Tag Archives: Catechism of the Catholic Church
Ed Rogers Skeptical on Obama’s SS Marriage ‘Evolution’
The President says that his thinking about same-sex “marriage” has evolved. Writing for the WaPo, Ed Rogers suspects a cynical political motive: Reality check: Obama manipulated gay voters, kept them at a distance and hoped they would settle for the occasional wink and a nod. But he has found himself in a campaign with dwindling enthusiasm and a narrowing electoral map; he needs this group’s … More →
The Law of Causality and Sola Scriptura
I do not expect that the following argument is going to win a Protestant to the Catholic Faith. I have learned from St. Thomas Aquinas that reason has its limits in persuasion, and when reason reaches the wall, Grace is what pulls it over. My reasoning here is akin to the reasoning to God’s existence, namely, that it offers a proof that will not necessarily … More →
Natural Law and the Church’s Necessity
When you see an article with a title like, Do You Renounce Kennedy and All His Works?, you can have a moral certitude that it was written by John Zmirak, the eccentric, Croatian-Irish, working-class Yalie turned standup apologist. (I was an undergrad at LSU when John was getting his Ph.D. there, and I owe him a lot for exposing me to, among other things, the … More →
Perverts Plan to Dishonor Holy Father
Rainbow Sash Movement Plots Papal Protest Gay advocacy group to throw ashes and blow whistles at pope during April US visit By Michael Baggot March 11, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Rainbow Sash Movement, a homosexual activist group, announced their plans to protest Pope Benedict XVI’s opposition to homosexual behavior during his April visit to the United States. The RSM plans to throw ashes at the … More →
The Lesser of Two Evils
In the movie “Master and Commander,” Rear Admiral Sir John Aubrey (played by Russell Crowe) pretends to ask one of his officers a difficult question. He inquires which of two weevils that have appeared on the ship’s table would be the proper weevil to choose.
Catholics, Protestants, Grace, and the Spiritual Life
This paper answers the following question: Given what Catholics believe about grace, merit and justification, why is it much more logical for Catholics to have treatises on progress in the practice of the presence of God and growth in mystical prayer than Protestants? To answer this question, we must first contrast the two positions on grace, merit, and justification. We begin by asking the question, … More →
The Four Kinds of Magisterial Statement and the Various Responses Catholics Owe to Each
A much more in depth treatment of this subject is found in our “The Three Levels of Magisterial Teaching.” The discrepancy in numbering the levels (three vs. four) is explained by the fact that some theologians, apparently following Cardinal Avery Dulles (The Craft of Theology: from Symbol to System), have created a fourth category that is not in the magisterial documents which outline these different … More →
The Four Senses of Scripture
There are two basic senses of Holy Scripture: the literal (or historical) and the spiritual. The spiritual sense is further divided into the allegorical, the tropological (or moral), and the anagogical.
Vatican II and the Levels of Magisterial Teaching
This is another offering from the larger work from which I earlier excerpted “The Three Levels of Magisterial Teaching.” As I said concerning that entry, this is a work in progress, being a section of a larger study on the various levels of magisterial teaching, the assent due to each, and where Vatican II fits into these categories.
The Three Levels of Magisterial Teaching
Introduction: This is a work in progress. It is a section of a larger work on the various levels of magisterial teaching, the assent due to each, and where Vatican II fits into these categories. According to standards presently employed by the Holy See and codified in Canon Law, there are three kinds of magisterial statement, three levels of authoritative teaching which establish the “the … More →
