Jesus died for Fidel Castro. This should not be a controversy

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • November 28, 2016 • Apologetics; Exegesis

 

Or it should not be a con­tro­ver­sy for Catholics. I know that Calvin­ists say Christ died only for the Elect. (Though they also say we can’t know the iden­ti­ty of the Elect, and would amend my title to read, “Jesus May Have Died for Cas­tro, But We Don’t Know.”). Where­as, for Catholics (those who are right­ly cat­e­chized) if we can’t know whether Cas­tro is saved, we do know that Christ died for him. Christ died for him just as sure­ly as he died for Moth­er Tere­sa. We know this from Ezek. 18:23, 2 Cor. 5:15, 1 Tim. 2:4, 2 Pet. 3:9, and the Cat­e­chism of the Catholic Church.

Read more

How many times must Amoris Laetitia be clarified?

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • November 16, 2016 • Amoris Laetitia

 

I mean, real­ly, dear read­er, maybe I am a fool, but didn’t we have a clar­i­fi­ca­tion already from Car­di­nal Schon­born? I report­ed on this all the way back on May 1. If my math is cor­rect, that was two hun­dred days ago. Have peo­ple not been read­ing this blog? Lis­ten­ing to Schon­born? Back in April, the wery month the pope released Amor­is Laeti­tia, Car­di­nal Schon­born addressed “the ques­tion of this lit­tle foot­note.” That’s foot­note 351, if I may refresh your mem­o­ry, dear read­er, the smok­ing gun, the ele­phant in the cor­ner, the heresy in the Church, the pre­vail­ing of the gates of Hell …

Read more

Is criticizing priests forbidden to Catholics? In fact, we have a right to.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • November 15, 2016 • Church Scandals

 

This is not anoth­er post about Fr. Pavone. But it was dur­ing a dis­cus­sion of that top­ic on Face­book that some­one made the claim that Catholics are “not allowed” to crit­i­cize priests. I am going to lim­it myself, there­fore, to that spe­cif­ic claim. I do not, here, address the top­ic of whether crit­i­cism of priests is impru­dent. Nor do I dis­cuss the extent to which we must do so in char­i­ty, or pri­vate­ly, with respect for the office, and so on. I address only the claim that it is “not allowed.” As near as I can tell, this belief has its ori­gin in an unap­proved pri­vate rev­e­la­tion.

Read more

Where is the baby now? Fr. Frank Pavone’s words are inconsistent.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • November 14, 2016 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; Church Scandals; Politics; Pro-Life Issues

 

First, Fr. Frank Pavone said that the abort­ed baby he used as a prop in his pro­pa­gan­da film for Mr. Trump was “entrust­ed to us by a pathol­o­gist for bur­ial.” “We have had a funer­al,” he said on Face­book. Then, when the Nation­al Catholic Reporter fol­lowed up with this self­less man of God, Pavone said, “Oh, I’ve returned it to a Protes­tant pas­tor for bur­ial.” Now he says the funer­al direc­tor gave it to a Protes­tant pas­tor, who con­tact­ed Priests for Life and loaned them the corpse, but expect­ed it back for bur­ial. This poor baby keeps get­ting tossed around like a foot­ball.

Read more

How long has Fr. Frank Pavone had that fetus?

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • November 11, 2016 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; Church Scandals; Politics; Pro-Life Issues

 

A dead baby VERY SIMILAR to this one was put on pub­lic dis­play in Char­lotte before the 2012 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion. When asked what hap­pened to the baby’s remains after the “event,” which fea­tured the baby in an open cas­ket on the side­walk out­side a Catholic church … Fr. Pavone would not say any­thing oth­er than that he has a memo­r­i­al to the unborn in New York that his min­istry man­ages. The rea­son I note the sim­i­lar­i­ty … is that the bruis­ing and dis­col­oration are due to the effects of a saline abor­tion. …

Read more

But will Fr. Frank Pavone take instruction from his bishop?

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • November 10, 2016 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; Church Scandals; Politics; Pro-Life Issues

 

In a veiled swipe at this blog, Fr. Frank Pavone of Priests for Life petu­lant­ly stat­ed that he would “not take instruc­tion” from those who say (which I did) that his cute lit­tle stunt of turn­ing a fetus into a polit­i­cal prop for Don­ald Trump was a “sac­ri­lege.” We laity need to learn our place. How­ev­er, Fr. Pavone’s bish­op, the Most Rev. Patrick Zurek, has issued a state­ment of his own on this mat­ter, and I won­der whether Fr. Pavone will wish to “take instruc­tion” from him. Zurek’s words were stronger than mine. He called Fr. Pavone’s actions a “des­e­cra­tion of the altar.”

Read more

Our hope is in Christ, not Caesar.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • November 9, 2016 • Politics

 

Trump, with­out mean­ing it, could help to reac­quaint Amer­i­can Catholics with some impor­tant fun­da­men­tals. It would be a good if he were to con­vince Catholics who have thought oth­er­wise that the solu­tion to abor­tion must be a moral solu­tion rather than a polit­i­cal one. And it would be good if he were final­ly to con­vince Catholics who have thought oth­er­wise that we must put our hopes in Christ and not in Cae­sar. Cae­sar will always betray us; Christ nev­er will. Trump will be no ally to us; if you think oth­er­wise, he will dis­abuse you of that notion.

Read more

The evil of abortion does not justify Fr. Frank Pavone.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • November 8, 2016 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; Politics; Pro-Life Issues

 

Fr. Pavone, when you used the naked, burned, uncov­ered body of an abort­ed child, when you placed that child on a Catholic altar which is reserved to the cel­e­bra­tion of the Mass, and when you filmed a video so that peo­ple would vote for Mr. Trump, you did not  treat that child, made in the image of God, whose worth is beyond mea­sure, with “respect and char­i­ty.” If you claim you did, you do no hon­or to the Holy Spir­it. You do no hon­or to turn a tem­ple of the Holy Spir­it into a polit­i­cal prop. Who­ev­er does so com­mits a crime as great as abor­tion itself.

Read more

After sick political stunt, Fr. Pavone’s faculties should be suspended.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • November 7, 2016 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; Church Scandals; Pro-Life Issues

 

I am going to be, excuse the pun, frank: What Fr. Pavone did was a sac­ri­lege. It is a vio­la­tion of canon law, which states that the altar is con­se­crat­ed for one pur­pose and one pur­pose only. It is con­se­crat­ed for the Holy Sac­ri­fice of the Mass, not so that a dead child can be placed there as part of a polit­i­cal stunt to lob­by for a favored pres­i­den­tial can­di­date. More than that, what Fr. Pavone did is the oppo­site of pro-life. Being pro-life is about respect­ing the dig­ni­ty of the human per­son. It is the antithe­sis of respect for the dig­ni­ty of the human per­son to use a dead child as a polit­i­cal prop.

Read more

But is it the government’s job to ensure a just wage?

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • October 4, 2016 • Church Social Teaching; Politics

 

Some, putting up the armor of polit­i­cal the­o­ry against the teach­ing of the Church, will object that wages are a pri­vate con­tract. If a man thinks his wage is unjust, he can ask for a raise. Just like that! Or if his boss is a tight­wad, he can find anoth­er job. Just like that! Sim­ple. Boss­es and mag­nates nev­er exploit­ed labor in the good old US of A, before there were laws to pre­vent it! That just did not hap­pen. Not ever! But Leo XIII would find such think­ing naïve. “The labor­ing man,” he says, “is, as a rule, weak and unpro­tect­ed” and often a vic­tim of “usu­ri­ous deal­ing.”

Read more

Social justice is also a non-negotiable.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • October 3, 2016 • Church Social Teaching; Politics

 

Bot­tom line: The Church does not tell us how to vote. Often a can­di­date who sup­ports abor­tion is run­ning against a can­di­date who oppos­es social jus­tice. The Church does not tell us how to resolve this con­flict. What the Church does do is name the moral prin­ci­ples that should fac­tor in our vot­ing, and then leave it up to the individual’s own con­science and prayer. The one thing the Church tells us we must not do, on pain of mor­tal sin, is vote for a can­di­date because that can­di­date sup­ports abor­tion. Our motives can put us into mor­tal sin, but not our vote itself.

Read more

God defines marriage. To accept same-sex marriage is heresy.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • September 15, 2016 • Exegesis; Moral Theology

 

In order to deny that Church teach­ing on this mat­ter is a point of divine rev­e­la­tion, one would have to deny: that the words of Christ in Matt. 19:4 do not count as divine rev­e­la­tion; or, that Matt. 19:4 does not apply to the ques­tion of same-sex mar­riage. I don’t see how one could sus­tain either claim. Since Christ is God, what­ev­er he teach­es is, by def­i­n­i­tion, divine rev­e­la­tion. To claim that, though Christ is answer­ing a ques­tion about divorce, he is not stat­ing a prin­ci­ple that applies to any ques­tion about mar­riage, seems arbi­trary and unnec­es­sar­i­ly lim­it­ing.

Read more

Bishop DiLorenzo responds to Tim Kaine on same-sex marriage.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • September 14, 2016 • In the News; LGBT Issues; Moral Theology; Politics

 

Clear, brief, and no-non­sense. Though some, undoubt­ed­ly, will want to kvetch that DiLoren­zo does not men­tion Kaine by name, he does indi­cate that his words were prompt­ed by “recent state­ments from the cam­paign trail.” Kaine’s words had prompt­ed myself, as well as oth­ers, to call upon the bish­op to cor­rect the sen­a­tor. If Kaine wish­es to con­tin­ue his sup­port of same-sex mar­riage, let him do so, but let him do so as a dis­si­dent Catholic — not under the guise of a “devout” one. A devout Catholic does not pub­licly defy the teach­ing of the Church. End stop.

Read more

It is time for “devout Catholic” Tim Kaine to be publicly corrected.

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • September 11, 2016 • In the News; LGBT Issues; Moral Theology; Politics

 

Sen. Kaine, in remarks at the annu­al gala of the Human Rights campaign—McClatchy reports on it—said he believes the Church may even­tu­al­ly change its posi­tion on same-sex mar­riage. “I think it’s going to change,” Kaine says, “because my church also teach­es me about a cre­ator who, in the first chap­ter of Gen­e­sis, sur­veyed the entire world, includ­ing mankind, and said, ‘It is very good.’ ” So? What does that mean? I’m sor­ry, Sen. Kaine, but you are caus­ing con­fu­sion and scan­dal. God said “it is good,” but he also cre­at­ed them male and female for com­ple­men­tar­i­ty.

Read more

Muslims are “brothers and sisters in the faith of Abraham.”

BY: Henry Matthew Alt • September 9, 2016 • Blind Guides & False Prophets; Islam

 

This is not, or need not be, com­pli­cat­ed: Catholics, Protes­tants, the East­ern Ortho­dox, Jews, and Mus­lims all wor­ship the same god. The dif­fer­ence is in what they believe about him. But regard­less of what they believe about him, the god they wor­ship is the god of Abra­ham. Dr. Shabir Ally (he’s a Mus­lim schol­ar and apol­o­gist) does not wor­ship some dif­fer­ent divine fig­ure than Pope Fran­cis does. Now, the Church affirms all this in Nos­tra Aetate. Lumen Gen­tium says the same thing, as do Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Bene­dict XVI. Write them off if you can.

Read more