The Catholic Monitor

Pope Francis's new law for clerics to report to bishops clerical sex abuse and cover-up is being called "groundbreaking" by the media. I can't stop laughing. It's like saying it would be "groundbreaking" if the Mafia just made a rule in which low level Mafioso stool pigeons or police informants should report to Mafia bosses instead of the police. Abuse victim Peter Isely said it best: "Bishops reporting to themselves, that's been the problem from the beginning... What we need are police and prosecutors." (USA Today, "Don't send a 'bishop to the crime scene': Church sex abuse survivors blast Pope Francis' new law on reporting," May 10, 2019) Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church.

Open Letter critic Ed Feser in a recent post said the Open Letter was "rashly made." Moreover, he wrote Pope Francis only "seems to contradict traditional Catholic teaching on... capital punishment." Francis just said: "I have clearly stated that the death penalty is unacceptable, it is immoral." The renowned Catholic philosopher Feser has said: "To contradict this [capital punishment] is a doctrinal error, pure and simple." (EdFeser.blogspot, "Pope Francis and. capital punishment," August 3, 2018) It appears that Francis is saying that Feser is teaching and promoting the "immoral." Vocabulary.com defines the word: "Immorality is evil, sinful, or otherwise wrong behavior." Dictionary.com says synonyms for immoral are "bad, wicked... DEPRAVED... applies to one who seeks evil and viciousness." It appears that Francis is saying Feser is teaching and promoting sinfulness, depravity, "...

It is the Catholic Monitor's honor to post Catholic scholar James Larson's article. Larson is an American independent scholar who resembles the British independent scholar Christopher Dawson in depth of analysis and learning.  This is one of the best short essays anywhere on how to pray the Rosary and how to pray at all times by my friend Jim Larson. It is very much needed in our time of supreme crisis in the Church. We must first go to Jesus in prayer then go do our daily duty and then do what Our Lord is calling us to do in the Catholic Resistance in this greatest crisis in Church history. - "' Praying At All Times' 'Watch ye, therefore, praying at all times, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of man.” (Luke 21: 36)'" "Never in Christian history has it been more imperative that we pay heed to the scripture quoted above. Never have we more needed an escap...

In my opinion, the two intellectual giants in the Church in the United States are Ed Feser and Fr. Chad Rippinger. In philosophy Feser is the top mind while in spirituality and psychology Fr. Rippinger tops Feser.  Feser and Rippinger disagree on rather Catholics and Moslems worship the same "God." I am sure that their disagreement is as Feser says because he is talking about the issue in the "philosophy of language" and not about the Catholic and Moslem "deep disagreements about the nature of God." Despite that I would love to see a debate between the two on the subject. I have seen Feser totally destroy, with a devastating intellectual knock out Mark Shea (which is pretty easy), theologian Massimo Faggioli (a bit harder) and on YouTube win an impressive victory over a very intelligent Atheist. I feel like I am getting into the ring with Mike Tyson when he was knocking everyone out in the first round, but I think Feser is wrong on the...

Fr. George Rutler on Tweeter called out Jimmy Akins for his amateurish ""screed" against the "most distinguished theologian in the English-speaking world: [Open Letter signer] Father Aidan Nichols" for daring to call the renowned scholar "loopy" for signing the Open Letter. Dartmouth graduate Fr. Rutler who holds a Pontifical Doctorate in Sacred Theology from Rome, after saying the Open Letter is "considerable if not irrefutable," challenged Akins to debate Fr. Nichols at the renowned theologian's "alma mater, the University of Oxford" in Latin. I think Fr. Rutler is being unfair to the Akins. He doesn't have a chance. He'll be intellectually knocked out in the first minute of the debate. I suggest that it be a tag team match with four other collaborators of Akins who attacked Fr. Nichols. On one side at a podium will be the "most distinguished theologian in the English-speaking world" on the other si...

In this time of cowardice when so many false friends of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, of His Church and the Ten Commandments have been revealed. They have disclosed themselves by all their attacks on the 19 scholar heroes' Open Letter. In this time of cowardice it is good to look for a hero to guides us on how to respond to those promoting the destruction of the Church. That hero is St. Athanasius. I found comfort in a old 1919 book by F. A. Forbes titled "St. Athanasius." We in the rag-tag Catholic resistance have only one member of the Successors of the Apostoles that is the embodiment of Athanasius: Bishop René Gracida, but he is enough. As I read this book it showed me that we have not come close to the persecution that the Catholic heroes of the Arian crisis endured. Through it all Athanasius had "peace" and "joy... for Christ." So remember to always have peace and joy in Christ. Now please read the following excerpts of our hero ...