Are Roman Catholics expected to never use contraception/artificial birth control in any circumstance whatsoever? The only exceptions I've heard of are:1. Health issues, where women's lives are at stake because of pregnancy.2. With the permission of one's parish priest after showing that they are not opposed to having children (Nancy Pelosi had 5 kids and I believe claimed that … [Read more...]
Lord Longford
I've just learned of another recusant of sorts (a convert himself, from a family in the Irish Protestant Peerage - very rare indeed). Lord LongfordThere are three articles / sermons / eulogies on him … [Read more...]
The Recusant Returns
Well. Like a character in Evelyn Waugh's "Brideshead Revisited", after some life complications, and an ensuing attempted reversion to Anglicanism/Protestantism I've come back to Rome. My intellectual reasons / escape route from the Roman church fell apart, and God sent me a word that Pope Benedict XVI was my shepherd. Personal revelation is so embarrasing. I was thinking … [Read more...]
Grace and Truth
"For the law was given by Moses: grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." - St. John's Gospel 1:17 Yesterday I watched the beginning of a movie on the Gospel of John. I think that officially my favourite part of all the Scriptures is John 1. The whole Christology is given, and the way that St. John weaves together these great ideas of the Jewish concept of 'The Word' - God's … [Read more...]
Martyrdom and Heresy
“ For the name of Jesus and the defence of the Church, I am willing to die” - St. Thomas Becket St. Thomas Becket was a real Christian, he was a devout Catholic, he was a true martyr. He died at the hands of Henry II because he refused to submit to the king when he (the King) commanded him to go against the Papacy, being an orthodox believer St. Thomas knew he could not do … [Read more...]