HENRY MATTHEW ALT

TO GIVE A DEFENSE

Month: June 2016

David Wanat calls the pope’s critics to task.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • June 30, 2016 • On Other Blogs

“I do not believe,” says David Wanat in an excel­lent arti­cle, “a per­son can with­hold loy­al­ty and respect to the Pope in small mat­ters with­out even­tu­al­ly becom­ing dis­loy­al and dis­re­spect­ful in great mat­ters. Our Lord warns us in Luke 16:10 … “ The per­son who is trust­wor­thy in very small mat­ters is also trust­wor­thy in great ones; and the per­son who is dis­hon­est in very small mat­ters is also dis­hon­est in great ones.” If we can’t trust a per­son to be respect­ful and loy­al to the Pope in small mat­ters, how can we trust him to be faith­ful in large mat­ters?”

An article by Steve Skojec I admire.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • • On Other Blogs

At Cri­sis in 2010, Steve Sko­jec sound­ed very dif­fer­ent than he does in 2016. Darth Vad­er used to be Anakin Sky­walk­er. “Con­dem­na­tions,” he said, “judg­ments, spe­cious argu­ments, and morose dis­po­si­tions do no favors for our cause, or its future. We’ve got some­thing great going on, and it’s about time we act­ed like it.” About time indeed. Is that the mis­sion of 1 Vad­er 5? Or is it a cri­tique of 1 Vad­er 5? Per­haps Sko­jec should read it again and let us know. It’s called “They will Know We Are Trad­dies By Our Love.” What hap­pened to him? Does any­one know?

Newman, St. Catherine, and Pius X: Three papalolators.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • • Apologetics; papacy

“What need I say more to mea­sure our own duty to it and to him who sits in it, than to say that in his admin­is­tra­tion of Christ’s king­dom, in his reli­gious acts, we must nev­er oppose his will, or dis­pute his word, or crit­i­cise his pol­i­cy, or shrink from his side? There are kings of the earth who have despot­ic author­i­ty, which their sub­jects obey indeed but dis­own in their hearts; but we must nev­er mur­mur at that absolute rule which the Sov­er­eign Pon­tiff has over us, because it is giv­en to him by Christ.” That’s Car­di­nal New­man.

Pope Francis corrects Pope Francis; will media correct media?

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • June 21, 2016 • False Report; Pope Francis

Here is a good rule of thumb. When some­one says, “I mis­spoke, here is what I meant to say”: Believe him. Mis­s­peak­ing is a known phe­nom­e­non. If you haven’t known about this phe­nom­e­non for some time, I don’t know what you know. Even popes can mis­s­peak. It’s true. I have checked, and rechecked, the dog­mat­ic def­i­n­i­tion of papal infal­li­bil­i­ty, and I find nowhere that the Holy Spir­it pro­tects the Roman Pon­tiff from mis­s­peak­ing. Check it your­self if you like, but do not waste too much of your time. That’s what I’m here for.

If thy lips cause thee to sin: More on premarital kissing.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • June 20, 2016 • Moral Theology

On Face­book, Joanne McPort­land quips that pre­mar­i­tal kiss­ing “is only a mor­tal sin if you like it.” Guess it’s off to Con­fes­sion for me, then. But what stands at the back of this sud­den fren­zy of scrupu­los­i­ty about kiss­ing before mar­riage is the idea that what con­sti­tutes a par­tic­u­lar occa­sion of sin for you some­how binds all Catholics. And yet, if some­one is addict­ed to pornog­ra­phy, the mere pos­ses­sion of a com­put­er might be an occa­sion of sin. But for anoth­er, who is not addict­ed to pornog­ra­phy, there is no occa­sion for sin.

Is premarital kissing a sin? and other quick takes: 7QT XXIII, seriatim.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • June 17, 2016 • Seven Quick Takes

Appar­ent­ly there’s a cri­sis of pre­mar­i­tal kiss­ing afoot, and Trad­dy blog­gers must call it out, or legions will end up in the Sec­ond Cir­cle. Or some­thing. I actu­al­ly guf­fawed, and loud­ly, when I saw this post over at ProLife365. “There Kuk­la goes again,” I said. “Stop­ping abor­tions by stop­ping kiss­ing first.” Then, on the Face­book dis­cus­sion, Mic­ah Mur­phy (who admits to scrupu­los­i­ty even about the poten­tial sex­u­al temp­ta­tions of hand-hold­ing, one of the most dan­ger­ous sins of this present age), direct­ed me to the always-cred­i­ble Dr. Tay­lor Mar­shall.

Still say the Orlando shooting was about radical Islam?

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • June 13, 2016 • In the News

The mur­ders in Orlan­do were born of hate; it does not mat­ter what reli­gion the hater belonged to. If a Chris­t­ian shot up the night club, I would not want Chris­tian­i­ty blamed. Despite Pas­tor Anderson’s rant, I don’t want Chris­tian­i­ty blamed. And if a Mus­lim shoots up the night club, I don’t want Islam blamed. What I want blamed is hate. It doesn’t mat­ter if the peo­ple who were killed were mis­er­able sin­ners. I am a mis­er­able sin­ner; you are a mis­er­able sin­ner; Stephen L. Ander­son is a mis­er­able sin­ner. Christ died for mis­er­able sin­ners because he loves mis­er­able sin­ners.

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