On Our Deep Need for the Creed –“Christianity without creeds, dogma and doctrine is sentimental nonsense.” The Crux of the Creed (National Catholic Register)
Canterbury Tales Too Christian – “Nottingham had attached the silly bulletin to a class on “Chaucer and His Contemporaries,” warning its charges that what they were about to study contained “incidences of violence, mental illness and expressions of Christian faith in the works of Chaucer … ” Overheard at the Tabard Inn (The New Criterion)
Canterbury Archbishop Resigns –“Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the most senior leader in the Church of England, has resigned over his handling of a child abuse case, according to his official account.”Archbishop of Canterbury resigns over handling of church child abuse case (CNN)
The Stumbling Synodal Church – “All parties found this to be a completely ‘innovative’ approach, but it seems that few have pointed out that this approach was rather problematic.” Did the Synod on “Synodality” End Smoothly? (平安抵岸全靠祂 [Cardinal Joseph Zen])
Voices Unheard – “Traditional Latin Mass communities are flourishing around the world with rising vocations and strong Mass attendance but their existence was ignored in the Synod on Synodality’s October assembly and final report.” Why Was the Synod So Silent on the Traditional Latin Mass? (National Catholic Register)
The Role of Peter – “All popes are called to the mission of the office, but how they live out that mission will be particular to the unique circumstances of history in which they serve.” John Paul II’s Vision for Vatican II (What We Need Now – Substack)
Political Gender Gap – “All through the election, women favored Kamala by large percentages, and men did likewise for Trump. This trend is all but certain to continue.” The Men vs. Women Election (Thomas D. Klingenstein)
Americans Say Otherwise – “The events of 2020 seemed epochal. Trump’s election exposed them as aberrant.” The Biden Error (National Review)
Response of Young Men – “On Tuesday, American men showed that they weren’t buying what the Harris-Walz campaign was selling.” Democrats’ Disastrous Gender Politics (Compact)
Canada’s MAID – “Ontario’s euthanasia regulators have tracked 428 cases of possible criminal violations — and not referred a single case to law enforcement, say leaked documents.” A Pattern of Noncompliance (The New Atlantis)
Catholic Trade Schools – “With a focus on both faith and practical skills, new Catholic colleges are providing an alternative to traditional liberal arts institutions.” Catholic Colleges Answer the Call for Skilled Tradesmen (National Catholic Register)
Encountering Utter Otherness – “The discovery of the Church’s liturgy was essentially important. I was struck by the sheer objectivity of the mystery celebrated, and relieved to find that there was a pedagogy of prayer laid out for me to follow.” We Need to Know Where We Are Going (What We Need Now – Substack)
(*The posting of any particular news item or essay is not an endorsement of the content and perspective of said news item or essay.)
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From Cardinal Zen we read: “[Pope Francis] wants to change the Church’s doctrines or disciplines each time rather than discuss how to safeguard these doctrines and disciplines.”
It is estimated that following the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325, some 80% of the bishops were Arian, such that St. Jerome later lamented: “The whole world groaned and was astonished to find itself Arian.” Today, following the Synod on Synodality, an astonishing 73% of the synodal bishops and interlopers (96 non-bishops who are not successors of the Apostles) approved fluid process-theology by failing to clearly resist a unisex priesthood with female deaconesses (reportedly the largest issue of dissent, but still only 27%).
Just in time to celebrate in 2025 the 1700th anniversary of Nicaea as more of a “facilitated” town hall meeting or focus group, than as a conciliar synod of bishops—each bishop “sent” by the incarnate Jesus Christ as an institutional and personally accountable guardian of the living Deposit of Faith. Nicaea: not amorphous inclusivity, but a clear rejection of Arianism—which would have reintroduced pluralist paganism into a polyhedral and (now) continentally-dismembered Mystical Body of Christ. So, this time around, how synodally “backwardist” can we get?
SUMMARY: “Synodality” = continental breakfast with scrambled eggs!
@ On Our Deep Need for the Creed
“To recite a creed — to make a common confession of faith that is already worked out and defined — just doesn’t fit with our desire to go our own way as individuals and to establish our own truth”.
Yes, though disbelievers hang on, and by “repeating those everlasting truths that they disbelieve become consummate liars” (synopsis of my comment on The endless Synod and the ongoing attack on Veritatis Splendor). This mindset of the now predominant nominal, quasi apostate Catholic is encapsulated by that article’s author Richard Spinello’s quote from the Synod, “Ethics is a matter of discerning the moral truth that is consistent with one’s lived experience, in ‘contextual fidelity’ to the Gospel” (Spinello exposing the lie submitted by key Synod study group 9). A repudiation of the teaching of John Paul II in Veritatis Splendor and his warning against making mitigation a separate category for moral judgment, the danger dissolution of sin, specifically intrinsic evil.
Additionally, the contested issue found in Dignitatis Humanae, Vat II document on religious freedom, written in context of religious rights and government authority, well authored by Jesuit Courtney Murray though lacking in the primacy of Catholic Christianity’s coercive feature regards truths we must believe example the Nicene Creed, the deposit of faith and its expression in apostolic tradition. This lacuna in an otherwise finely written defense of religious freedom was the springboard for the post Vat II upheaval of opposition to adherence to Church doctrine.
Carl Olson who essayed this NCReg article on the new book The Nicene Creed refers to the foundational significance of our credo citing ‘real’ councils Nicaea (325), Constantinople (381), and their confirmation by the Holy Spirit. He underscores the Creed’s “service” to Truth that is ultimately beyond the limits of human expression. That is to say, Jesus of Nazareth who alone reveals the Father. Jesus who is God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God. We have yet to find this in the documents submitted by the Synod. Instead we discover human expression that fades in the Light of the Creed.
With regard to the Political Gender Gap, the exit polls that I saw showed that by a small majority married women voted for Trump, but a large majority of single women voted for Harris.
A married/single gap vs. a gender gap?
Why must we believe when we may doubt what must be believed? Didn’t God give us free will and conscience?
Conscience is literally Con [with] scientia [knowledge]. To act with knowledge. Now there is only one, the singular most absolute truth as Aquinas says in the very beginning of the Summa Theologiae. That absolute truth is the existence of God. As Catholic Christians we believe that Jesus Christ reveals who the Father is. By his self revelation he reveals God the Father. Which is why we say in the credo that Jesus Christ is God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God. The issue for non believers is how do we know?
Elsewhere I’ve said that the revelation of God in Christ is the premier truth accessible to Man. That is why it must be believed. And it’s through the gift of faith that we believe that Jesus is truly the son of God. But faith is a gift. How is it then that the atheist, the doubter, is held gravely responsible for his unbelief? The reason is that every believer or doubter apprehends in Christ, in his words, his actions, his passion and death on the cross for love of Man the very essence of love, the very essence of the God the Father.
Whether one chooses to believe Jesus is the son of God, who reveals the essence of the Father is reliant on whether one assents to the gift of faith. Nevertheless, everyone perceives the expression of divine love in the person of Christ. Love itself then, whether we assent to its primary reality revealed to all in Christ, is the common denominator between believer and unbeliever, between heaven and hell.
Political Gender Gap at Thomas D. Klingensmith’s “The Men Versus Women Election”: Klingensmith’s Peechy Keenan author references “the election” as the time frame for the “trend”. A majority of women did favor Harris during the time of “the election;” however, that majority has steadily DECREASED over time since 1996. See summary chart at this comment’s end.
apnews.com/article/election-harris-trump-women-latinos-black-voters-0f3fbda3362f3dcfe41aa6b858f22d12
According to AP News: Biden won 55% of women, while 43% went for Trump [in 2020]. Trump won 46% of the female vote while Harris won only 53%. AP also notes that
Democratic candidates (male or female) have garnered the majority of the female vote since 1996.
The conclusion is not that women tend to favor women candidates but rather women tend to vote for the Democrat candidate. AP: “The majority of women have preferred the Democratic candidate in every presidential election since 1996.”
apnews.com/article/trump-harris-gender-gap-votecast-05672b6426cb5965c446ae2871d97eaf
Pew: “Women supported Clinton over Trump by 54% to 42%. This is about the same as the Democratic advantage among women in 2012 (55% Obama vs. 44% Romney) and 2008 (56% Obama vs. 43% McCain).”
Neither female nor Democratic candidates ought rely on a majority of the female vote since that majority has steadily decreased over at least the last 12 years.
Summary Chart:
2008 – 56% of women voters chose Obama
2012 – 55% of women voters chose Obama
2016 – 54% of women voters chose H. Clinton
2020 – 55% of women voters chose Biden
2024 – 53% of women voters chose Harris
Political Gender Gap at Thomas D. Klingensmith’s “The Men Versus Women Election”
Keenan opines: “what if I told you that the political gender gap in America was not strictly about gender? Well, for women, I think it is. Women have been conditioned to fear and distrust men, and many have had bad experiences with men in their own lives that they project onto any man who wants to “be in charge.” A female leader is emotionally more comforting, less scary. They’re seeking rule by Mother Hen, not by rooster.”
Keenan later suggests that she despised Harris’ candidacy. So did I, a woman. I saw her as more than empty; she was vapid, devoid, and all synonyms meaning the same or similar. OTOH, she was rabid in her choice of emotion (joy without reason or meaning) and in her choices to murder a babe in the womb. What woman of substance, what mother could in good conscience, vote for the empty mind and overblown-wind in a dark-colored pantsuit? She warrants prayer, not votes.
Women do NOT by nature fear or distrust men. Women in fact reign over men. They simply have desultorily given up the right to realize or to choose that.
Remember that Adam readily took bad fruit from Eve. Eve required the wiles of a serpent; would a woman have accepted bad fruit from Adam? Seriously…think on it.
meiron: You address these questions seriously with wisdom.
To be a touch more lighthearted, I’ll note that since my blood pressure has returned to normal post-election, like most everyone I know, we’ve had some amusement looking back on Harris’ insipidness now that it’s less worrisome. Go and enjoy the parody on YouTube entitled: Hitler calls Harris. It’s hysterical, especially when Harris gives the clear impression that she believes cloud computing means that there is some actual computer in the clouds, rather than a metaphorical term for a remote data service.
Catholic trade education is an interesting idea. I hope they don’t blow it by making it tuition cost prohibitive. I once volunteered to teach, uncompensated, basic electricity at a local prison where I was invited to have my “tenure” canceled for no greater reason than “getting religious.” I simply had the habit of pointing out the elegance of God’s design of balancing forces in atomic structure. Mentioning God was reason enough to get the boot.
@ The Role of Peter
“In John Paul’s theology, everything begins and ends with Christ” (Cdl Sarah). Remarkably, perhaps not, a cardinal from Guinea W Africa and a cardinal from Shanghai China are the two most consistent, articulate, outspoken antagonists for Christology in opposition to modernism, and the consequent dissolution of the role of Peter during this pontificate.
Anomalies abound. Example the continuous double messaging of pristine advocacy of Apostolic doctrine as well as the continuous mitigation of that same doctrine. If it were left to a doctor of psychology to devise a means of neutralizing a person’s convictions with conversion to the opposite all under the shroud of counterfeit orthodoxy, this duplicity would be a choice.
Reality points to Christology and the primacy of Christ. We may question how is it that those ordained, and by their office dedicated to defend the revelation of Christ drift away to a position of logical opposition? Logically speaking, a doctrine different from that preached by Christ stands in categorical opposition to what he revealed.
Answer is found in the nature of Christ’s self revelation as the son of God. That he is God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God. This knowledge is not the finding of reason, rather it’s gained directly by the apprehension of the intellect. Self evident knowledge containing its own, supreme intelligibility. As such it is the rule for reason. What is absent in this drift is the assent to grace, the gift of faith.
As a complement to my comment, the significant feature of one’s drift away from the apprehension by the intellect of Christ’s revelation, a supremely intelligible revelation of which all are aware, is a denial of what is revealed, in effect a denial of one’s own conscience.
Your review article at NCR was excellent Mr. Olson. I saw it too late. It should have stimulated a discussion with dozens of comments, especially during these times of a self-worshiping synodal Church.