the occupancy of two bishops": The very idea of having two bishops or two popes was abhorrent to the early Roman Church. It was seen as a sign of discord.

Man-Pandering: What to do about men? If we are not de-masculinizing them, we are going to the other extreme - appealing to the silliest masculine stereotypes about them.

The Duty of the State to Honor God: An original USC video explaining the Catholic idea of the state's duty to honor God.

Thank you to everybody who has ever helped me, linked to me, read my articles with interest, corrected me, commented here, or wished me well. God bless you all.

I'm on Extended Vacation

So, I pretty much suck as a blogger. I remember the good old days when I used to post three times a week. Ah, yes, the blogging possibilities are endless when one does not have a life. 

But alas, life changes, and as mine has changed I have less and less time for this labor of love. I haven't even been able to write anything for over a month. I barely have time to be doing this post. I'm so swamped I don't know when I can get to this...I have books I am under contract for that are unwritten or behind, proposals piling in for more, Power Point presentations by the dozen that I have to get ready for next semester...meanwhile, my firewood sits uncut in a dreary pile in the yard, I haven't replaced the tail light I busted out two weeks ago, I haven;t yet reattached the gutter that fell off my house last summer, my inbox is full of emails I have not responded to, in addition to a whole host of other personal issues that need my attention.

I am going on extended vacation from blogging. I don't know how long it will be. I need to focus on making some space for myself and getting my priorities in order. This blog has been here for ten years and its not going anywhere; I am not retiring, but I am stepping away to bring some order to my chaos. In the meantime I will continue to monitor comments and update the USC Facebook page from time to time I can be reached at uscatholicam[at]gmail.com if you need me.

Please pray for me, that the day may swiftly come when I have time to attend to this amateur passion again.

God bless you.
~Boniface

Ten Years of Unam Sanctam Catholicam

After nine years of meticulously observing the annual anniversary of this blog's establishment on June 29th of every year, this year on our tenth anniversary I got too busy and allowed June 29th to slip by me without any mention of this hallowed date.

Yes, it was back on June 29th, 2007 that this blog was first launched. Since then, we've published 1,137 articles on this blog - not even counting the 597 articles on the sister site. It has been viewed about 1.8 million times and consistently gets around 25,000 views monthly. It has grown beyond what I ever imagined. I remember when I was thrilled that 30 people read it one week.

Traditionally, on my anniversary posts, I would make some comments about the previous year, do a call out to the many contributors who help with the blog and website, and post some links to a few of my favorite posts from the last year. This year, being an especially momentous occasion, I kind of wanted to buck the norm and just offer a few general insights.

This past year has been a very challenging one for me personally, and I have had less time than ever for blogging. Ironically, the dramatic increase in professional (i.e., paid) writing opportunities has left me very little time for blogging, even though it was largely through the medium of this blog that I have learned to write. One does not publish 1,137 essays without picking up a little bit about writing as you go. Whatever professional success I have had with writing, I think a lot of credit must go to this humble blog for helping me get there. It's a sad irony that "getting there" has meant less time for the sort of casual, whatever-pops-into-my-head sort of writing that blogs were created for.

In many respects, I consider myself a sub-par, crummy blogger. I look at other successful Catholic blogs - many of them much newer than mine - and see them excelling me in every respect. I wish I posted with greater frequency and regularity. While I'm not at all ungrateful for the contributors I have had over the years (Noah, Maximus, Anselm, Kevin, etc), all of whom have their own busy lives, I wish had been able to maintain a more constant, regular working collaboration with other writers.

I wish I had the funds and time to update the aesthetics and functionality of the sister site. I wish I did not impulsively publish so much stuff that later leaves me thinking, "Hmmm...I probably should not have said that." I wish I wouldn't have published so much dumb stuff. I wish I was more professional with everything. I wish I had more time to engage my commentors, many of whom have been reading and commenting for years and years - C matt, Nate, Konstantin, Amateur Brain Surgeon, to name a few off the top of my head. You guys feel like old friends at this point.

I wish I had been able to make better collaborative friendships with some of my fellow Catholic bloggers, especially the traditional ones. For some reason, we've never really clicked...in some cases there has been open hostility, in others just...maybe I'm too distant? Ryan Grant has always been a close friend, though, and deserves special mention; I only started to gain traction back in 2007 when Ryan linked me on the sidebar of his old Athanasius Contra Mundum blog.

But then, there are other things I am very content with. I am content that I don't feel the need to offer a continuous running commentary on every piece of drivel that comes out of the Vatican. I am glad that I don't take this so seriously that I feel like I can't just get on here and rant. I'm thankful that my readership seems very forgiving of my stupidity. I will say something dumb and everybody will be on my ass about it for a week, and then the next week I'll write something else and everybody has forgiven me and it's as if nothing happened. I love my commentors. Even Lionel, in his own pathetic, ridiculous way. Some of you have been here for a very long time.

So...here's a toast to ten years of Unam Sanctam. In many respects they have excelled anything I ever imagined for this blog. In others, I feel like a failure. Who knows what future years will bring? Gracious Lord, bring some benefit, however poor, to someone from my meager efforts.

Favorite Posts of 2016

Happy New Year everybody! We have wrapped up another 365 days at Unam Sanctam Catholicam, and my what an interesting year it has been!

It has become cliche to say that 2016 was awful. I didn't find it such at all. For me it was a year of amazing new things and wonderful opportunity. But I was also busier than I have ever been; I was so busy blogging kind of fell by the wayside. I barely published on the sister site all year and my movie reviews lapsed totally. 

Part of this was working on some personal projects; I published an excellent little edition of The Life of St. Columba by St. Adomnan. with a new 30 page introduction and an appendix containing all the hymns and prayers attributed to this great saint. I also put out an ebook on Laudato Si, with 40 concise chapters on various questions relating to this encyclical (here is a brief review of the ebook from "Musings of a Pertinacious Papist"). 

But what kept me most busy was some mainstream writing work that I have been blessed to have obtain recently; 2016 saw the publication of the first volume of my middle school textbook series from TAN, as well as the publication of TAN's Manual on Marian Devotion, which was written in part by the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist but which I edited and compiled most of the citations.

Beside the busyness, I was also relieved to be able to just step back a bit from trying to keep up with the craziness coming out of Rome. I often chime in on current events, but I don't want to be part of the professional 24-7 commentariat who consist entirely of following and commenting on the events in Rome (see "I Give Up", April 22, 2016). Not that there is not a place for that, but I have always valued the freedom to not post if I don't want to or can't, as well as to post on obscure things that are probably outside the pale of current events. 

Anyhow, thanks again to everyone who helps with this website. Noah, John (both Johns), Chris, Amanda, and all the others. May the Lord bless you and keep you! May the Lord make His face to shine upon you! May the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you peace.

+AMDG+

Now...my favorite posts of the year! 

Deaconess Commission: Building the Momentum: The push to study women's deacons is dangerous - and not because we might actually get women's deacons.

NCR Firings: Martyrs or Loose Cannons? The NCR firings of Shea and Simcha were not martyrdoms for unpopular political opinions but the responsible termination of loose cannons.

The Woman Caught in Adultery: What were the Pharisees trying to do when they brought Jesus the woman caught in adultery?

Alien Civilizations: Statistics prove there have been over a trillion alien civilizations? Not so fast.

Miracle at Mont-St. Michel: A short, sweet little story about the Blessed Mother saving a pregnant woman from drowning in the Middle Ages.

The Phantasm of Fiat Continuity: Continuity does not exist merely because someone says it does.

On Avoiding Servile Labor: My thoughts on what is and is not proper on Sundays and Holy Days.

Pope Francis and the Sin of Saul: Pope Francis says the sin of Saul was that he was afraid of novelty. It's more the opposite.

Identity Based Outreach Ministries Blur the Line Between Overcoming Sin and Celebrating It: Ministries catering to "the LGBT community" walk a very thin line.

Doubt and Christian Faith: The relationship between doubt and faith.

Tradition On the Ground: Conservative Catholic naive trust in the power of documents while ignoring what is happening on the ground.

Julian the Apostate and Religious Liberty: One of the weapons that Julian the Apostate used to attack the Christian Church was religious liberty.

Francis and Kirill: Smoke and Mirrors: The strong ecumenical statements between Francis and Kirill are much ado about nothing.

NCR Firings: Martyrs or Loose Cannons?

There is a lot of hubbub this week over the recent shakeup at the NCR; I am speaking of course of the recent firings of John Paul Shimek, Mark Shea, and now Simcha Fisher.

When unexpected things happen, people generally try to create a narrative of why they happened. A narrative is a certain interpretation of what certain facts mean; narratives help people assimilate the events into our preexisting worldview in a way logically consistent with it. I discussed this some years ago when Benedict XVI resigned and Catholics were scrambling to come up with an explanation for it ("The Benedict Narrative Emerges", Feb. 2013).

Similarly, I am seeing mainstream Catholics kind of scrambling to come up with an explanation of why Shea, Fisher and Shimek were let go. The narrative emerging is very pathetic.

What I am seeing supporters of Shea and Simcha saying is that this has to do with his views on Catholic social teachings - essentially, Catholic conservatives uncomfortable with the fact that Shea opposes the conservative-Republican agenda and supports Catholic social teaching. In other words, making Shea into a martyr for the Catholic "middle way", as if his firing were about his political opinions. Similarly, Eye of the Tiber ran a piece satirically insinuating that Shea and Simcha were fired for "having opinions."

Of course, this makes these people into martyrs for their opinions, something they are encouraging (Shea's rant about Simcha's firing compares the sacking of an author to anti-Christian persecution); but it is very far from the truth.

These people were not terminated for having opinions, much less political opinions, but for being loose cannons.

John Paul Shimek - who said he wanted his mission in life to be making Traditional Catholicism an "unthinkable option" for the Church - had had his scathing articles censured for posting his dribble without authorization and bypassing any editorial review. And even those that weren't were horridly abusive to traditional Catholics in particular.

As for Shea, the official statement of the National Catholic Register states very clearly why he was sacked, and it had nothing to do with political opinions expressed in the Register. Rather, NCR cited Shea's behavior on forums outside the Register and questioned his charity in dealing with online debates:

"The Register is no longer publishing blogs or commentaries submitted by Mark Shea. Mark’s writings at the NCRegister.com or published in our print edition were within our editorial guidelines. However, his writings and engagement on other forums were irreconcilable with our editorial vision or standards of charitable discussion."

"Irreconcilable with our editorial visions or standards of charitable discussion." He was fired for being uncharitable in his online debates. I had one with him last year in which I upheld the shocking proposition that gay men should not be ordained. While he was not personally uncharitable to me in this debate, he was slippery, and his disdain for the Church's traditional teaching was unsettling. 

As for Simcha...I don't know. I imagine more of the same. Simcha's writing was terrible whiny and unprofessional; consider her lovely little NCR piece she wrote about Cardinal Burke's transfer back in 2014, which we critiqued back then. Look at how she talks about people who were concerned about Burke's demotion:

You, with the subscription to Whimpers in Blogvillia! You, with your Blackberry set to play "Dies Irae" every time Four Lattes Daily resets their Novus Ordo End Times Ticker. You, with the Lady Cardinal robes in your closet, still in the dry cleaner bags, waiting to be whipped out the moment it Finally Happens. You, with your all your personal clocks set to Central European Time, so you don't miss a moment before you weep or break out the Chateau de Schutte '79 every time the doorman at the Roman Curia unlocks the front door, sweeps off the doormat, and chases the homeless cats away in preparation for another day of things that never do and never could have any affect on your personal life.

That is so terribly unprofessional...is that the sort of rambling nonsense one wants to read in the NCR? Rorate Caeli is often held up as the epitome of mean rad-trad blogs, and Rorate never posts anything approximating this. I don't know why Simcha was fired, but if someone told me it was because she straight-up sucks as a professional writer, I would not be surprised.

So, forget the narrative of the top-notch, quality Catholic authors unjustly fired because they were valiantly supporting Church doctrine against greedy, Americanized conservatives uncomfortable with the Catholic social teaching. They were fired for being uncharitable loose cannons who never deserved to have the platform of the NCR from which to churn out their ridiculous nonsense. The message of NCR was clear: act like adults, or get fired.

One more thing: consider emailing Jeanette Demelo, Editor at the NCR, and thanking her for terminating these loose cannons. She can be reached at: jdemelo[at]ewtn.com

Nonum Anniversarium

Because I was so busy I actually managed to let yesterday pass without noting that two days ago, June 29th, was the ninth anniversary of the founding of this blog. Has it really been almost a decade? That is just...insane.

Thank you to everyone who has helped contribute to this blog and website, both past and present: Anselm, Maximus, Noah, John, Amanda, Wes, and all the rest. And especial thanks to you, the readers!

I apologize my posts have been scarce as of late. I am unimaginably busy. But you'll be happy to know that yesterday I recorded three more videos in the series on homosexual so-called marriage that I begun back in August of last year (see here). These videos should be available by the end of the month. The subjects of the three new videos are the role of religion in public life, cooperation in objectively sinful acts (vis-a-vis Christian businesses assisting at homosexual so-called weddings), and whether homosexual marriage is a civil right, which is just a video version of this essay I posted on the website.

Hopefully I will have more time in the future to get back into the swing of things. I also want to thank my friends who have promoted this blog over the years and allowed me other venues for writing, especially Ryan Grant of Athanasius Contra Mundum/Mediatrix Press, and Richard Aleman of Distributist Review, and anyone else I am forgetting.

I will remember you all in my Holy Hour tonight.

Favorite Posts of 2015

Another year has passed us by. How amazing the vicissitudes of history are! How different the situation was in 1978 from 2005, and 2005 from 2007, and 2007 from now. The pendulum swings, back and forth. Good and evil, corruption and reform, light and dark, sin and redemption, and on and on until the end.

We hope you had a good year! This was a big year for me - I left the town I lived in for 35 years and relocated to another part of the state; my wife just gave birth to our fifth child - literally, like three days ago. Of course, things go on in the Church much as they have since 2013. To some degree I have disengaged from them, preferring to focus on more productive efforts like The Life of St. Columba project or writing other things of more permanent value. What goes on in Rome cannot take the Faith away from me. The biggest danger to the Faith, for me, is not Modernism but my own sins.

I want to thank everyone that helps contribute to this blog or lends a helping hand - Noah Moerbeek, my co-blogger - who, by the way, has been promoted within his order to the office of Preceptor of North America. Check him out there, right in the middle!

And here he is again on the left. Very proud of him!

Noah is obviously too humble to mention it, but he deserves hearty congratulations for the good work he does on behalf of the salvation of souls, both through his order and his occasional hosting of the Shield of Faith program on Radio Maria when he fills in for Matthew Arnold. He is a blessed friend and a worthy companion in the Lord.

Also my other contributors, Maximus and Wes Hunt, the former a graduate student of theology living in Rome, the latter a young convert from Protestantism to Catholic Tradition who has written some excellent pieces refuting various aspects of Protestant error on the USC website. These gentlemen are both blessings to me. And of course, Anselm, my co-blogger in absentia who posts about once every two years but who was instrumental in getting this blog off the group.

Also John Goodall who proofreads my website articles, A.R. Danziger Art & Design who does a lot of my graphic design stuff and book covers; Ryan Grant of Athanasius Contra Mundum, a very old friend who actually got me into blogging and who has done much to help me over the years by allowing me to write on his blog, interviewing me on his podcasts, turning my books into eBooks, and launching the wonderful and inspirational Mediatrix Press publishing venture. May God richly bless him and his family. Also thanks to Richard Aleman who welcomed me aboard the Distributist Review this fall.

Finally, thanks to all the readers, especially those on Facebook who share and comment on my posts regularly. Thank you, my friends. As we begin our ninth year year, it is amazing to think that this little effort has blossomed into such a lovely work, with over 1,650 articles spanning almost a decade of my life. God is good. Please pray for me, though. God has given me some measure of wisdom, and a strong faith, but my charity of often cold. I need His grace dearly. Remember my poor soul in your prayers.

Below are a list of my personal favorite posts from 2015. If you enjoy this blog, please consider signing up as a follower on blogger, or follow us on Facebook, where every article from both this blog and the website are posted regularly, as well as other interesting articles from other sources and great stuff from the USC archives.

FAVORITE ARTICLES OF 2015

Great Commission is Institutional: Christ's command to preach the Gospel to all nations was not only given to individual Christians, but the Church as such. No tribe or tongue is exempt from a Church's institutional mission.

Conservatives Failed Strategy: Why an orthodox conservatism has never managed to stem the tide of liberalism and never will.

The Age of Mercy: In what does true mercy consist, and how is this different from what Kasper proposes?

The Obedience of St. Athanasius: Appealing to St. Athanasius to excuse disobedience to ecclesiastical authority is unwarranted, as Athanasius was never disobedient.

The Curiosity of the Modern Encyclical: What role does the modern papal encyclical play in forming Catholic teaching, and how has this changed over the centuries?

Mercy, Annulments & Matrimony: Some sanity to the discussion on mercy and its relation to annulments; an annulment is a legal procedure, and as such cannot be "merciful" or "unmerciful", only more or less just.

Quinisext Council in Trullo and Priestly Celibacy: Getting to the root of the common but incorrect belief that a married clergy is the ancient tradition in the east.

Exquisitely Beautiful: Conversion is the most beautiful thing there is.

The Thief in the Night: Do you want to die listening to a song called "Kiss the Devil" like those unfortunate wretches killed in the Paris attacks?

Why is Masturbation a Sin? Answering common questions about the immorality of masturbation along with practical tips to help stop masturbating.

Not to Abolish, But Fulfill: What our Lord means when He says the Old Covenant has not been abolished by fulfilled.

Foot Washing: What's the Big Deal?: Getting to the heart of traditionalist objections to Pope Francis' Holy Thursday foot washing.

The Vice of Effeminacy: Effeminacy itself is a vice, even if one does not act out one's homosexual tendencies. It is not something that offers one special "gifts" or "perspectives."

Bishop Barron and the Evolution of Christ's Consciousness: Discussing the deep-seated Balthasarian Christology of Bishop Robert Barron.

Synod II Wrap Up: Our assessment of the final session of the Synod on the Family.

Balthasar and the "Faith" of Christ: Hans Urs von Balthasar's Christology is profoundly unorthodox, as he teaches Christ had faith and experienced positive error.

Is Easter Pagan? The Easter-Eostre Connection: Answering a common but ignorant canard about the celebration of Christ's Resurrection.

Christian Marriage Video Project: Helpful original videos explaining aspects of the Church's teaching on marriage and the family.

No Trad Magisterium: There is no one group that speaks for all traditionalists.

The Spirit blows where He will: Many people enter the Church every year; who can predict who will persevere?

Shepherds for the Whole World: Is the pope the pastor of the Church or the world?

Canonization Old vs. New Comparison: A side by side comparison of the differences between the old and new procedures for canonization.

Hagiography and a Populated Hell: The hagiographical testimony to the reality of particular souls damned in hell.

Authority of Rerum Novarum and Quadrigesimo Anno: Examining the Magisterial authority of these two cornerstones of Catholic social teaching.

That's enough, but there is so much more! Please visit the USC sister site for hundreds of in depth articles on all aspects of Catholic faith, liturgy, history, theology and more - or peruse the archives of this blog, which go way back to June of 2007.

Thanks for another great year! Ad multos annos!

The Obedience of Athanasius & Fall Articles

I apologize for the infrequency of my posts as of late; we spent the summer showing our house and then moved in September and are still getting settled in, so things are chaotic. But I did want to draw your attention to some articles published on the sister site over the past several months. 

Many of you mentioned interest in an article on the life of St. Athanasius. I would like to direct you to this article, "The Obedience of St. Athanasius." While I do not offer comparisons or commentary on any contemporary persons or groups, I attempt to demonstrate in this article that St. Athanasius was never disobedient to any legitimate ecclesiastical authority, never defied or "ignored" the pope, and is hardly a model to be appealed to for 'justified disobedience.' It is long, but I think worth the read if you have ever invoked Athanasius in this sort of context. I also have a PDF version of the article.

If you want to keep up with articles coming from the sister site on a more regular basis, I recommend following us on our Unam Sanctam Catholicam Facebook page.

Here are some recent articles from the website, going back to mid-summer:

Philippine Bishop: "Stop Homily Abuse!": An important Filipino primate admonishes against long, tendentious, boring homilies. 

Innocent III: Ten Reasons Why a Man Should Not Get Married: Greatest medieval pope attempts to discourage men from marriage. Hilarity ensures.

Why is Masturbation a Sin? Why masturbation is in fact sinful as well as some practical tips on overcoming this vice.

Canonizations: Old vs. New Comparison: Featuring a chart with a side-by-side comparison of the procedures of pre-Vatican II canonizations to today.

Life in Medieval Cluny: The influence, plan, and organization of the influential medieval French abbey of Cluny.

Balthasar and the Faith of Christ: Balthasar asserts that Jesus experienced faith, ignorance, and even positive error. This man is not a model of orthodoxy.

Anselm Contra Greeks: St. Anselm answers Greek accusations about the Filioque; from de processione Spiritus Sancti

Slick's Not-So-Slick Questions for Catholics: Our apologist Wes Hunt refutes Protestant pastor Matt Slick's inane "Questions for Catholics."

Movie Reviews

Ant Man (2015)
The Equalizer (2014)
Mr. Holmes (2015)
Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (2015)
Minions (2015)
Night at the Museum 3: Secret of the Tomb (2014)
San Andreas (2015)

Sancti Obscuri

St. Thorfinn of Hamar

Thank you for your continued patronage of this blog and website.
Contact: uscatholicam[at]gmail[dot]com

My First Attempt at Catholic Writing

I was a cradle Catholic in the sense that I was baptized as a baby. But I never was taken to Mass, never made a First Communion as a child...in fact, I never even knew I was Catholic until I was an adult.

I had a powerful conversion to evangelical Protestantism in 1999, when I was 19 year old, but almost immediately saw the flaws in it and began exploring Catholicism in 2000. I was converted solely through historical and theological reading and was received into the Church on October 4, 2002, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.

From the very beginning of my conversion, I was filled with a zeal to share the good news I had received with others, especially Protestants I knew who loved the Lord Jesus but did not know about the fullness of faith in the Holy Catholic Church. 

Last night when I was cleaning out some old boxes, I cam across an essay on the Blessed Virgin Mary I wrote in June, 2002, which was actually before I was even received into full communion. The essay was supposed to be part of a longer "book" meant to explain Mary to Protestants. The particular essay was entitled "The Role of the Woman in God's Salvific Plan." It was, essentially, my first foray into writing to defend the faith, though three years before I'd ever heard of blogging.

It is a rambling essay, and very theologically unsound; in fact it contains some serious errors. But the language is flowery and it has a charming style that is pleasant to read. I thought it would be fun to scan it and post it here; you can see my edits in several places where I'd planned on making revisions. It is 12 pages long. It's just funny for me to see how I was writing when I was 22.

CLICK HERE TO READ "ROLE OF WOMAN IN GOD'S SALVIFIC PLAN", MY FIRST (and certainly not last) ATTEMPT AT CATHOLIC WRITING/APOLOGETICS

Christian Marriage Video Project

Unam Sanctam Catholicam is proud to present an original series of videos on issues relating to homosexual so-called "marriage" and Catholicism. Unfortunately, many Christians, even those who support traditional marriage, have never been educated to explain the Christian opposition to homosexual acts beyond a vague conception that it is "wrong", "sinful", "against nature", or whatever.

These are all certainly true, but how many Christians can actually explain why it is against nature? Why is homosexual "marriage" not a civil right? How are laws seeking to ban same-sex marriage different from the old laws banning interracial marriage? If homosexual sex (as well as contraceptive sex) is wrong because it is closed to life, why is it not wrong when an elderly couple has sex or a married, infertile couple?

In my experience, most Catholics are totally unprepared to offer an answer to these sorts of questions. And - unfortunately - many in the Church's hierarchy are very hesitant to speak too boldly on this subject. This is truly a shame; the Catholic faithful are in desperate need of a logical and easy to understand exposition of the Church's rationale for its position, something grounded in the Scriptures and Sacred Tradition. Instead, they have been fed nonsense about "religious liberty" and First Amendment rights, trying to make this a Constitutional issue instead of a theological issue - and when the Supreme Court tossed out those Constitutional arguments on June 26th, those Catholics who had never been educated in any other argument against same sex marriage were left in the lurch.

Here are out first two videos in the series: the first on homosexuality and the Bible, the second on the ends of marriage. It is important to note that these videos do not attempt to merely present talking points, nor force the question into an artificial paradigm of "religious liberty" and the First Amendment, as some American Catholics have tried to do. Rather, they approach the subject from the point of view of Catholic Tradition, theology and natural law. These videos are not meant to convince opponents but rather help Christians better understand their own tradition.

These videos were totally funded by donations. We currently have three more videos like these in various phases of production, on homosexual marriage and civil rights, material cooperation in sinful activities, and the duties of the Christian state. If you would like to help donate to this project, you can do so by clicking below:

Please share these videos and contribute if you believe this project is timely and necessary. Deo gratias.

Anniversarium Octum

Today, June 29th, 2015, Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, is the eighth anniversary of this humble little blog - which has grown to be quite a sprawling endeavor. The sister site, Facebook page, Cruachan Hill Press...there are all sorts of little spin-offs that begun with this site! I want to thank my co-founder and absentee blogger Anselm, our contributors Noah Moerbeek and Maximus, as well as new contributor Wes Hunt; also John Goodall (who edits all my rambling website articles for typos), Blake from Popin' Ain't Easy who does movie reviews, and AR Danziger Art & Design who have done most of the art for this site and its endeavors over the years. I also want to mention Alleluia Audio Books and Athanasius Contra Mundum, two sites with whom USC has a particularly close relationship - as well as all those blogs, Facebook pages, and folks who have helped promote USC over the years.

I find it ironic that my first post on June 29th, 2007 was on the question of morality and legislation and how issues of morality are intimately bound up with human law. This has been the view throughout all of Christendom; a far cry from the philosophy of Chief Justice John Roberts, who  -though he ultimately dissented on the same-sex "marriage" judgment - stated in his dissent that "Whether same-sex marriage is a good idea should be of no concern to us." This is why this experiment in secular republicanism that we call the United States is failing. The sooner Catholics divest themselves from putting any hopes in this governmental system, the better. "Back to the Constitution" will not save you.

But we are supposed to be celebrating USC's completion of its eighth year, not getting bogged down in the miseries of the day!

I am sorry I have not posted as frequently as I would like; my wife and I are in the process of selling our house and I have a lot less free time at the moment. I am also still in the process of reading Laudato Si, which I will post on sometime in the next month, hopefully. I know I will be way behind the ball on that, but I am not one of those bloggers who feels that they have to be the first to offer commentary on every current event as soon as it happens. Blogging is not journalism, and while I sometimes offer commentary on current events, I don't feel bound to that format. I like to take my time with something...mull it over carefully, and publish whenever I feel like I have a cogent thought - or at least that's the ideal! Can't always say my thought is cogent...

But in the meantime, there is a ton of stuff we have published on the sister site over the past six months. If you really have a lot of time on your hands, check out some of our other material:

Mandatum: Liturgical History

Wedding Cake Q & A

Authority of Rerum Novarum and Quadragesimo Anno
Quinisext Council in Trullo and Priestly Celibacy

Pentecost and the Jews

The Public Apostasy of Pope Marcellinus

St. Patrick's Lent on Cruachan-Aighle
Probability and Statistical Impossibility

Despair and Presumption
Council of Ancyra and Celibacy
Geisler and Mackenzie Refutation of Sola Scriptura Part 1
Geisler and Mackenzie Refutation of Sola Scriptura Part 2

Benedict XIV Non Ambigimus
Orderic Vitalis and Curly Toe Shoes
A Miserable Cup of Coffee

Solomonic Gates: Hazor, Megiddo, Gezer

Introduction to Trinitarian Theology
Is Easter Pagan? The Easter-Eostre Connection
Contradictions in the Bible (part 3)
Assault on Constitutive Tradition

Sancti Obscuri

Enda of Aran (d. 530)
Jaenbert of Canterbury (d. 792)

Movie Reviews

Cinderella (2015)
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Groundhog Day (1993)
The Wind Rises (2013)
Paddington (2014)
Chef (2014)

Poltergeist (2015)
American Sniper (2014)

Other items of interest...

Make sure you check out my podcast with Ryan Grant of Athanasius Contra Mundum.

Also, speaking of podcasts, in case you didn't know, the USC website features a podcast section. It is updated only infrequently and restricts itself to matters of history. The only thing up currently is a series on Christianity in ancient North Africa, but I am planning one expanding this in the future.

Thank you all for patronizing this blog, which as of today has been viewed over 1.1 million times - something I never would have imagined when I posted my first rant on legislation and morality eight years ago. Pax.