Restoring a Culture of Life – “The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) issued a statement Jan. 26 expressing gratitude for recent pro-life actions taken by President Donald Trump, including an executive order and a memorandum aimed at ending taxpayer-funded abortion.” USCCB applauds Trump administration’s pro-life actions (CatholicVote)
Roger Scruton – “The English philosopher and man of letters dared to criticize multicultural pieties and to express gratitude for a free and decent way of life under threat from “armed doctrine” abroad … and the proponents of oikophobia or self-loathing at home. Roger Scruton’s The Disappeared, Revisited (First Things)
The Strange Papal Autobiography – “It is a strange autobiography, the latest one packaged by Jorge Mario Bergoglio, with a big publicity launch all over the world.” Francis’s Autobiography Is Out for Sale. Much Ado About Nothing (Diakonos.be)
Vienna’s Cardinal Schönborn – “As Cardinal Christoph Schönborn celebrated his 80th birthday Wednesday, Pope Francis accepted his resignation as Archbishop of Vienna, Austria, as expected.” After noteworthy career, Cardinal Schönborn exits (The Pillar)
The ERA Declaration – In his last few weeks of hyperactivity before leaving the White House, Joe Biden issued one particularly bizarre statement, declaring—in a post on X (Twitter)—that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is now the law of the land. No, the ERA is not part of the Constitution. But why not? (Catholic Culture)
Leftist Religious Activists – “Washington Episcopal “Bishop” Mariann Edgar Budde’s ‘lectored’ a captive Donald Trump and J.D. Vance during her National Cathedral sermon … ” Privileged Lectors (New Oxford Review)
Spirit of a Free People – “More than a few commentators have noted, not without justification, that Trump’s address on the 20th of January 2025 at times resembled a State of the Union Address more than a classic inaugural one.” Trump’s Reach for Greatness (The American Mind)
Birthright Citizenship – “One of the most controversial of the executive orders signed by President Donald Trump in the hours after being sworn in was his order on birthright citizenship.” Debunking 4 Big Errors Made in Lawsuit to Stop Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Order (The Daily Signal)
The Problem With Queer – “The late British writer Quentin Crisp, despite being one of the first openly homosexual men in England, was lambasted as ‘homophobic’ and ‘misogynistic’ for his self-deprecatory quips about the ‘perversity’ of homosexuality.” The Impossible Object of Queer Desire (First Things)
The Office of St. Peter – “The biblical basis for papal primacy is grounded in the Davidic kingdom. King David and his successors ruled with the assistance of twelve other ministers (cf. 1 Kings 4:1ff).” The Peculiarity of Papal Primacy (What We Need Now – Substack)
Fear of the Lord – “While many Catholics are unhappy about the fact that Mel used Rogan’s huge platform to air grievances about the corruption in the Church, I want to highlight something positive I see in Mel Gibson; a trait he possesses that seems to be lost on the majority of humanity: fear of the Lord.” Mel Gibson, Old School Sinner (Crisis Magazine)
(*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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@ The Office of St. Peter
We read: “The biblical basis for papal primacy is grounded in the Davidic kingdom. King David and his successors ruled with the assistance of twelve other ministers (cf. 1 Kings 4:1ff).”
Informative article, but slightly unfortunate wording in this opening. The primacy is only foreshadowed in the past Dravidic kingdom, but not “grounded in.” Yes? Instead, the grounding is uniquely from the hands of the mysterious Incarnation of the divine directly into human history—as the center of all universal human history…
Two quotes and a concluding reflection:
Giussani quotes Mircea Eliade: “To accept the possibility of the Absolute becoming incarnate in a historical person [!] is at the same time to recognize the validity of the universal dialectic of the sacred; in other words, it is to recognize that the countless pre-Christian generations were not victims of an illusion when they proclaimed the presence of the sacred, i.e., of the divine, in the objects and rhythms of the cosmos” (Giussani, “At the Origin of the Christian Claim,” 1998; citing Eliade: “A History of Religious Ideas”).
Also, “This science [Christology] is neither deductive nor a priori. It is an inductive science which developed from an event [!], from an objective fact, from a first-hand experience noted down and written in the documents collated in that small library called the Books of the New Testament” (citing one C. Tresmontant, “Problems du christianisme,” 1980).
Isn’t it better to say that the uniquely Chosen People and the past King David and his twelve other ministers are “grounded in” (anticipate and foreshadow) the alarming and New Testament coming of Christ, and then His commissioning of Peter (cited: Mt. 16:18-19) and the twelve Apostles (Mt 28:19)? The sequential periodization of history is inadequate.
Regarding -https://catholicvote.org/usccb-applauds-trump-administrations-pro-life-actions:
I looked at the article on the USCCB website. I did not see Trump’s name mentioned, just the administration.
Bishop Thomas also had a statement lamenting that the senate did not pass the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. He did not mention that it was the democrats who blocked it from getting the 60 point threshold.
The bishops seem to have no problem mentioning Trump’s name when complaining about his immigration actions.
Am I being picky, or is there a double standard?
@ Fear of the Lord
There is something about Mel Gibson that is universally appealing—his obvious gift for storytelling, his slightly unhinged energy, and a raw authenticity when he speaks all converge to create an incredibly dynamic and compelling profile (Patrick Giroux).
Within the wide drift of our human psyche, that is the lot of us, filled with complexities none of us can exactly put a finger on, we have Mel Gibson, actor, sinner, fervent Catholic. How so such contradiction? I suppose being theatrical, a performer personality assuming varied roles, a fervent, old school believer, divorcee, philanderer who made the greatest film presentation of the passion of Christ fits in. What would Freud say?
Seemingly, he’s playing different roles because he finds justification for himself in each, a kind of Renaissance dissociative identity disordered artist. The good thing is his idea of religion, the integrity of doctrine is refreshing, valuable especially during this day of mitigation ethics and self promoting, autobiographical pontiffs. Mel Gibson similarly has the world as his audience, although with a better message through his art. Who are we to judge?
@ Fear of the Lord
Lest anyone take my humor too seriously my prayers are for all of us sinners.
I think Mel Gibson is in an irrational tangle because of particular sin which he over-compensates for through a very strong clinging to the now-matured super-organizing of his artistic vision.
If I may make such a suggestion about it. That would mean he is in a very bad place where divorce and throwing off responsibility plus a succession of women and outside children; all converge to provide narcotic and super-charging effects to add to the sensational.
Who am I to judge!
If you enjoyed the flim clip about Capt. Sully I provided earlier today in the AI/Vatican Dicastery news report, here is another one also true and just as dramatic involving the high skill of Capt. Dardano.
Look carefully, the Capt. is praying to the Father and there is a witness to the cross by the Navigator.
Miraculous Plane Landing on New Orleans Levee
Smithsonian Channel
Apr 10, 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14DyBpYzwP4
Re #6 – Leftist Religious Activists
Articulate rebuttal to Budde speech – Theweeflea.com, Jan. 25 – Speaking truth to power – letter to Bishop Budde