Outside The Asylum

St. John Paul The Great, in Veritas Splendor wrote: It is possible that the evil done as the result of invincible ignorance or a non-culpable error of judgment may not be imputable to the agent; but even in this case it does not cease to be an evil, a disorder in relation to the truth about the good. Furthermore, a good act which is not recognized as such does not contribute to the moral growth of the person who performs it; it does not perfect him and it does not help to dispose him for the supreme good. Thus, before feeling easily justified in the name of our conscience, we should reflect on the words of the Psalm: “Who can discern his errors? Clear me from hidden faults” (Ps 19:12) (#63). This to me is what is missing in the omission of repentance from Amoris Laetitia.  It does not matter if there was less culpability.  It does not matter if those divorced and remarried did not know that divorce and remarriage is always harmful.  Even the Forgiveness of Christ, d...

Fr. Don Calloway is on fire for the Rosary and for our Lady, and told us some neat stories.  His book Champions of the Rosary  sounds like it's worth getting to get Christopher fired up to using God's Lightsaber. Need to look up this theory that Q, the missing source of the Synoptic Gospels, may have been interviews with St. Mary. Satan is scared of a booming voice- a man should always pray loudly and without fear. Truth and Repentance are necessary parts of Mercy.  Without them, Mercy becomes merely pardon, and forgiveness will only affect the life of the person doing the forgiving.  So says the Pope's own Ambassador of Mercy, and so I'm right in my interpretation of Amoris Laetitia. To avoid online pornography, try praying bfore logging in, every time. Smoking pot shrinks your brain.    Or maybe a shrunken brain causes you to be stupid enough to smoke pot.   Prayer can help you grow your brain and avoid dementia. St. Joseph was asleep eve...

In a post trying to explain the pastoral nature of Pope Francis, we find : Imagine a businessman who owns a chain of department stores that specialises in affordable clothing. He is a practicing Catholic, and he wants to grow in his faith, but he is in clear breach of the Church’s moral law in one respect. All of his garment manufacture is done in a sweatshop in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where he is the only client, and the conditions there are egregiously bad. The workers put in six and a half days a week and are paid a pittance; they effectively live in the factory, eating, washing and even sleeping there, hardly ever getting back to their families and villages; the building is structurally unsound and poorly wired, making it a health hazard of the very worst kind; and there are lots of ten- and eleven-year-old children working there – the same long hours as the adult folk and without any education, playtime, healthcare or family life. It is a hell. It offends against every notion of huma...

Monsignor Charles Pope comes down squarely between Group 2 and Group 3. Too bad, in the words of Crux Magazine, he's too late. Catholic Teaching on Marriage and Communion is Unambiguous | ncregister.com : 'via Blog this'

This was originally a response on Public Catholic to the question, what changed to make you feel unworthy of the Mercy of God? This is long. Because it is very complex and over a year of thinking that has led me to this point. It started, really, when I noticed that in his fight against Clericalism, Pope Francis was throwing out the baby with the bathwater- that many fine clerics were being censored, while clerics accused of clerical abuse were being promoted. That, in and of itself, was not enough,but it is what started me thinking this way. At first, I even looked on it as a big positive- Pope Francis's concentration on mercy for the marginalized, has been an awesome thing to watch, pulling people into that church. And certainly, promoting the accused clerics and demoting the faithful clerics, fit within that narrative. But then came Cardinal Kasper and his ilk. Promoting divorce and remarriage as something holier, something more deserving of mercy, than any other sin. ...

Next week I get to go to the Holy Name Society Men's Conference in Salem.  In preparation for my confession, and in an attempt to bring some organization to my despair, here is my problem with the Year of Mercy- that never got resolved, but may have a very simple solution indeed. The problem, as I see it, is I'm educated enough to know that there are four competing definitions of mercy in this world, that they are mutually exclusive, and that they can be described as four mutually incompatible religions. Unitarian Secular Humanism- Mercy is reduction of human suffering.  By any means.  In the atheist extreme, this leads to euthanasia and abortion- killing the suffering person to reduce human suffering overall. Hindu Karma- Human suffering is caused by needing to learn a lesson, so the most merciful action is to allow the lesson to continue and do nothing.  Eventually, the soul will start to learn (in this life or 10,000 lives down the road) how to avoid sufferin...