A Blog About Topics from my book: The Smoke of Satan in the Temple of God
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timwallace
Continued from September 14.... T hrough the Church’s teachings, God has also revealed his truth on how humanity can live happily. What is so little understood by Catholics and Christians is that doctrinal revelations that come through the Church come out of God’s very Self. They are not tied to culturally constructed norms! Read Vatican II’s Dei Verbum : “by divine revelation God wished to manifest and communicate both himself and the eternal decrees of his will concerning the salvation of humankind.” Our Lord’s Church derives its basic vision not from mere human speculation, which would be tentative and uncertain, but from God’s own testimony—from a historically given divine revelation. Thus Catholics believe that just as God himself is immutable, so, too, are His teachings as revealed through the Church because they come from him. As I discuss in my book, although the Church does not change its central teachings, we do see the theological principle of “devel...
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By
timwallace
I am very tired of hearing that Our Lord's Church regards homosexuality as a sin. Let's be clear--as a result Original Sin and our fallen, wounded nature, we are afflicted by all kinds of disorders that are not of our own making—physical, mental, emotional, sexual, you name it. In Catholic teaching, what governs whether something is naturally disordered is whether or not it is working according to its proper end, whether it is properly ordered to its natural purpose. If it is not, we call it “disordered”. Inclinations with respect to any of our faculties which make us want to use those faculties in a way inconsistent with their proper end are not sinful; they simply reflect our own disorder, our lack of perfect integrity. Such predispositions often become major temptations, and if we continue to indulge an inclination to act in a manner inconsistent with the relevant proper ends, we sin. The Church does not hold a homosexual inclination (orientation) to be sinf...
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By
timwallace
Who smiles like this at the moment of death? Sister Cecilia, of the Carmel of Santa Fe in Argentina, witnessed to her love for Christ in her struggle with lung cancer Aleteia June 25, 2016 Facebook 4k 12 Death is a tragedy for mortal man, and yet with faith in eternity and anticipation of the embrace of our heavenly Father, death becomes radiant. We share today the news of the death of Sister Cecilia, a Carmelite of Santa Fe in Argentina, who suffered from lung cancer. She astonished those who surrounded her in her agony, as her face was transformed by a tender smile as she closed her eyes to this world. As you can see in the photograph, she looks like a lover who has arrived to the encounter she has long been yearning for. The Carmel of Santa Fe announced the death of Sister Cecilia to their brothers and sisters and friends of the Carmel, with a brief, but profound, note. Dear brothers, sisters and friends: Jesus! Just...
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By
timwallace
From The Smoke of Satan in the Temple of God: In 1959, Pope John XXIII saw a true need for liturgical renewal within the Roman Rite in accordance with the metaphorical principle of organic development, the aim of the Liturgical Movement endorsed by Pope St. Pius X. In authentic organic development, the Church listens to what liturgical scholars deem necessary for the gradual improvement of liturgical tradition, and evaluate the need for such development, always with a careful eye on the preservation of the received liturgical tradition handed down from century to century. In this way, continuity of belief and liturgical practice is ensured. As Cardinal Ratzinger wrote at the time, the principle of organic development ensures that in the Mass, “only respect for the Liturgy’s fundamental unspontaneity and pre-existing identity can give us what we hope for: the feast in which the great reality comes to us that we ourselves do not manufacture , but receive as a gift. Organic de...
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By
timwallace
The Archdiocese of Vancouver is celebrating educational diversity in new ways, all because a family and their lawyer believe in celebrating diversity — and if you object because of your Catholic faith, they will sue you until you are forced to comply. In a joint statement the Catholic Independent Schools of the Vancouver Archdiocese and the family of Tracey Wilson, an 11-year-old diagnosed with gender dysphoria who had attended a Catholic school, announced the CISVA approval of a new policy that accommodates gender expression and students with gender dysphoria. The Wilson family is applauding the CISVA for paving the way towards accepting gender expression and gender dysphoria in youth. It will be the first Catholic school district in Canada to have such a policy. The new policy was developed after Tracey, who was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, filed a human rights complaint because her school did not accommodate her request to be treated as a girl. The human rights compl...
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By
timwallace
The reader of these pages is aware that in this current time of post-Obergefell “same sex marriage,” we are also witnessing increased fascination with transgenderism and an emerging indifference to gender. Thus I found it interesting to observe Walt Heyer, who has undergone surgery to become and woman and then back to a man, has the most poignant article on this topic which includes the regrets of a physician who underwent gender reassignment surgery . Let’s not forget the amazingly candid list of regrets written by Renee Richards in her book No Way Renee . While not regretting her surgery outright, she makes it clear she did it because she thought she had no choice. Her choice destroyed her family, her capacity to love like she/he used to, her spirituality, and more.
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By
timwallace
Last fall, militant Italaian atheist Piergeorgio Oddifreddi wrote Dear Pope, I'm Writing to You. O difreddi later said he was particularly surprised that Benedict read his book from cover to cover and wanted to discuss it, as it had been billed as a “luciferian introduction to atheism.” He should not have been so surprised, had he known his man. Odifreddi's book was a critique of certain arguments and lines of thought found in Benedict’s theological writings, beginning with his 1967 volume Introduction to Christianity , and including his book Jesus of Nazareth , which he wrote as pope, both of which I have profited from enormously. “My opinion about your book is, as a whole, rather mixed,” B16 said. “I profited from some parts, which I read with enjoyment, but in other parts I was astonished at a certain aggressiveness and thoughtless argumentation.” He noted that, several times, Odifreddi refers to theology as science fiction, and he...
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By
timwallace
Fr. Longenecker Father Longenecker has has observed a contemporary phenomenon which presents a target-rich environment for the New Evangelization-- M oralistic T herapeutic D eism: “MTD” is deadly because it eventually kills off true religion. Because “MTD” mimics true religion people think it is true religion, but then they draw the obvious conclusion: if religion is only about therapy and making the world a better place, then why do you need God? If the Deist God is sitting on the other side of a cloud doing nothing then why bother going to church to worship him?The reason why the Catholic faith is shutting down in so much of Europe and North America is because millions of Catholics are infected with “MTD.” They have had no direct experience of the living God in their lives and believe he is an old grandfather who resides in heaven never being involved in this world. They have assumed that religion is no more than just another self help method and that being a ...
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