David Benkof It is refreshing to see that our elder brothers, the Jewish people, have a spokesperson in the media for the truth that abstaining from sex is a real option for  frum  (traditionally observant) gay men.   David Benkof i s a St. Louis-based writer and former faculty member at Yeshivat Darche Noam/Shapell’s in Jerusalem. Check him out. Also, I am reading a marvelous work, apologetic in nature, for those looking for resources to combat the slippery slope of the erosion of  traditional  marriage in our culture.... View the YouTube video,  Is making Gay OK?

"Vatican II was for him a response to God nudging him to reform and update the church, and to draw all Christians into greater unity for the sake of humankind and world peace. Like the apostles on the eve of Pentecost, he anticipated that something grand was about to unfold. Little did he know that the Holy Spirit would sweep into the church with such force.'                                                                                                                       -Bill Hubesch As we listen to the media offer their analyses of Pope St. John XXIII’s legacy (likely to be reminiscent of the National Catholic Reporter editorial above), we would do well to understand one false notio...

I have been following the account of the   female throuple in Massachusetts,   1/3 of which has been artificially inseminated and is with child.  Robert George, not surprisingly, has as well.   It is oft said, “ideas have consequences.” When (and if) society abandons its traditional belief in marriage as a conjugal bond, with its model of sexual complementarity, in favor of a concept of “marriage” as a form of sexual-romantic companionship or domestic partnership, then what possible standard could be identified for “restricting” marriage to two-person partnerships, as opposed to polyamorous sexual ensembles of three or more persons? (Have you seen the story of a woman who has “married” her dog)? Proponents of the “new marriage” acknowledge that there is no reason not to further re-shape the institution of marriage to include multiple partner unions; to do this in their view is progress toward the ideal of equality and justice. Failure to do is unjust. Poly-cou...

The First Constitution of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 refers to the fact that souls  living in AD 1215 would be in hell in its opening statement and its “Profession of the Faith.” The implication is that people from every generation would finally be eternally separated from God, not just those from the 13 th  century. For the strict interpreter of the Council, it seems inescapable that the Council taught souls are in hell now: Indeed, having suffered and died on the wood of the cross for the salvation of the human race, he descended to the underworld, rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. He descended in the soul, rose in the flesh, and ascended in both. He will come at the end of time to judge the living and the dead, to render to every person according to his works, both to the reprobate and to the elect. All of them will rise with their own bodies, which they now wear, (Latin text reads quae nunc gestant—which they are now bearing or wear...

I have long been a fan of a genuine Jesuit, retired Georgetown professor Fr. James Schall, S.J. A glance at his website , which contains his vitae and syllabi shows why.  Recently Fr. Has reflected on the increasing number of topics that we cannot talk about   in public speech, which is no longer viewed as a search for truth through reasonable argument.  Fr. Schall: We no longer want to hear speech if it “offends” someone’s feelings or self-defined identity. We would rather “just get along” than to have to decide about the truth of any issue or confront the consequences of its violation. We thus have become infinitely “tolerant” of anything but truth itself. Speech is not directed to truth or falsity of an issue but to the “sensitivity” and “compassion” of those who hear it. “Objective” standards are subject to the listener’s “right” to hear only what he wants to hear. Thus, whatever is “permitted” in positive or civil law becomes a “right” for those who fol...

I have read much by Anthony Esolen, solid stuff with which I am in accord, but nothing which really dazzled me or tingled my spine--until now. What I am about to share is so good, there is no need to do anything but share it, and pray all read it! Catholicism: Scandalous in Every Age  by  Anthony Esolen A few weeks ago, a Catholic priest caused quite a stir  in one of our local diocesan high schools. He spoke the truth about sex. Pause here to sigh, and to wish that our heresies were more interesting. Some of the parents and students objected. They did not say, “The priest presented the truth in a way that made it less likely that the audience would accept it. We are worried that the Church’s teachings did not appear in the best light. We need to do some considerable work right now, lest the students go on to reject what they do not understand.” No one said anything of the sort. It was clear that they objected to  what the priest had said, rather than...

Fox News" Megyn Kelly went on record on Bill O'Reilly's program as saying, in a story about a 7th grade science teacher viewing pornography on the job, that "There is nothing wrong with human sexuality. You want to watch porn, go ahead and watch porn." While I agree that, as created by God, human sexuality is good, very good indeed, I think she, as an intelligent woman, should admit to being in the dark having used the term pornography in the same statement on human sexuality. Perhaps this confusion is a legacy of the "sexual revolution" of the sixties.  In this decade, America witnessed a turning away from traditional Catholic sexual moral teaching, revealed by God for our health and well-being. The so-called revolution has produced the fruit not of “liberation” but of widespread suffering : the spiraling number of STDs, the millions of abortions, unintended sterility, global pornography, the sex trade, the vast increase in rape and child abuse, pro...

"Not 100 people in the United States hate the Roman Catholic Church, but millions hate what they mistakenly think the Roman Catholic Church is.”                                                                               - Archbishop Fulton Sheen   (on Facebook!)   Luckily I remembered this sentiment by the eminent bishop and 1950s TV personality, as I ran across   this recent story which demonstrates a still-prevalent error among anti-Catholics in the U.S. It relaates the journey home of a married couple, who came to realize that, in their words, " this Church, the Catholic Church, is truly the ONE Church that Jesus Christ himself initiated over 2,000 years ago."

HOMILY OF POPE FRANCIS THE EASTER VIGIL IN THE HOLY NIGHT ST PETER'S BASILICA 19 APRIL 2014 T he Gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ begins with the journey of the women to the tomb at dawn on the day after the Sabbath. They go to the tomb to honour the body of the Lord, but they find it open and empty. A mighty angel says to them: “Do not be afraid!” (Mt 28:5) and orders them to go and tell the disciples: “He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee” (v. 7). The women quickly depart and on the way Jesus himself meets them and says: “Do not fear; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me” (v. 10). After the death of the Master, the disciples had scattered; their faith had been utterly shaken, everything seemed over, all their certainties had crumbled and their hopes had died. But now that message of the women, incredible as it was, came to them like a ray of light in the darkness. The news spread: Jesus is...

I t appears now that the trending fashion fetish is the female corpse. No, not Miley’s image, but the girl lying next to her in a  new advertising spread .  In it, the models pose on a moonlit beach. Miley sits up, staring into the space, a woman behind her, while another reposes on the sand, flat on her back, hair partially obscuring her face, with the look of a   stylishly dressed body in the morgue. This following a recent cover of Entertainment Weekly , displaying the two actors of a soon-to-be released film reposed on a gurney. Ben Affleck is curled awkwardly around the woman, who is in a bra and slip, very much dead. (A tag is tied carefully around her toe). Upon examination one learns that beautiful female corpses have become common in fashion shoots, advertising campaigns and TV shows, all with a theme of sexual and fatal violence against women. Why? To boost declining ratings, audiences, or to create new ones. For example...

In the conclusion to my book I penned the following: 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 away 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 ...

Just saw a piece about a drag show at the University of SanDiego entitled “Celebration of Gender Expression: Supreme Drag Superstar”. According to   The San Diego Union-Tribune , USD spokesman Tim O’Malley defended the event, saying, “We do not mean to demean our critics. Gender expression and identity, for some people, is not an area to be explored. For some people, that simply is wrong. However, the law of the church is silent on cross dressing. There no evidence that cross dressing is inherently homosexual.” It seems that local drag queen/ transvestite ‘Tootie Nefertootie’” was the master of ceremonies for the show. Nefertootie dressed for the final show of the evening in a black robe and a goat-horned headdress while singing a song titled “Good N’Evil” that included the lyrics: Good and evil - And their merits - Men have argued through history - As well they should! My philosophy Any child can see - “Good is evil - And therefore All evil is good” At on...

A Dominican nun, Sister Jane Dominic Laurel has recently come under  persecution  for a talk she made to a group of Catholic students in North Carolina on Catholic teaching on the truth about human sexuality popularized by Pope John Paul II, know as the "theology of the body." Many orthodox Catholics who have heard Sr..s talks approve her presentations and find nothing offensive about them have written what an "extraordinarily refreshing" speaker sister is, capable of communicating basic truths "about who we really are with a hopeful view of life and love and the happiness we were created to share."  Sister Jane, who has a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, has given the talk more than 80 times in 25 states without incident.   So why the fuss in North Carolina? It is alleged that she taught the students that homosexuality is wrong and offensive to God.( She did nothing of the sort). ...

But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ.   I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready,  for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving like ordinary men? For when one says, "I belong to Paul," and another, "I belong to Apollos," are you not merely men?                                                                                           -1 ...

Recently Professor Ralph Martin has written : There has been a tendency, however, in post-Vatican II Catholicism to drift into an understanding of this call to lay mission that diverges significantly from what Vatican II actually says. On the one hand, there has been a tendency to interpret the call to apostolate as a call to “power sharing” and assign roles that aren’t really evangelistic to laypeople within the Church. A lot of the focus has been, and continues to be, on laypeople becoming “active” within the church — that is, doing readings at Mass, becoming “extraordinary” ministers of the Eucharist, and giving Communion, joining parish councils, serving on committees, etc. Close study of recent intiatives on the evangelization front reveal that organizations such as the St. Paul Street Evangelization   are more like what the Holy Spirit has in  mind. Visit their website, Like them on Facebook and follow on Twitter #ShareTheFaith. I intend to become a...