On 31 January I appeared on Taylor Marshall’s show to speak on the much vexed question of St. Robert Bellarmine’s teaching in On the Roman Pontiff, book 2, ch. 30, as well as teaching from other works of St. Robert that make his teaching on this point rather clear. I read through the entire chapter, explaining the various points according to St. Robert’s ecclesiology, adding what he says in other works. Join us for a fantastic discussion on the topic:
Relevant citations:
On the Roman Pontiff, book 2, ch. 30; book 4, ch. 1-5; 22 On Councils, book 1 ch. 9; ch. 21.
Today, Phillip Campbell (aka Boniface) of Unam Sanctam Catholicam joins us to talk about the history of the Middle Ages, and why most people, traditional Catholics in particular, who have romantic notions of medieval life, would positively hate it. Not to dissuade one from study or admiring the Middle Ages, this conversation about medieval life is aimed at painting an accurate picture of it. Join us, as we dig into the nitty gritty of the middle ages.
**Warning**: [insert danger Will Robinson]
There are some points in the podcast where profanities are used demonstratively, as in medievals used the word in a title of this or that and we repeated it. Moreover there will be frank discussion of medieval views about sex and modesty and weird perverted things. There will also be cool medieval music in Latin about bawdy subjects which would could not understand probably. If that offends you, or you thought this would be good for your younger kids, we give fair warning, you will not be happy.
Alphonsus Liguori on whether it is licit to have sex in Church Instructions for Parish Priests by John Myrc (1400s)
Priests working secular occupations (barber/surgeon, lawyer), so common that Lateran II specifically forbid this in 1139
Jacques Fournier records people had sex inside the church (Béatrice de Planissoles)
-Source: Readings in Medieval History
Apostolic Origins of Clerical Celibacy, Cochini
Francis and Joseph Gies Life in a Medieval Village
Life in a Medieval City Limbourg Brothers
Mailoica Plate:
abortion and contraception in the middle ages
Origin of the heart shape is from seed-pod of a Roman contraceptive plant:
(NB: I made a mistake in the podcast, I called if fenellinium, it was actually called silphium, got it all mixed up in my head).
Catullus on Silphium:
“as the number of Libyan sands that lie in silphium-bearing Cyrene.” (Poem 7)
Today we are rejoined by Fr. Chad Ripperger, PhD, to talk about the abuse crisis in the Church in light of the revelations concerning former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the mass cover-ups carried out by bishops in Pennsylvania as revealed by the PA Grand Jury report, and the allegations against the Pope made by Archbishop Viganó. Instead of rehashing what has made the rounds on news, blogs and op-ed pieces, Fr. Ripperger discusses past Church legislation governing seminarians and clergy, and how the Vatican directed seminaries to deal with the problem of corrupt seminarians before Vatican II. He addresses the problem of homosexuality and the wider problem of a failure to keep chastity among seminarians, priests and bishops. Lastly, Father deals with the argument that everything is to blame on “clericalism” and shows that this is a veiled attack on the Catholic priesthood, and what the theology of the priesthood actually is. Not to be missed.
Today we joined Jonathon Ross of Holy Faith TV to speak about St. Robert Bellarmine and his place in the Counter-Reformation, his devotion to St. Thomas, his innovations in teaching theology at that time, the Galileo controversy and some final comments dealing with Sedevacantism.
I apologize for some of the audio; my connection wasn’t the best.
Today I was a guest on the Mike Church Show to talk about the myths surrounding Luther and the beginning of the “Reformation” and the Catholic reformers that began before Luther even appeared on the scene; so that Luther’s revolt was not due to abuses in the Church, but errors in theology that he embraced.
While we provide our particular interview free, there are hundreds of hours of great content to hear on the Mike Church Show and the Crusade Channel on the Veritas Radio Network! Please support them by subscribing to their podcasts.
Today we are joined by Eric Ybarra, a convert from Anglicanism to talk about the challenge presented by Eastern Orthodoxy. Eric lays out what exactly Eastern Orthodoxy is (Greek, Russian, Middle Eastern, etc.) and their many differences with the Catholic Church (contrary to popular belief, it is much more than simply the papacy and the filioque). Eric also offers us a penetrating analysis into the history of the Papacy in the first millennium and how the filioque is supported by Church Fathers.
Episode Notes
NB: Work in Progress. We will be adding reference links shortly.
On 23 March I was on Reconquest! with Br. Andre Marie, MICM of the St. Benedict Center in New Hampshire to talk about the life and holiness of St. Robert Bellarmine. The first segment is a summary by Brother André, and in the rest of the show I join him to talk about his life, his holiness, the life of churchmen in the 16th century, and how Bellarmine, being full of holiness and love for the poor, excelled as a cardinal and as a scholar.
NB: I am preparing to release volume 2 of On the Roman Pontiff, which contains books 3-5. I am currently taking pre-orders discounted $6 from what the retail price will be. If you would like to pre-order, you can do so here and I will notify you when it is ready to ship.
Today I was interviewed for the Mike Church Show in his series “The Modern Wrong World made Right”, where we discuss the Reformation and my translation of St. Robert Bellarmine. We begin with a discussion of the Reformation and the stage before Bellarmine gets on the scene, and the arguments in Books 1-3 of On the Roman Pontiff.
On Independence day we decided to celebrate in an entirely different way, with a re-examination of the American Revolution against Great Britain, the factors involved, and numerous details not found in your history books. Charles Coulombe, a writer, researcher and fellow pipe-smoker joins us to shed light on the inconvenient details of early American history hidden from your history books. NB: After the interview we discussed a matter which should have perhaps prefaced it: many people will be mad at this, especially if you are of tea-party persuasion. The charge of “treason” and “unpatriotic” behavior will be leveled, I’m sure. Patriotism, properly love of the land and countrymen, is a virtue, distinct from the thoughtless worship of the government. We both adhere to the former, as every good Catholic should since true patriotism is a virtue; while have nothing to do with the latter.
Today is the feast of the twin martyrs, St. John Fisher and St. Thomas More. There are books yet to be written on both, for all that have been written, but since so many more have been written on the latter I wish to write more on the former.
Now, in the first place, Fisher was a far greater theologian than St. Thomas More, who was a rhetorician and a lawyer, though no less devout a layman than Fisher was a bishop. Fisher established the seminary system in all but name, and made sure good preaching was the norm. This is rather an interesting thing. In the late Renaissance, patronage, which was designed to move ahead those who were worthy had become instead a way of rewarding friends and picking favorites. Men became pastors and bishops solely due to royal favor, and the Popes tended not to care because they received the first year’s income of that diocese, a sort of Church tax called the Annates. Suffice it to say the whole thing had gone very wrong in the fifteenth century, and now preaching was a rarity. Some Bishops did not preach a sermon in their lives. Many bishops lived elsewhere, and would attempt to have other dioceses consecrated under them, or when those had been exhausted abbeys, so they could live it up in Paris or Rome or some other large city, and appoint a vicar for low pay to administer his diocese. These often did not do so well, particularly since they were not paid for the job. At the time St. Charles Borromeo entered Milan as its Archbishop, there had not been a Bishop who actually resided in Milan for 125 years! Yet that holy reforming bishop had a portrait of two saints in his room, one of St. Ambrose, and the other of St. John Fisher.