To Give a Defense

Everything you need to know about Ben Shapiro, in one tweet.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • May 12, 2019 • Debates; Media Personalities

Ben Shapiro, as you will have heard, was “destroyed” in an interview with BBC journalist Andrew Neil. Even Mr. Shapiro admits to his destruction, upon which he cried: “I’m popular and no one’s ever heard of you!” and ran away. (Embrace the argumentum ad populum.) If you’ve not heard about this, the gist of it is that Shapiro was first triggered by Neil’s description of the Georgia abortion law as “barbaric” and a “return to the Dark Ages”; and then, he grew increasingly petulant as Neil confronted him with his own tweets.

Heresy in the defense of Milo.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • November 5, 2018 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; Media Personalities

A debate has broken out following Patrick Coffin’s decision to invite Milo Yiannopoulos on his radio show. Coffin used to be at Catholic Answers; Milo is in a same-sex marriage but presents himself as a critic of Pope Francis and “homosexualist leaders” in the Church. There’s your irony for today. When he was Cardinal Bergoglio, Pope Francis said that same-sex marriage is a “machination of the father of lies.” Milo, who is in a same-sex marriage, says Pope Francis is not tough enough on homosexuality, and FaithfulCatholics™ swoon.

What Ratzinger and the CDF really said about voting for pro-choice candidates.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • October 21, 2018 • Politics; Pro-Life Issues

Death Site News is promoting the words of Fr. Mark Goring; he says that “The blood of these unborn children is on your hands if you vote for and support an aggressively pro-abortion politician.” This is false. The Church nowhere teaches that a person who votes for a pro-choice Democrat incurs the guilt of abortion. Now, in 2004, the CDF — with Cardinal Ratzinger as its prefect — put out a document entitled “Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion: General Principles.” In it, the CDF listed certain things required of Catholics.

Don’t call abortion a holocaust, says Pope Benedict XVI.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • October 20, 2018 • Pro-Life Issues

On Facebook there’s a funny little guy who runs around interrogating people on whether they agree with John Paul II that abortion is just like the Holocaust. He’s a self-appointed Inquisitor who seems to think that it’s not enough to accept Church teaching that abortion is a grave sin; you must also accept a particular metaphor, or historical comparison, one pope used to describe it. Even the metaphors are infallible on this topic. If you reject them, you’re a heretic, you’re not pro-life enough, you might even enjoy killing babies.

Pope Francis Derangement Syndrome Vol. XXI: Lavender Mafia edition.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • August 30, 2018 • Pope Francis Derangement Syndrome

Over at The Federalist you will find a long and rambling article by Dr. Paul Rahe, history professor at Hillsdale who once upon a time taught at Yale. Dr. Rahe goes on — and on, for nigh on 2500 words — in an attempt to tie together a bunch of disparate events scattered over sixty years. These, he tells us, prove that the sinister Lavender Mafia “controls the papacy and the Vatican overall.” That is a large thesis from such scattershot evidence. Would that I could refute it all in one blog post. But for now, I want to call your attention to this one claim.

If Pope Francis resigns, it will not be valid. The Church will have an antipope.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • August 28, 2018 • Canon Law

“If it happens,” the canon says, “that the Roman Pontiff resigns his office, it is required for validity that the resignation is made freely and properly manifested.” If the pope resigns under the pressure of a public campaign in the media, he does not act freely. Consequently the resignation is not valid. Consequently any one elected by a conclave is an antipope. Remember when a number of reactionaries claimed that Benedict XVI’s resignation was not valid because of private pressure? I do. Good times. Fake Site News was eager to promote these claims.

What is the sin of Sodom that cries to heaven for vengeance?

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • August 26, 2018 • Exegesis

“But Alt! Sodomy cries to heaven for vengeance!” I am told this by someone who seems to think I am a defender of gay sex, an LGBT apologist. This is utterly bizarre, for anyone who might bother to check an archive. But in spite of this my clear track record, people have called me all sorts of things this week. I am a “homophile” and a “homosplainer,” according to my stalker Deacon Jim “Sea Lion” Russell. According to others, I am part of the vile “Lavender Mafia.” I am a “wannabe Catholic.” I am “a liar with an agenda.” I think gay sex is good and gender fluid.

Clergy sexual assault is not about homosexuality; it is about power.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • August 19, 2018 • Church Scandals

Somewhere I read a plea that we not say “they sexually abused” or “they molested” or “they are pedophiles.” These are sanitary words of many syllables. “No! They fucked, they raped, they groped, they grabbed, they snatched.” Even my title is sanitary. Can we stipulate that what went on is rape, or at least the list of verbs that approach it? The Grand Jury Report describes a wide range of them. In my view, taxonomy — was this really rape? pedophilia is only pre-prepubescent, you know — is a distraction and fuzzes up the real point.

False prophet Fr. Frank Pavone advocates ends-justifies-means heresy.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • August 5, 2018 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; Politics

Pavone, who spends a great deal of time congratulating himself, tweeteth: “Would anyone who complained about what people like me did during the 2016 elections care to let the rest of us know which of Hillary‘s choices for Supreme Court you would have liked to see sitting on the bench or going through the confirmation process now?” He does not tell us what actions he has in mind when says “what people like me did.” Whatever it be, Pavone thinks we ought to be highly grateful for it, since it gave us Kavanaugh. Surely abortion will soon be stamped out.

Pope Francis Derangement Syndrome Vol. XX: Death Penalty Edition.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • August 5, 2018 • Pope Francis Derangement Syndrome; Pro-Life Issues

John Zmirak, who denies Catholic social teaching, is worried that Pope Francis is “falsifying Catholic teaching.” Raymond P.W. Arroyo can barely hide his insinuation and his calumny that Pope Francis’s change to the Catechism was somehow meant to distract attention from the sex abuse scandal (despite the pope having said the same thing last year). Then, the chronically confused Phil Lawler decides that, because he is confused, “the [whole] world [must also be] full of confusion.” Steve Skojec, however, is not confused. He’s certain that the pope is a heretic. And if Skojec’s certain, who dare question it?

Kwasniewski, Fr. Murray, Death Site News promote falsehoods on capital punishment.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • August 4, 2018 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; False Report; Pro-Life Issues

Fr. Murray is mystified: On Raymond P.W. Arroyo’s anti-Francis propaganda show The World Over, he says he has no idea why the pope would think the death penalty violates the dignity of the human person. Possibly Pope Francis might think so because Pope St. John Paul II had already said it himself. It’s in Evangelium Vitae. Perhaps Murray has read it; though, I begin to wonder whether he merely skimmed it for the parts about abortion. Whatever the case might be, JP2 explains to us why God protected Cain from the death penalty.

On death penalty, Roma locuta est, causa finita est.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • August 2, 2018 • Apologetics; Exegesis; Pro-Life Issues

Naturally, the usual suspects are screaming: CRISIS!!! Phil Lawler, worst known for his recent book calling the pope a “lost shepherd,” bemoans “another dose of confusion.” (If someone finds a Lawler article about the pope in which he doesn’t claim to be “confused,” let me know.) “Once again,” Mr. Lawler writes, “Pope Francis has given the world reason to believe that the teachings of the Catholic Church can and will change.” As though he has never heard of Newman and new wine can be forced into old wineskins, by gee by gosh by gum.

The singular “they”; and, anthropos in Matt. 13:44.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • August 1, 2018 • English Grammar; Exegesis

A weird discussion broke out on Facebook today; it involved a priest’s change to the reading of Matt. 13:44. The NAB reads: “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” The priest seems to have changed “sells all that he has” to “sells all that they have.” That was it, but that was enough for some to complain about “progressives” and “liberal feminism” conspiring against our pronouns. Nothing’s safe anymore, I tell you.

Infant baptism is not in the Bible! Answers to common objections V, seriatim.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • July 29, 2018 • Apologetics; Sacraments

Where is infant baptism in the Bible? You could, if you like, turn the question around; you might ask: “Where in the Bible does it say it must be in the Bible?” The doctrine of sola scriptura is not in the Bible; the objection that such-and-such a practice is not found in the Bible is thus a moot point. If one is going to object, it must be on some other basis; unless, that is, one can find the Bible expressly forbidding the practice. We need not go that route, though. Leave sola scriptura for another time; infant baptism is in the Bible.