Catholicism.org introduction: This is classical apologetics from a real American Apostle of the Catholic Faith. Readers can learn more about Father Damen here: A missionary in Chicago: Fr. Arnold Damen S.J. by Cardinal Francis George, O.M.I.
Category: Articles
Saint Maximus the Confessor, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and Christ’s Two Wills
St. Maximus, the monastic mystic and eminent controversialist of orthodoxy against the Monothelites, earned his title “the Confessor” because he died in exile for his heroic confession. In his defense of the orthodox faith against an heretical emperor and supine … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
Grace and the “Problem” of Man’s Desire for God
This problem is important in establishing the relationship of nature to grace because it offers something of a “test case” by which we can illustrate certain fundamental truths of the Catholic Faith. These truths regard man’s natural powers and the … Continue reading
Christ’s Theandric Role in our Sanctification
Here is the assignment: “The Church teaches that Christ is truly human and truly divine. Comment on the significance of each of the aspects of the mystery of Christ with regard to our sanctification and our salvation.” The title I … Continue reading
J.R.R. Tolkien and the Eucharist
It is well known that J.R.R. Tolkien, the celebrated fantasy writer who gave us The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was a Catholic. He was not a writer who just happened to be also a Catholic; he was … Continue reading
Ensoulment Theories and the Abortion Debate
“Ensoulment” is the word which describes the point at which the body of the conceptus is said to be informed by a human soul. (The notion of a living being having “no soul” is a philosophical oxymoron, since the soul … Continue reading
The Principle of Totality
On September 14, 1952, Pope Pius XII gave an address to the First International Congress on the Histopathology of the Nervous System. On that occasion, the Holy Father discussed the Principle of Totality at length and in the contrasting terms … Continue reading
How the Popes and Other Catholic Leaders in the 19th Century Responded to Modernity
The eighteenth-century Enlightenment mounted a severe offensive against the Church, one which combined various malignant cultural and intellectual trends that had gradually come into ascendancy since the Renaissance. “For the most part, the Church did not respond to this attack … Continue reading
The Relationship of Americanism to Modernism
It would be a gross oversimplification to put an equal sign between the words “Americanism” and “Modernism,” as if the former were merely the American embodiment of the latter. However, while we must avoid this facile identification of the two, … Continue reading
What did St. Pius X mean when he called Modernism “the synthesis of all heresies”?
This phrase – “the synthesis of all heresies” – shows up toward the end of the Encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis, placed in the context of a rhetorical question.[1] After an apology for taking so long to explore the entire scope … Continue reading
How the Renaissance Papacy contributed to the Reformation
The Catholic historian, A. Dufourcq, called the papacy of 1447 to 1527, la papauté princière, “the papacy of princes.”[1] This trenchant appellation conveys Fr. Maurice Sheehan’s meaning when he says “these popes were more men of culture or rulers than … Continue reading
Apostle of the Infinite: The Life of Saint Vincent Pallotti
Nineteenth century Rome was not the uneventful place one may imagine. Rome of the 1800s saw Mazzini, Garibaldi, and their Masonic cohorts dare to assault the Vicar of Christ and send him into exile. It saw fickle mobs capable of … Continue reading
The Relationship between the Virtues and the Gifts of the Holy Ghost
The gifts of the Holy Ghost resemble the infused virtues in a number of ways. Both are operative habits which have God as their efficient cause and the perfection of man as their final cause. Both reside in the human … Continue reading
Catholics, Non-Catholics, and the Natural Law
Given the general decline in public morals, and given the fact that, as an institution, the major promoter of the natural law is the Catholic Church, some are led to conclude that the natural law is a “Catholic thing,” or … Continue reading
