Author: returntotradition527909108

Podcast Show Notes: The Apostasy and Paganism Of The Amazon Synod

This is bad, folks. Really, really bad.

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Podcast show notes: Secularism Among The Bishops

Problems of moral and deviant behavior require secular solutions, right? That’s the logic coming out of the Bishop’s conference this week, and the logic coming out of those painful airline press conferences that we’re so used to. Where did they come from?

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Guest Submission: Windows Into Heaven

by John Evans

Disclaimer: Guest articles represent the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this site owner or any affiliated staff.

Author’s Note

The following work hardly comprises an exhaustive defense of the Catholic teaching on the  use of Icons nor does it represent necessarily a novel breakthrough on the subject. Quite the  contrary, the goal of this report is simply to represent the  Apostolic teaching of the fathers on the matter as preserved through the Keys of Peter and the Holy Magisteriam. Among the many sources  that were helpful in employing this  rather abridged study was an article  entitled, ” Is There Really a Patristic Critique of Icons?” by G V. Martini on his blog dedicated to defending  Orthodoxy. As a Roman Catholic, I found Martini’s work profoundly compatible with the Catechism and in harmony with the Patristic sources I would have preferred had I the time to compose a  more rigorous treatise. Many of the quotations  in this report can be found in his more scholarly work and I would highly recommend it to anyone seeking clarification on this issue. I also must give credit to E.W.T.N and to my colleague Brandon Young  for developing some of the larger brush-strokes to be found in my presentation of the relevant topic. Some early readers of this work initially critiqued it for its lack of clarity and garbled syntax as well as for its lack of proper in-text citations. On this count my critics are right, but miss entirely the casual genre of this piece. The following does not constitute a journal, but only a rough outline of  some of the ideas I have collated over the past few months on contemporary attitudes to the Icon in light of their Patristic origins. Had I been composing a work of true scholarship I would then surely have been more attune to the niceties of composition. Therefore I beg lenience from you my reader and some modicum of indulgence  as you join me on this expedition through the earliest centuries of The Church. I am no G.K Chesterton or C.S Lewis, and even if I were I would still  point any inquisitive reader to the Baltimore Catechism or to E.W.T.N  for a more definitive discussion on the Churches’ veneration of the Holy Icons. Nevertheless, as is so often the case, those outside the visible walls of the Church often find such rigorous theological discussions wearisome  and the frank ramblings of an amateur such as myself, a source of consolation and greater understanding.  Therefore, as the Lord calls me, so I have endeavored to write. I should also note that of all the Icons defenders, I am perhaps the most peculiar  as I am, in the eyes of the world, blind according to the flesh.  The icon described in the  introductory passage of this report was in turn  illustrated to me in words. Therefore, I make  passing references to my  lack of  temporal vision throughout this report and want to insure you, the reader know what I am  making reference to. Finally, I am aware  I use the term icon quite broadly in this piece to refer to any Sacred Image associated with the liturgy or the  pictorial representation of the scriptures. Early in this report I attempt to defend this broader  definition, but I wish to make aware that I am not only conscious,  but  profoundly respectful  of the more precise definition employed by our Byzantine Rite brethren and the Orthodox communions not yet in conformity with the Sea of Rome. My  decision to employ this broader definition stems from what I find to be a much more symptomatic problem underlying Western Secularism as a whole and my own experience as a Latin Rite Catholic living in a regrettably Post Christian United States.

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Podcast Shownotes: Persecution of the Little Sisters of Mary

Yes, a group of French nuns have been forced out of their vows by a Modernist imposed upon them by the Vatican. Their crime: praying too much and adhering to tradition. This is what the institutional Church has become. We live in truly dark times, and it is only going to get worse.

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