Tradicat

+ JMJ In these days of rabid insanity, like a person drowning, we'll grasp at anything.  Even someone who is not Catholic but at least is thinking straight! Jordan Peterson is one such individual.  He is making sense, because it is aligned with Catholic doctrine.  Eventually, he will either become Catholic or stop making sense. In the interim, it is nice to hear someone acting rationally. P^3 Lifesite News: Jordan Peterson

+ JMJ Is this man a saint?  What does Saint Mean? When talking with fervent ntCatholics, there are a number a flash-points. One is the canonization of Pope St. John Paul II.  I've experienced varying responses, but the underlying issue is that if Pope St. John Paul II is a saint, then everything thing he did must be ok ... right? Nope. Not Right. While there are doubts about the canonizations, this is something significantly above our paygrade.  The doctrine is that the Church cannot err when it says someone is enjoying the beatific vision (ie that is what canonization declares infallibly). That is as far as the doctrine goes ... period.  Eventually, the Church will have to resolve the issue and clarify the doctrine. This is the advantage and positive aspects of crises such as the one that we've been living through for the past 50+ year (yes ... the infection started earlier and erupted after the Second Vatican Council. What follows is part 1 o...

+ JMJ Something that we forget at our peril is that Relativism is simply Liberalism Rebranded. What follows is some wisdom from Pope Leo XIII. In order to emerge from the crisis we need to understand who is a revolutionary and who is a Catholic. P^3 http://www.papalencyclicals.net/leo13/l13liber.htm 15. What naturalists or rationalists aim at in philosophy, that the supporters of liberalism, carrying out the principles laid down by naturalism, are attempting in the domain of morality and politics. The fundamental doctrine of rationalism is the supremacy of the human reason, which, refusing due submission to the divine and eternal reason, proclaims its own independence, and constitutes itself the supreme principle and source and judge of truth. Hence, these followers of liberalism deny the existence of any divine authority to which obedience is due, and proclaim that every man is the law to...

+ JMJ What is true matters, everything is untrue is a lie. Pretty simple eh? Getting to the truth and helping others to see it is the hard part. For example, I was at a talk where a theologian provided an overview of the crisis of the Church from a rational / logical point of view.  His assumptions seemed correct and so he seemed to be right. The only problem is that being right doesn't automatically mean people will agree and change their beliefs. I've encountered this a few times and concluded that the cognitive dissonance theory is, if not bang-on, a good model of human behaviour. I've seen the pain suffered by ntCatholic's when they are confronted with the kissing the koran picture and Pope Francis' antics.  For ntCatholics, if the SSPX is right, then practically everything that they have believed about the Catholic Church crumbles.  That is a huge wall and the pain is incredible. So, being right isn't enough. No matter how crys...

+ JMJ For modern Catholics, one of the cultural artifacts that stand out is that ladies wear veils in a Catholic Church. Here's what I found in radio replies: 1053: Why must women have their heads covered when in a Catholic Church? That women should cover their heads when in Church is a Christian custom based upon the words of St. Paul in 1 Cor. XI., 6. There he definitely gives the instruction that Christian women must cover their heads during divine worship. He gives two reasons for his decree, one theological, the other moral. The theological reason is as follows: Every being's true glory and honor is to keep the place assigned to him or her by God. Now God Himself differentiated between the sexes, and that difference should be manifested during our public religious acknowledgment of Him. Man was created first, and woman dependently upon man. The covering of a woman's head was to be a sign of this dependence. Both men and women are created, of cour...

+ JMJ I am aware that Dr. Chojnowski was once associated with the SSPX, I'm not certain if he maintains that association. In any case he has on his blog a statement by Fr. Chazal about the position of the 'resistance': Resistance is the best term to encase our position, and that term has stuck, while all other labels have never lived very long. The term sedeplenist is incomplete, just like sedeprivationist, because neither of the terms includes the crucial distinction. Caiphas is neither deprived and neither to be heeded to.    Well this is interesting ... I would ask, is Pope Francis to not be heeded in all cases good and bad? This is because the jurisdiction of a heretic; while it instantly disappears quoad liceitatem; only disappears quoad validitatem after a sentence. Before then, there is a valid but illicit jurisdiction, of which none of those who are aware of the heresy of the holder of office, can make use of. Throughout the years dioceses and po...

+ JMJ In some heated discussions with ntCatholics (non-Traditional Catholics), my wife and I noticed that our interlocutors would accuse us of a particular action or fault. A fault that, upon later reflection, we relaised they were themselves guilty. This behaviour has a name: Psychological Projection. Here's an excerpt from the Wikipedia article : Psychological projection is a theory in psychology in which humans defend themselves against their own unconscious impulses or qualities (both positive and negative) by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others. [1] For example, a person who is habitually intolerant may constantly accuse other people of being intolerant. It incorporates blame shifting . As noted, in my experience, in the heat of the moment, we don't usually realise that a person is 'projecting' a behaviour on us.  Everytime that I've realised that this was happening it was after the discussion ... or after a ...

+ JMJ Pope Francis continually seems to be leading people (even non-Catholics) into temptation. As I mentioned in my post on The Sixth Petition (Lead us not into temptation) , the Sixth Petition of the Our Father has a specific meaning. Instead of explaining the meaning, he wants to change the translation. The German bishops want to take Amoris Laetitia another step further and give communion to non-Catholics (I think they should start with Confession and then adjuration) who happen to be married to Catholics. The article from the National Catholic Register puts it well: After the meeting, the Holy See Press Office published a statement in Italian and German. The statement explains that “Pope Francis appreciates the ecumenical commitment of the German bishops and asks them to find, in a spirit of ecclesial communion, a result as unanimously as possible.” In other words, he refuses to resolve this disciplinary issue that is oh-so-closely connected to doctrine. The cre...

+ JMJ While on hiatus I was tempted several (dozen) times to find a key board and type about the latest bad news from the Vatican.  There has been plenty. What we (Traditional Catholics) have to remember is to be grateful for what we have received.  Even if modern Catholics persist in the belief that the SSPX can't possibly be right, that is their problem, do not make it yours! P^3 Courtesy SSPX.org: Tradition-only-possible-future-church Tradition as a pass to the future. Otherwise, the Church is destined to not have a future. Courtesy: Catholic Family New February 9, 2018  Il Giornale Interview  with Fr. Buzzi, priest of the Society of Saint Pius X Tradition represents the only possible future for the Church. Fr. Fausto Buzzi has clear ideas. A priest of the Society of Saint Pius X, founded by Marcel François Lefebvre on November 1, 1970, following the Second Vatican Council, Buzzi is today the assistant to the superior of Italy...

+ JMJ I'm back, still very busy ... but at least I'll be able to write some posts! P^3

+ JMJ In the years since Rome started to compromise its position and acquiesce to the SSPX's conditions, there's been a fair amount of vile words cast against the SSPX Superior General.   Not to mention against anyone who tried to be a voice of reason. The same thing can happen whenever someone holds a belief so strongly that they get violent when something or someone does not agree with their belief. When a person goes 'irrational' attempts to rationally discuss their belief results in them holding it even more and starts the cognitive dissonance death spiral (Fig 1). Since changing the belief would require an alteration in their behaviour, the 'irrational' person will resort to altering their perception of the belief. Fig 1: Cognitive Dissonance Model with Confirmation Bias Death Spiral Why is the confirmation bias a 'death spiral'?  Because a person who alters their perception of an action by resorting to confirmation bias is cu...