Regular Contributions

Defensor Civitatis

I am going to be polemical. You are forewarned. There is a fundamental aspect of the debate over so-called same-sex marriage that needs to be understood: most people in the cities and towns of Minnesota and across the United States are not eager nor clamoring for the legal recognition of two homosexuals to form a…

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Take a Stand

I finally watched For Greater Glory — a little late, I know — about the persecution of the Church in Mexico in the 1920s. The Cristeros joined the cause for freedom for various reasons, plunder, prestige, faith, but in the end they stood for something even to death. It was a moving testament which gave…

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The Secret Power of Saturdays, Difficult to obtain Today

Saturday is dedicated to Our Blessed Mother Mary. Don’t take my word for it, Pope John XXII, (take care to note those numerals) in his Sabbatine Bull (Sacratissimo uti culmine), declared it to be so. The Holy Roman Inquisition said so in a decree ratified by Pope Paul V on Jan 20, 1618, and we…

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All Souls Day – One key to a clean heart – The Beginning of Memento Mori

Praying for the dead was ordered by the apostles, according to St. John Chrysostom. But how can praying for dead help us? Why do it when they are out of sight, out of mind? Are there special persons for whom we should pray today?

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All Saints Day: X-files, B-list, and now Dog Faced Saints

Is there a day to venerate the dog faced saints? You bet! and all the other ones nobody is sure about, too.

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Halloween? Are some merely putting lipstick on a pig?

Are parents who insist their children dress as saints but yet send them out to trick or treat just putting lipstick on a pig? The Polish bishops might say so. See what they say about Halloween.

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From Under the Rubble…Progress, Progressives, and Perversion

Progress, Progressives, and Perversion “I Am Who Am” (Exodus 3:14) Last week’s Rubble examined change. Heraclitus feared it and longed for the unchanging logos. Only with the Incarnation did the logos get a name: Jesus Christ, the Alpha and the Omega, “first, last, and always.” In contrast to Christian philosophy, the heady hedonism of the…

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From Under the Rubble…Change You Can Believe In

Change You Can Believe In “The old order changeth, yielding place to new, And God fulfils himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.” Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Idylls of the King These are dark days for Christendom. The “old order changeth” indeed. Today the Rubble looks at one side of “change”;…

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a red rose

Theology of the Body in One Paragraph (Unabridged version)

Can Theology of the Body be expressed in one paragraph? You bet! A surprising revelation about Theology of the Body and a concise but yet fuller explanation of how to maintain chastity.

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