March 2014 - To Give a Defense

The Catholic Men’s Bible: Devotional, call to holiness, and study Bible.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • March 24, 2014 • Book Review

Fr. Larry Richards, who is known for teaching Catholic men how to be men and Catholics, has come out with a study Bible (the NAB translation) specifically for men who want to live their faith more fully. If you belong to a men’s group at your parish, or if you just want to search more deeply for the holiness to which God has called you as a man, while making an analytical study of the Bible, this is the one you must own. In addition, spread throughout the text, are 88 mini-essays on topics of particular relevance to Catholic men. No. 27, for example, reminds men that family comes first.

Even my book reviews worry Protestants, and other quick takes: 7QT XVIII, seriatim.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • March 21, 2014 • Apologetics; Book Review; Seven Quick Takes

Some people think that comboxes are their blog. You know, like this guy. (I’m guessing it’s a guy; who knows; I could be wrong.) He was so out of sorts at my review of Devin Rose’s The Protestant’s Dilemma that he couldn’t wait long enough to start his own blog to respond, so he wrote a blog article in the combox at Free Republic. (He posted a link to it in my comments, which is the only reason I know of it.) Have you ever seen anyone attempt to refute a review, rather than the actual book? I’m not sure whether to write a review of the review of the review.

The Protestant’s Dilemma by Devin Rose: A review.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • March 18, 2014 • Apologetics; Book Review

If a Protestant looking into the claims of Catholicism were to ask me, “What one book should I read, where I can find a quick answer to any question I have?” I would tell him to read Devin Rose’s new book The Protestant’s Dilemma. I would also recommend this book to Protestant apologists, even those of many years, well-skilled in polemics. It will remind them of the heavy burden of proof they face, and the weakness of their position on point after point. The truth may set them free and bring them home too. (It has happened.) All this may seem like obligatory praise, but no.

A sovereign pope would do things my way, and other quick takes: 7QT XVII, seriatim.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • March 14, 2014 • Seven Quick Takes

Yesterday marked the pope’s first full year in office. Good job, Pope Francis. In one full year, the number of doctrines you changed was zero. Still, and no surprise, the fringe was out, hand-wringing and sniping. On one blog, I read that the pope we should have had would have been “a father and a sovereign.” But instead of a sovereign, we got a pope who obstinately decided to “do things his way.” That explains it. A sovereign never does things his way; he does things my way. I mean, who does this Francis think he is? The pope? The Jews wanted Messiah to be an earthly sovereign too.

Good Shepherd no different than Fisher More.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • March 11, 2014 • Church Scandals

If traditionally-minded Catholics have it in their mind that this is what a Novus Ordo parish is like, it is no surprise that they seek refuge in the Extraordinary Form. It is no surprise they have the passion they do. This is the kind of — excuse me for being blunt—crap that bishops need to stamp down, immediately and clearly and with no apology. The bishop should investigate, and discipline Deacon Sandy Sites, and ensure that no more outrages and abuses occur at Good Shepherd.

Why Latin Mass Onlyists are destroying the Latin Mass.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • March 6, 2014 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; Church Scandals

What is happening in the Catholic Church is that the Latin Mass is becoming the province of a faction of spiteful, spitting lobbyists. The Latin Mass is becoming associated with those who view Vatican II as an invalid council and think that people who attend the Novus Ordo are lesser Catholics; who act as though the Latin Mass somehow makes them better and superior and more holy, and their halo more sure, perhaps even complete. That (not the Latin Mass itself) is the “danger to your soul” to which Bp. Olson referred.

The fight between Mardi Gras and Lent.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • March 3, 2014 • Liturgical Year

Mardi Gras reminds us that feasts must be bought with fast; we are still here, and not yet there. Rightly understood, Mardi Gras is the day when families use up all eggs, fats, and butter in the home in preparation for Lent. The idea is, one does not want those materials to spoil and go to waste. That’s not really gluttony; that’s thrift. You get fat, or gras, not for the sake of fatness but to get rid of all that tempts discipline of will. Mardi Gras does not mean do your sin in public today, for tomorrow you will do it in private.