So it is that because of  the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the Devil,  many Catholics do not practice their faith to the point of standing out from those who are ignorant of Christ. In approaching the vexing questions of modern society, too many Catholics take positions based on a liberal-conservative spectrum, rather than on the teachings of Jesus Christ which come to us via His church. Only genuine conversion,  metanoia ,the fruit of evangelization, will change this reality, allowing Catholics to experience the joy of faithful discipleship. No ideology may substitute for real personal conversion. In essence,  metanoia  means to question one’s own way of living, to start to see life through God’s eyes, and turn awa y from conformity to this world. Genuine conversion predisposes us not to see ourselves as the measure of all things, but to a humility that trusts ourselves to God’s love, which becomes the measure of all things. This was the centr...

Kresta In The Afternoon: Reaping the Whirlwind: A reflection on the deeping darkness that celebrates homosexual unions and activity.

In The Smoke of Satan in the Temple of God , my second chapter deals at length with a phenomenon that is still alive in some circles, namely, that Pope Francis will take the Catholic Church in a new direction, at odds with the desire of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI to restore traditionalist elements, as evidenced in a recent Associated Press editorial : "Francis' decision to disregard church law and wash the feet of two girls - a Serbian Muslim and an Italian Catholic - during a Holy Thursday ritual has become something of the final straw, evidence that Francis has little or no interest in one of the key priorities of Benedict's papacy: reviving the pre-Vatican II traditions of the Catholic Church." As I point out in  The Smoke of Satan ,   there were indeed reform-minded Council Fathers who responded to Pope John’s vision of the Church growing in spiritual riches as a fruit of the Council under the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the hope that the faithful mi...

Marriage comes to us from nature.  In Catholic teaching Jesus sanctifies marriage as a sacrament for the baptized, giving it significance beyond its natural reality. Traditionally the state has safeguarded marriage because it is indispensable to family and thus to the common good of society.  But neither Church nor State instituted marriage, and neither can change its nature. God created two mutually complementary sexes, able to transmit life through marital union.  Consummated sexual intercourse between a man and a woman is ideally based on mutual love and must always be based on mutual consent, if they are genuinely human actions.  No matter how strong a friendship or deep a love between persons of the same sex might be, it is physically impossible for two men, or two women, to consummate a marital union.  (In civil law, non-consummation of a marriage constitutes grounds for annulment). It is easy to see that sexual intercourse between a man and a w...

One of the most exciting developments in the papacy of Francis to date is that he's already mentioned the Devil several times: At his first papal Mass in the Sistine Chapel, during the homily to the cardinal electors: "Whoever does not pray to God, prays to the devil."  He continued: "When one does not profess Jesus Christ, one professes the worldliness of the devil." Two days later to a gathering of the cardinals he emplored that they "not cede to the bitterness and pessimism that the devil offers us every day."  When struggling to stop the Argentine government from legalizing same-sex "marriage," he said: Let's not be naive:  This is not a simple political fight; it is a destructive proposal to God's plan.  This is not a mere legislative proposal (that's just its form), but a move by the father of lies that seeks to confuse and deceive the children of God ... Let's look to St. Joseph, Mary, and the Child to a...

Did you ever notice that when people take issue with Catholic teaching such as in the hoopla over whether or not men should marry men, and women, women, rarely does the dissent concern the Hypostatic Union, the Vatican’s guidelines on road rage, or the Conference on  Extraterrestrial life ? No, those things with which they take issue bear directly or vicariously on their sexual lives — homosexuality, same-sex “marriage,” premarital sex, adultery, contraception, masturbation, population control, abortion, divorce, remarriage, in vitro fertilization, consensual sex between young and old, etc. Remember Our Lord’s words on this: "What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man." Perhaps this is why Paul VI saw the unredeemed huma...

From  T he Smoke of Satan in the Temple of God : As mentioned in our first chapter, it is the enemy who seeks to breach the integrity of the human person, and effect the ruin of souls. And it must also be said that the contemporary polarization in the church discussed in the second chapter is a clear attack by the Evil One.  As Basil Cardinal Hume has observed: “I suspect that it is a trick of the devil to divert good people from the task of evangelization by embroiling them in endless controversial issues to the neglect of the Church’s essential role, which is mission.” Thus, in this spiritual combat, trials will come, but God knows they are edifying for us, for they disclose the nature of the enemy and our own need for salvation and growing in relationship with Him. So it is that because of the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the Devil, many Catholics do not practice their faith to the point of standing out from those who are ignorant of Christ. In approa...

Samuel Gregg of Crisis Magazine has written, "Given the contempt with which some people regard Catholicism these days, it’s extraordinary just how badly the very same individuals want everyone else to hear their views of the Church’s future. Plainly there’s something about this 2000 year-old faith that truly bothers them. How else can one explain the tsunami of unsolicited advice from pop atheists, incoherent playwrights, angry ex-priests, and celebrity theologians that has erupted since Benedict XVI’s abdication?" If the reader is interested in what it is that bothers them, I have spent the last ten summers researching what it is, the fruits of which can be found here:

For those who are thrilled at the accession of Pope Francis  and do not believe that the gates of hell are still attempting to prevail against the Church, I offer the following from Salon Magazine, and recommend my book   if you wish to learn more of what motivates those like Fox to attack the Church! My exposure of Fox is particularly damning.... "As Fox and many other Catholic and ex-Catholic dissidents see it, Vatican II marked the moment when the church had the chance to reinvent itself as a flexible moral and spiritual force in a rapidly changing world. Indeed, it briefly seemed to do just that – and it’s important to understand that Bergoglio, like Joseph Ratzinger and Karol Wojtyla before him, was part of the right-wing counterrevolution within the church that aggressively rolled back those changes, crushed dissident thought and reasserted the absolute power of the pope and his hierarchy. Pope Francis is a longtime ally of  Communion and L...

After two years of blogging about my book, I believe it providential that my book about the Catholic Church in the U.S. after Vatican II is now available as we welcome our Holy Father Pope Francis! View the book on Amazon by clicking HERE !