February 2013 - To Give a Defense

Mr. Maricle’s ontological error about Mary.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • February 14, 2013 • Apologetics; Exegesis; Marian Dogmas

Mr. Rho may choose to repeat his clichés and sophomoric talking points like vain repetitions that magically make Reformed theology true without the burden or logic or evidence or proof. However many times he chants “Mary is dead” over the beads in his hand, it does not change Jesus’s words in Mark 12:18 – 27. However many times he insists on mocking prayers to Mary, it does not change the fact that she is alive in heaven. The supernatural is a different category of being than the natural. Communication does not take place the same way.

Geneva’s defenders show true colors.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • February 11, 2013 • Anti Catholicism; Apologetics

It started out badly enough over at Beggars All. On that estimable resource of anti-Catholic snipe, Mr. Alan “Rhology” Maricle, who fools no one by his alias, wrote a post so shockingly dumb that real snipes hid their bills. Pro-life activity at an abortion mill was now to be used, not to defend the sanctity of life, but instead to bash unoffending Catholics for their “blasphemous” prayers. In response, I wrote a strongly-worded but still charitable post, in which I said, among other things, that Mr. Rho may have objected any other time.

Quinquagesima: “Love is alone the worthy law of love.”

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • February 10, 2013 • Liturgical Year

These are important thoughts to consider for the last Sunday before Lent begins: Not just “what will I give up?” but “how have I failed?” Over the forty days to come, I will spend some time in meditation on all the ways in which I have failed the law of love. For the practices of fasting and almsgiving are, at their heart, meant to direct us away from self-love and toward love of God and love of neighbor. On Ash Wednesday, when we receive the sign of the cross in ashes on our head, the priest says, “Remember, O man, that thou art dust, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

Anti-Catholic spectacle “Rhology” strains at the Ave and swallows abortion.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • February 7, 2013 • Anti Catholicism; Apologetics

Maybe Catholics are a curiosity in Norman, Oklahoma. But I confess I am surprised by Rhology’s seeming innocence whether they were praying the Rosary. The man is actively involved in apologetics contra the Catholic Church, so his being unable to positively identify the Rosary seems strange. It’s easily identified by the quotations from Luke 1:28 and Luke 1:42 – 43. Usually, Catholics are holding those funny little beads when they say it, making it the more recognizable. But Rhology is all innocent about such things.

Mr. John Bugay’s false understanding of infallibility.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • February 6, 2013 • Apologetics; Papal Infallibility

In a recent post, the polemical rogue Mr. John Bugay begins with a weird question. “Over at Old Life,” he says, “a commentater [sic] asked: ‘At what point are we free to conclude that a corrupt hierarchy points to a false church?’ ”Mr. Bugay finds the question very compelling, but I find it dumb beyond the power of words. (Don’t ever be told that there is no such thing as a dumb question. In fact, the world is infested with them, like gnats or tweets.) At what point are we free to conclude that a corrupt leadership points to a false country? Or that a bunch of inane posts points to a false blog?

Sexagesima: An examination of conscience.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • February 4, 2013 • Liturgical Year

I am struck with how often Christina Rossetti’s praise of earth, in her duo of poems for Sexagesima, is tempered by her understanding that it is not our real home. Here we have no continuing city. She calls it “The broad foundation of a holy place,” but it is not the “holy place” itself. It is, she explains, “Man’s step to scale the sky.” So earth is to be praised, not for what it is in itself, but for the fact that it is our path to something holier and better. It is only in that context that we can understand what Rossetti means when she refers to earth as “lovely.”