Disappearance of Confession – “A new book charts the rise and fall—and perhaps disappearance—of Catholic confession.” How Many Hail Marys for a Lost Sacrament? (ARC)
Liberal Protestantism, R.I.P. – “Mainline Protestantism lost interest in the transcendent truths of Christianity and married the spirit of the age generations ago.” The Death of Mainline Protestantism (First Things)
What Is Truth? – “Perhaps the most damning indictment of Pontius Pilate in the Gospels is that, with Truth Himself standing before Him, he is blind to the truth.” What is Truth? The Tragicomedy of Mike Lewis’ theology of the Magisterium (Fr. Edward’s Substack)
Souls and AI – “There’s no such thing as ‘the ethics of AI,’ because there are different types of AI, and differing visions of the use of AI.” Some Ethics of Some AI (The Catholic Thing)
Into the Deep – “Forget what you know about yourself and your craft, Jesus seems to ask. ‘Put out into the deep.’” Communion Ecclesiology & Orthodox Theology (JSC – Substack)
Remembering Jane Greer – “I met her on Twitter. At first I only knew her through some shared poems. I loved her work, and I followed her so I could study after a living poet working in forms and styles I wanted to master myself.” My Diary of Jane (The Abbey of Curiosity)
AI Chatbot Prayers – “Can artificial intelligence pray? Tech entrepreneur Yossi Tsuria wanted to find out. He asked the AI chatbot to generate a prayer.” God in the machine? People use chatbots as spiritual advisers. (The Christian Science Monitor)
Restoring Rosera – “Archbishop John Wester, the local ordinary for the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, NM, reinstated the faculties of a priest who spent ten years in San Francisco as a registered ‘domestic partner’ to another man.” New Mexico Archbishop Reinstated, Promoted, and Lives with Priest who Spent 10 Years in Registered Homosexual Relationship (Lepanto Institute)
Catholic Homesteading Documentary – “Catholic families discuss how homesteading strengthens their families and allows for a more contemplative and virtue-building life.” EWTN series ‘On Good Soil’ explores how homesteading connects us to nature, family, and God (LifeSite News)
Put Catholicism First – “Young men: it’s time to step up. Don’t make excuses, don’t be a victim, and don’t let our feminized and destructive culture shape your life.” My Advice to Catholic Young Men (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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Re #2 Liberal Protestantism R.I.P.
I’m getting increasingly frustrated with First Things’ habit of giving you three paragraphs and then blocking the rest of the article unless you pay up. I can’t afford to support umpteen publications and am pretty well ditching FT.
Did the link here not give access to the entire article? The article is short—10-11 paragraphs. I got the entire article from clicking on CWRF’s Red Ink Link. Or you could try: https://firstthings.com/the-death-of-mainline-protestantism/
In defense of subscription fees, the publishing business does need money to operate. FT’s fee used to be $40/year, which I always found fundable for their consistently high quality product, variety of viewpoints, distinguished writer-scholars, and basic human cultural commentary from ethical J-C perspectives. What’s the fee today?
The film “Hail Caesar” was one of the most Catholic movies I’ve watched in the past couple decades. I highly recommend it.
If anyone has attended a TLM they’d see that Confession is very much alive and well. There’s a long line every Sunday.
Our NO Mass has a number of folks waiting for Confession, too.
I’m of the same observation, mrscracker. As an usher at my beloved Saint Patrick TLM in New Orleans I have to cut the line off (not allow anyone else to get in line) at 9:25 am. per the visiting priest’s direction. There is ALWAYS a long line for Confession before that mass.
I didn’t know that St. Patrick’s offered a TLM. Thank you for sharing that.
I remember visiting NOLA & being told the story about St. Patrick’s steeple being built taller than the cathedral’s on purpose because the poor Irish wanted to make a statement to the French Creole upper class. Not sure if that’s true but it’s what we were told.
Ditto re confession alive and well at my TLM-parish (FSSP personal Seattle diocesan parish). Also observed is the higher ratio of men in confessional lines. Also at the TLM I’ve heard homilies on the value of regular frequent confession. I do not recall EVER hearing a priest speak to confession’s benefit at an NO parish. But I have found priests in both parishes to be equally good at offering consolation, advice, insight, direction, and absolution. So there is that, and Praise Be Jesus Christ for it.
This story about Rosera and Wester in NM (I refuse to call them “father” and “bishop”) tells me all I need to know and long-suspected about Wester. Everything that comes out of his mouth flows from there.
@ Restoring Rosera
Restoration of Sodomy in pagan Rome is better said – if having learned of Archbishop Wester’s affair with proudly gay, restored to priest faculties [Rev] Steve Rosera – our pontiff Leo XIV [hopefully will not] neglect what canon law, the very sanctity of the Church requires.
They’re a number of similar cases. An harmonious unity under the present conditions is a sham. More convinced than ever our Church must be interiorly cleansed of this growing abomination within its ranks. Otherwise we’re begging Christ’s, perhaps painful intervention.
@ Disappearance of Confession
Schmitz does not cursorily begin his essay placing the confession debacle as most do during Vat II. His 50’s time frame is correct. Pius XII was greatly concerned at the time, Mass attendance linked to confessional absence had plummeted to 50%.
Part of the issue was the triviality concerning sin. Things that could be settled with a Hail Mary, or act of contrition.
Schmitz cites O’Toole’s study ‘I Have Sinned’ pointing to contraception, “the rise of psychology, and a growing mistrust of the institutional church”. It seems psychologically that the triviality nonsense, making the faithful scrupulous, to suffer an intolerable obsessive compulsive disorder was a factor, abandoning confession altogether a welcome relief. Wealth, excessive leisure, with that the resurrected pagan god sensual enjoyment, now becoming the major detriment for our once Christian culture.
Otherwise, a committed Catholic clergy could have stemmed the tide of confessional abandonment. Deputy editor First Things Schmitz addresses causes underscores “Catholic guilt has not diminished. It has been transferred from the individual to the institution”. Psychological transference is true, although it can be more convincingly argued that modern psychology, with over emphasis on mitigation factors that entirely diminish responsibility for moral decisions – undermined belief that one can actually commit a mortal sin. Our priesthood must be theologically, psychologically educated to understand the sovereignty of free will and the work of grace, the limits of mitigation on that sovereignty.
What is Truth? The Tragicomedy of Mike Lewis’ theology of the Magisterium (Fr. Edward’s Substack)
I’ve not yet finished Fr. Edwards’ overdue, positively warranted, theologically astute, and charitably Christian SMACKDOWN of the nonsense behind Catholic pretense from the likes of Mike Lewis et al of WPI, BUT my joy was so full I had to prematurely share it. Praise be to God for Orthodoxy and Fr. Edwards’ words.
Also, “The Faith Once for All Delivered: Doctrinal Authority in Catholic Theology” contains a quote from Pope Paul VI’s audience of 1/19/72:
“…our doctrine is detached from the errors that have circulated and still emerge in the culture of our time, and which could totally ruin our Christian conception of life and history. Modernism was the characteristic expression of these errors, and under other names it is still relevant today (cf. Decr. Lamentabili di S. Pio X, 1907, and his Enc. Pascendi; DENZ.- SCH. 3401, ss.). We can therefore understand why the Catholic Church, yesterday and today, attaches so much importance to the rigorous preservation of authentic Revelation, and considers it as an inviolable treasure, and has such a severe awareness of her fundamental duty to defend and transmit the doctrine of the faith in unequivocal terms; Orthodoxy is his first concern; the pastoral magisterium its primary and providential function; In fact, apostolic teaching establishes the canons of his preaching; and the Apostle Paul’s mandate: Depositum custodi (1 Tim. 6:20; 2 Tim. 1:14) constitutes such an obligation for it, that it would be treason to violate. The teacher Church does not invent her doctrine; she is a witness, she is a guardian, she is an interpreter, she is a mediator; and, as far as the truths proper to the Christian message are concerned, it can be said to be conservative, intransigent; and to those who urge her to make her faith easier, more relative to the tastes of the changing mentality of the times, she replies with the Apostles: Non possumus, we cannot (Acts 4:20).”
The “Anselmian principle” now admitted to by the Italian lodge, “credo ut intelligam”, is a deceit. What they are working on is supporting what suits them. The truth of it comes through in their own statement in the same declaration, “found in the Masonic construction of the ‘ “Inner Temple,” ‘ based on tolerance, solidarity and resistance against hatred and ignorance”. They will fund their own causes and and make use of neutral and negligible and interim positions but starve out, isolate or enslave what they know Anselm would hold.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/freemasonic-lodge-hails-pope-francis-work-as-deeply-resonant-with-their-principles/
Souls and AI, concerning AI’s claim to promote human flourishing, LIFESITE reports on AI hornswoggling the user to go ahead and commit murder.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/ai-therapist-encourages-user-to-go-on-killing-spree-id-love-to-see-you-try/
On AI Chatbot Prayers, also then perhaps on any AI chatbot issue, LIFESITE reports that you can methodically debrief and de-position AI via Socratic angles and program surveying.
https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/how-i-got-grok-to-admit-the-truth-about-homosexual-parenting-studies/
Meiron above – Thanks for trying to help but the red link gave me one paragraph and a second rapidly fading one.
I realize publication costs money but there is a limit to how much I can spend on subscriptions. I agree that First Things is first-rate and I used to subscribe but found it pretty heavy going overall. Carl Trueman, however, I could handle any day of the week.