From: The Smoke of Satan in the Temple of God

In the United States, the 1960s marked the beginning of a breakdown in sexual mores and a rise in family disruption, joined with a culture of dissent as many tried to rationalize deviations from traditional morality. We witnessed a massive social experiment linked to genuine progress for which the Church was not prepared — discrimination against African-Americans and women was coming to an end, and Catholics were ever-increasingly undergoing assimilation into contemporary culture. As a result, Catholics began placing their spiritual lives in one compartment and their daily activities in the secular arena in another, commencing to treat their Catholic faith as an entirely private matter, open to a “pick-and-choose” approach to doctrine. Many theologians, religious educators and clergy succumbed to the same inducement. So it was hard for the doctrinal teaching of Vatican II to be heard; what did get through was often not the true council, but a “spirit” of Vatican II.

The Devil’s goal is to seduce, to lead people away from faithful obedience to God. All that he does with regard to human beings is willfully evil, in order that he might bring them spiritual, supernatural, eternal death. I remind the reader of Paul VI’s insight (quoted in Chapter 1): “This matter of the Devil and of the influence he can exert on individuals as well as on communities, entire societies or events, is a very important chapter of Catholic doctrine which should be studied again, although it is given little attention today….” I hope to explain here that it was the sophistry of neomodernists theologians coupled with bishops sympathetic to their rebellion against the magisterium which influenced most Catholics’ views and practices regarding marriage and family in the face of the “sexual revolution” of the 1960s. In reading several of the more notable examples of this deceptive reasoning, remember that in Catholic teaching the Tempter is a “consummate deceiver” whose real designs are concealed behind what may seem to be divinely inspired, but are in reality instigated by him.

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This video of a young boy twerking at Pride has homophobes outraged | Gay Star News

DANCING WITH MR. D: This video of a young boy twerking at Pride has homophobes outraged | Gay Star News : 'via Blog this'

On the Contemporary U.S. Scene

M ichael Flynn made a lot of enemies inside the government during his career. When he exposed himself as vulnerable these pounced. How?? Anonymous and possibly illegal leaks of private conversations with a foreign national. Now, we aren't supposed to spy on Americans without probable cause, nor disclose the results of our spying in the pages of the Washington Post because it suits a partisan or personal agenda (overturning the results of an election). Current and former national security officials used their position, their sources, and their methods to destroy a political enemy. Why aren’t all Americans upset by this? Mr. Flynn is not the only recent occurrence of such. The New York Times reports that civil servants at the EPA lobbied Congress to reject Donald Trump's nominee to run the agency because Pruitt was critical of the way the EPA was run during the Obama years. Traditionally, civil servants follow the direction of the political ap...

Things Catholic

In my second chapter I discuss why the political terms "liberal" and "conservative" are misnomers for adjectives modifying the term "Catholic." This is especially important now, when, following the resignation of Benedict XVI, pundits will misuse these terms in discussing the Holy father's legacy. Read more on this here.

Women Warriors?

A s a Catholic man and history teacher, I always tell my classes that, for reasons of masculinity and chivalry, I oppose women in the military (I teach at an all-female Catholic girls high school). So this article gives a better explanation of my view from a Catholic man's perspective: WOMEN DON'T DESERVE COMBAT by Mr. Gabe Jones “For whenever man is responsible for offending a woman’s personal dignity and vocation, he acts contrary to his own personal dignity and his own vocation.” (Pope St. John Paul II, Mulieris Dignitatem, 10) December 3, 2015 ought to be remembered as the date that any remaining vestiges of our country’s collective sense of chivalry died a tragic death. It was on this day that Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced his decision to require combat positions in every branch of the United States military – including the Marine Corps – be opened to women. Despite being one of the most significant news items in recent memory, if you did not p...

Pope Francis' Family

S ince his elevation to the Chair of Peter Pope Francis has almost tripled the size of crowds attending papal audiences, Masses and other events in Vatican City. What explains this suddenly renewed interest in Catholicism? What need is Pope Francis meeting in people? As is well-known, the Church was beset by allegations of scandal and mismanagement in its bureaucracy and its bank, its reputation besmirched by the sexual abuse scandal. John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter: "The dominant narrative about the Catholic Church today is 'rock star Pope takes the world by storm'….If that's not a revolution, at least at the level of perception, then we have never seen one." The revolution is seen in the Pope's decision to include a Muslim woman when he washed the feet of young offenders last Easter, and his instinctive hug for a man whose face was badly disfigured by disease. It is seen by his refusal to live in the papal apartment or to wear the re...

Desperate Despair of Hooking Up

I have posted here and here on the hook-up culture, but am unlikely to surpass Maloney's analysis, printed here in its entirety. This makes for a reality check for parents excited about sending their offspring off to university and for anyone concerned about the real war on women (and men). The best defense for serious Catholics? Right Here . JUNE 14, 2016 What the Hook-up Culture Has Done to Women ANNE MALONEY A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things. ∼ Henry David Thoreau, Walden A few months ago, a young woman at Stanford University was raped by a virtual stranger, and her rapist received a ridiculously light sentence. The story grabbed headlines everywhere, and caused a firestorm on social media. This “dumpster rape” is being blared about eve...

DANCIN' WITH MR. D: The Anti-Christian Alt-Right by Matthew Rose | Articles | First Things

The Anti-Christian Alt-Right by Matthew Rose | Articles | First Things : 'via Blog this'

Nuns' Story, or Call the Sisters

(Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham / Fr James Bradley) I have been watching the PBS series, Call the Midwives , which f ollows the nurses, midwives and nuns from Nonnatus House, who visit the expectant mothers of Poplar, providing the poorest women with the best possible care. As I observe the way these Anglican nuns are portrayed, it strikes me that they are more like Catholic nuns than many Catholic nuns after Vatican II (see chapter 5 of my book). Thus, the story featured in this post does not surprise me, especially after Pope Benedict's launching of the United States’ ordinariate for disaffected Anglicans seeking communion with the Catholic Church. From the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus , given in Rome, at St. Peter’s, on Nov. 4, 2009: “In recent times the Holy Spirit has moved groups of Anglicans to petition repeatedly and insistently to be received into full Catholic communion individually as well as corporately.”

Lord Save Us

I was saddened to hear of the following death of a great evangelizer.. .

The End of Fortress Catholicism?!

John Gehring in the Post editorializes: Something unexpected and extraordinary is happening in the Catholic Church. Pope Francis is rescuing the faith from those who hunker down in gilded cathedrals and wield doctrine like a sword. The edifice of fortress Catholicism – in which progressive Catholics, gay Catholics, Catholic women and others who love the church but often feel marginalized by the hierarchy – is starting to crumble. I, as one endlessly pointing out the fruitlessness of using adjectives to describe Catholics , could not resist the following, penned by Pat Archibold of the NCR (NOT Reporter!!) Proof of Liberalism in the Pope: "It is true that the Muslim world is not totally mistaken when it reproaches the West of Christian tradition of moral decadence and the manipulation of human life." "It is deplorable that homosexual persons have been and are the object of violent malice in speech or in action. Such treatment deserves condemnation from ...

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