This is the first in a series of episodes (accompanied by articles) surveying the most important encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII. His third encyclical, Aeterni Patris (1879), on the restoration of Christian philosophy, famously called for a revival of the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Links

Thomas’s article on Aeterni Patris, “Leo XIII and the restoration of Christian philosophy” https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/leo-xiii-on-restoration-christian-philosophy/

Pope Leo XIII, Aeterni Patris https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_04081879_aeterni-patris.html

The Great Encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII: Volume Two – The Spiritual Letters https://clunymedia.com/products/the-great-encyclicals-of-pope-leo-xiii-volume-two-the-spiritual-letters

Russell Hittinger, On the Dignity of Society: Catholic Social Teaching and Natural Law https://www.cuapress.org/9780813238234/on-the-dignity-of-society/

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St. Hildegard of Bingen, 12th-century abbess, mystic, polymath, and Doctor of the Church, is best known to non-Catholics for something else – her music. We have more pieces of music by Hildegard than by any other medieval composer whose name we know. Her chants are beautiful, otherworldly, virtuosic and ahead of their time. Some of them were written for her morality play, the Ordo virtutum, which is also the first of its kind. Musicologist Margot Fassler joins the podcast to discuss what makes St. Hildegard’s music so special.

This episode is a crossover with Way of the Fathers, where Dr. Jim Papandrea has done two episodes introducing St. Hildegard’s life and writings. Make sure to listen to those for more context about St. Hildegard.

Links

Way of the Fathers episodes on St. Hildegard’s life and works:

https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/512-st-hildegard-bingen-multimedia-visionary/

https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/513-st-hildegard-bingen-teutonic-prophetess/

St. Hildegard’s letter to the Prelates of Mainz https://digfir-published.macmillanusa.com/mckay11eepages/mckay11eepages_ch9_4.html

Margot Fassler, Cosmos, Liturgy, and the Arts in the Twelfth Century: Hildegard’s Illuminated Scivias https://www.pennpress.org/9781512823073/cosmos-liturgy-and-the-arts-in-the-twelfth-century/

All music used with permission from Benjamin Bagby & Sequentia, who have recorded her complete works. The specific pieces in this episode can be found on the albums Ordo Virtutum, Symphoniae, and Voice of the Blood. https://www.sequentia.org/projects/hildegard.html

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St. Anicius Manlius Severius Boethius's book The Consolation of Philosophy, which he wrote in prison while awaiting martyrdom around the year 524, is one of the single most influential works for medieval philosophy and theology. But Boethius also owed much to the pagan philosophy that came before him.  Thomas Ward has just written a commentary on Boethius's dialogue for Word on Fire, entitled After Stoicism: Last Words of the Last Roman Philosopher.

Topics discussed include:

• Boethius's debt to Stoic ethics and how he critiques the Stoic view of happiness
• The influence of neo-Platonist philosophy on Boethius
• Questions about the account of deification given by Lady Philosophy - is it more Platonist than Christian?
• Boethius's brilliant arguments about how God's way of knowing differs from ours

Links

Thomas Ward, After Stoicism: Last Words of the Last Roman Philosopher https://bookstore.wordonfire.org/products/after-stoicism?srsltid=AfmBOopBRfuMW6DMx_iUEH9u2gjSswySJAZ__JrdTznAIpZ3Ptj9mDMJ

Way of the Fathers episode on Boethius https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-boethius-church-father-and-medieval-scholar/

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This is a crossover episode in which Thomas joins forces with Scott Hambrick and Karl Schudt from the Online Great Books Podcast,  to discuss the classic essay Art and Scholasticism by Jacques Maritain.

Maritain argues for an objective view of both art and the artist, bringing an orderly, scholastic, Thomistic approach to understanding aesthetics. Mirus says, "Maritain gets art better than any other philosopher who came before him in the Western Tradition."

For Maritain, art is “a virtue of the practical intellect that aims at making." The virtue or habitus of art, Maritain writes, is not simply an “interior growth of spontaneous life”, but has an intellectual character and involves cultivation and practice.

The trio also talks about how fine arts and practical arts have been cloven off. How can we hold them both in esteem without denigrating the other?

Scott says, "If we really know what art is then we will be more connected to honest work— that will be a refuge from this intellectual confusion, this metaphysical disgustingness, around us."

Links

Buy Art and Scholasticism https://clunymedia.com/products/art-and-scholasticism

Read Art and Scholasticism for free online (inferior translation) https://maritain.nd.edu/jmc/etext/art.htm

Learn more about Online Great Books https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-27-always-wanted-to-study-great-books-heres-how-youll-actually-follow-through-scott-hambrick/

Join Online Great Books with 25% off your first three months via this link https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Bishop Michael Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, recently issued “A Catechesis on the Human Person and Gender Ideology”. The document takes a strong unequivocal stance against transgender ideology, down to practical specifics like telling the faithful we must not use transgender names and pronouns. Beyond that, it excels in showing how the Church’s whole anthropology and theology are at stake in the transgender issue.

Today’s guest, Fr. Stephen Schultz, was one of the Bishop’s advisers in drafting the document. Fr. Schultz is the director of the EnCourage apostolate in the Diocese of Arlington, and chaplain at St. Paul VI Catholic High School.

Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Sf83zKx3XeI

Links

“A Catechesis on the Human Person and Gender Ideology” https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=12554

EnCourage https://couragerc.org/encourage/

David Crawford and Michael Hanby, “The Abolition of Man and Woman” https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-abolition-of-man-and-woman-11593017500

Acedia episode mentioned https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-18-acedia-forgotten-capital-sin-rj-snell/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Writer Matthew Mehan returns to the show to discuss his new children's book co-authored with painter John Folley, The Handsome Little Cygnet. This lovely tale about a family of swans in Central Park is a much simpler book than their previous outing, but introduces children to the idea of accepting one's God-given nature. That is no small matter in a world which tantalizes the young with offers of a more exciting new identity just around the corner. But we need to know what we are in order to properly shape who we will become.

Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/oxAQpGxduCw

Links

The Handsome Little Cygnet https://tanbooks.com/kids/elementary-school/the-handsome-little-cygnet/

Previous episode with Mehan: Teaching Children Self-Knowledge through the Liberal Arts https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-43-teaching-children-self-knowledge-through-liberal-arts-matthew-mehan/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

In this outtake from episode 113, Thomas asks writer and editor Joshua Hren whether the turn to realism in modern fiction, a historical anomaly, is also a problem from a religious and philosophical point of view.

Episode 113, Can a Novelist "Create" a Saint? https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/113-can-novelist-create-saint-joshua-hren/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

In his new book How to Read (and Write) Like a Catholic, fiction writer and editor Joshua Hren lays out an approach to Catholic literature that spans all the way from St. John Henry Newman called “a record of man in rebellion” to the other end of the continuum, which is a representation of the Beatific Vision. Topics discussed include:

• How important is beauty to fiction? Will beauty save the world?
• The importance of particularity; Carmelite vs. Ignatian views of imagination
• Newman and Augustine on the uses, limitations, and dangers of indulging sentiments about fictional characters
• Can the action of grace be dramatized? Can the life of holiness be fictionalized?
• The depiction of repentance, conversion and the lasting effects of sin in authors like Balzac and O’Connor

Joshua Hren is the founder and editor of Wiseblood Books as well as, with James Matthew Wilson, founder of a new creative writing MFA program at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, which is also discussed in the episode.

Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ump3CRZ6GRY

Links

How to Read (and Write) Like a Catholic https://tanbooks.com/liberal-arts/literature-and-theology/how-to-read-and-write-like-a-catholic/

MFA program https://www.stthom.edu/Academics/School-of-Arts-and-Sciences/Division-of-Liberal-Studies/Graduate/Master-of-Fine-Arts-in-Creative-Writing/

Wiseblood Books https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/

Listen to Newman’s sermon “The Danger of Accomplishments” at Catholic Culture Audiobooks https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-john-henry-newman-danger-accomplishments/

Read “The Danger of Accomplishments” https://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume2/sermon30.html

Previous interview with Joshua Hren, “The Flannery-Haunted World” https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-70-reviving-catholic-literary-tradition-joshua-hren-john-emmet-clarke/

Follow this link to join the Online Great Books VIP waiting list and get 25% off your first 3 months: https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Thomas Mirus apologizes for and retracts some things he said in Episode 106 of the Catholic Culture Podcast, a discussion of the morality of COVID vaccines.

 

"Now in these dread latter days of the old violent beloved U.S.A. and of the Christ-forgetting Christ-haunted death-dealing Western world I came to myself in a grove of young pines and the question came to me: has it happened at last?"

So wonders Dr. Tom More, a descendant of the great English martyr, in the first sentence of Walker Percy's third novel, Love in the Ruins: The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at Time near the End of the World.

Written in 1971, this prophetic work presents a world startlingly like our own. Today's guest, literary scholar Jessica Hooten Wilson, joins the show to give a general introduction to Percy and discuss aspects of what is for many his most beloved novel, Love in the Ruins, which she describes as a "panoramic satire" indicating that modernity's “lost sense of self makes it impossible to live the good life”.

Topics include:

• How Percy's Southernity informed his fiction
• His keen and ruthless observation of race relations
• His recurring commentary on the modern disjunction between mind and body, what protagonist Tom More calls oscillation between the angelic and the bestial
• His use of apocalyptic themes
• His treatment of love between men and women
• The lasting significance of his work

Links

Walker Percy, Love in the Ruins https://www.amazon.com/Love-Ruins-Walker-Percy/dp/0312243111

Jessica Hooten Wilson https://jessicahootenwilson.com/

JHW, Reading Walker Percy’s Novels https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Walker-Percys-Novels-Jessica/dp/0807168777

JHW, Walker Percy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the Search for Influence https://www.amazon.com/Dostoevsky-Influence-Literature-Religion-Postsecular/dp/0814213499

Follow this link to join the Online Great Books VIP waiting list and get 25% off your first 3 months: https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Today we discuss one of the greatest Arthurian tales, told by one of the most virtuosic poets in the history of English, an anonymous priest of the 14th century. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight tells us a lot about courtesy, original sin, and grace, all bound up in an enormously entertaining story about a giant, decapitation-surviving green knight.

Poet and critic Anthony Esolen joins the show to discuss the poem, its Middle English dialect, and the tradition of alliterative verse.

Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8YKmYkklcuU

Links

Marie Boroff's translation of the complete works of the Gawain-poet https://www.amazon.com/Gawain-Poet-Complete-Cleanness-Erkenwald/dp/0393912353

Simon Armitage's facing-page translation including the original Middle English https://www.amazon.com/Gawain-Green-Knight-Verse-Translation/dp/0393334155

Dana Gioia essay, "Accentual Verse" https://danagioia.com/essays/writing-and-reading/accentual-verse/

Magdalen College, where Esolen teaches, still has spaces open in its 2021 freshman class! https://magdalen.edu/

Anthony Esolen, The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord https://www.ignatius.com/The-Hundredfold-P3358.aspx

Esolen on his poem The Hundredfold https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-55-hundredfold-anthony-esolen/

Esolen discusses Stagecoach on Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/stagecoach-1939/

Follow this link to join the Online Great Books VIP waiting list and get 25% off your first 3 months: https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

This episode contains clips of highlights from episodes 38-41 and 44 of the Catholic Culture Podcast.

38 - Garrigou-Lagrange, The Sacred Monster of Thomism - Matthew Minerd https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-38-sacred-monster-matthew-k-minerd/

39 - Composing Liturgical Music That's Noble, Accessible...and Sacred - Paul Jernberg https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-39-composing-liturgical-music-thats-noble-accessible-and-sacred-paul-jernberg/

40 - Tolkien and Aquinas - Jonathan McIntosh https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-40-tolkien-and-aquinas-jonathan-s-mcintosh/

41 - The Neo-Colonial West Is Forcing Abortion on Africa - Obianuju Ekeocha https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-41-neo-colonial-west-is-forcing-abortion-on-africa-obianuju-ekeocha/

44 - Catholics Need Poetry. But Do We Want It? - Dana Gioia https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-44-catholics-need-poetry-but-do-we-want-it-dana-gioia/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

In this interview originally from Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast, Thomas Mirus and James Majewski interview Sixtine Leon-Dufour, writer of the new Lourdes documentary, one of the best religious films in recent years. She discusses:

-Her background caring for the sick at Lourdes

-How she convinced the Lourdes authorities to give secular filmmakers unprecedented shooting access to this holy place

-How a documentary about a Marian pilgrimage got the support of a large French secular film studio and became a big success

-Depicting the wide range of people at Lourdes

-How the filmmakers found sick people who would let them film intimate and painful parts of their life

-The role of the writer of a documentary

-Why people come to Lourdes even if they are not hoping for a miracle

Watch this interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Bywww0alMqw

Links

Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast www.catholicculture.org/criteria

Watch our review of Lourdes: https://youtu.be/hEsxNbajQ_s

Check here to find out where Lourdes is playing (including upcoming virtual screenings): https://www.distribfilmsus.com/portfolio/lourdes/

Want to bring LOURDES to your town? Contact Distrib Films (in Brooklyn). The contact is François Scippa- Kohn, who can be reached by email at fsk@distribfilms.com. www.distribfilmsus.com

Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tGC8lQOZuw

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

There is increasing speculation and concern about the role of AI in the future of the arts. Surprisingly, many Christians are already embracing the use of AI to produce images of the saints. In this episode, Thomas and Susannah Black Roberts make the argument for why AI art is a contradiction in terms. It is analogous to pornography in that it scratches the itch to “create” without actually achieving the object of the desire in question. We should not use technology to replace the human specialties: “God won’t accept worship that we outsource.” Plus, the danger of demonic influence through AI should not be overlooked.

Susannah Black Roberts is a senior editor of Plough and has written for publications including First Things, Fare Forward, Front Porch Republic, Mere Orthodoxy, and The American Conservative. 

Links

Susannah’s thread on Twitter https://x.com/suzania/status/1866516737057083862

Plough Quarterly https://www.plough.com/

PloughCast 66: The Technology of Demons w/ Paul Kingsnorth https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/technology/the-technology-of-demons

David Schaengold, "Computers Can't Do Math" https://www.plough.com/en/topics/life/technology/computers-cant-do-math

Robert Cotton, “Augustine, AI, and the Demon Heuristic” https://mereorthodoxy.com/augustine-ai-and-the-demon-heuristic

The Anchored Argosy https://argosy.substack.com/

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Noelle Mering joins the show to discuss her new book Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology.

Topics discussed include:

• The core principles of woke ideology: group over person, will over reason, power over authority

• Proof that ideology is what really matters to the woke, more than membership in a victim group

•  

  How Frankfurt School thinkers, who combined neo-Marxism with neo-Freudianism, influenced the training of American schoolteachers

• The feedback loop between immorality, ensuing misery, and bad ideas

•  

  Why today's progressivism is driven to destroy innocence

•  

  Fundamental differences between woke ideology and Christianity

• Self-knowledge and self-accusation, antidotes to the woke worldview

Links

Buy Awake, Not Woke https://tanbooks.com/contemporary-issues/social-issues/awake-not-woke-a-christian-response-to-the-cult-of-progressive-ideology/

Noelle Mering https://www.noellemering.com/

Theology of Home https://theologyofhome.com/

Claire Kretzschmar, a dancer and soloist with the New York City Ballet, joins the show to discuss her path to becoming a professional dancer, the challenges and joys of being a Catholic in the ballet world, and the spiritual value of dance. She also discusses a beautiful dance film which she choreographed for the NYC Ballet this year, and the Catholic arts community she founded in New York City, of which Thomas is a part.

In the YouTube version of this interview, Claire's full dance film is shown at the 20:46 mark (used with permission of NYC Ballet). https://youtu.be/4jWhhAbS6pM

Links

Claire's dance film, "Rachmaninoff Suite" https://www.nycballet.com/discover/stories/from-the-nyci-marthas-vineyard-fall-2020/

New York Times profile of Claire, "Rehearse, Ice Feet, Repeat: The Life of a New York City Ballet Corps Dancer" https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/26/arts/dance/rehearse-ice-feet-repeat-the-life-of-a-new-york-city-ballet-corps-dancer.html

Follow Claire on Instagram to keep up with her dance performances in NY and NC https://www.instagram.com/ckretz92/

Arthouse 2B - Catholic arts events in NYC https://www.instagram.com/arthouse2b/

Litany - ethical, modest Catholic fashion https://www.litanynyc.com/

This episode was filmed by Chris Amodio. https://www.amodiodop.com/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Thomas is joined by Catholic filmmaker Nathan Douglas to discuss Walker Percy's first novel, The Moviegoer. They examine the malaise-ridden protagonist Binx Bolling's "search" for meaning, which he ultimately finds through responsibility: not the responsibility urged by respectable "values", but that urged by love.

They also look at how Binx searches for a deeper connection with reality through his moviegoing habits. Percy has some interesting descriptions of his characters finding moments of transcendent beauty in film, given that this novel was written just before the notion of "cinephilia" developed by French critics made its way to the United States.

Watch episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/yvW59H3tAHw

Links

Nathan Douglas's short films www.nwdouglas.com

Nathan's film writing www.vocationofcinema.substack.com

Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast www.catholicculture.org/criteria

Follow this link to join the Online Great Books VIP waiting list and get 25% off your first 3 months: https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

This episode features clips from episodes 34-37 of the Catholic Culture Podcast, including some personal stories from Thomas.

Links

The Memoirs of St. Peter w/ Michael Pakaluk https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-34-memoirs-st-peter-michael-pakaluk/

Moral Blindness and Abortion w/ Abby Johnson https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-35-moral-blindness-and-abortion-abby-johnson/

Bridges to Hell or Heaven: “Toxic Femininity” and the Spirit of Anti-Mary w/ Carrie Gress https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-36-bridges-to-hell-or-heaven-toxic-femininity-and-spirit-anti-mary-carrie-gress/

Sculpting Two Benedicts w/ Jago https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-37-sculpting-two-benedicts-jago/

Join Online Great Books via this referral link https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

This is a discussion of an interesting little book from 1967 that has re-entered the discourse, Prayer as a Political Problem by Jean Danielou, SJ, recently reprinted by Cluny Media. In this book which seems confoundingly ahead of its time, before its time, and (irksomely) of its time, Danielou insists that prayer forms a constitutive part of the temporal common good. Governments, therefore, have a responsibility to create conditions making it easy for the common people to conduct a spiritual life. Danielou’s claim that religion and prayer are necessary even for the temporal good of civilizations is timely, and his reflections on the dangers of technological civilization are prescient. The book is not without its troublesome aspects, though, most notably Danielou’s peculiar sociological definition of religion. Brandon McGinley, who has dealt with this subject matter in his own books, joins the show to discuss Danielou's work.

Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/95hjrIHO-aY

Links

Jean Danielou, Prayer as a Political Problem https://clunymedia.com/products/prayer-as-a-political-problem

Previous episode with Brandon McGinley on his book The Prodigal Church https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-82-habitual-counterculture-brandon-mcginley/

Brandon McGinley and Scott Hahn, It Is Right and Just https://stpaulcenter.com/product/it-is-right-and-just-why-the-future-of-civilization-depends-on-true-religion/

Other things mentioned:

Jacques Maritain, The Primacy of the Spiritual https://clunymedia.com/products/the-primacy-of-the-spiritual?_pos=7&_sid=66d0aa627&_ss=r

The Lord of Spirits podcast episode on the Nephilim, "A Land of Giants" https://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/lordofspirits/land_of_giants

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Michael Pakaluk and Jay Richards join host Thomas V. Mirus for a discussion of the moral issues involved with the production and testing of vaccines using illicitly-obtained fetal cell lines, and the reasons for freedom of conscience for those who do not wish to take them.

Links

Read a full transcript of this discussion: https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=12522

Thomas Mirus's apology and retractions  https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/apology-and-retractions-about-vaccine-episode/

Church documents discussed:

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Dignitas Personae (relevant paragraphs are 34-35) https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20081208_dignitas-personae_en.html

CDF, Note on the morality of using some anti-Covid-19 Vaccines (2020) https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20201221_nota-vaccini-anticovid_en.html

The Pontifical Academy for Life’s 2005 statement on vaccines, emphasizing freedom of conscience https://www.immunize.org/talking-about-vaccines/vaticandocument.htm

Commentary discussed:

“To Awaken Conscience” https://mailchi.mp/7742dd12483f/statement-of-conscience-to-awaken-conscience

Michael Pakaluk, “Why I Signed ‘To Awaken Conscience’”  https://www.crisismagazine.com/2021/why-i-signed-to-awaken-conscience

Jose Trasancos, “The Cell Lines Used for COVID-19 Vaccines Came from Carefully Planned Abortions, Not Miscarriages” https://stream.org/the-cell-lines-used-for-covid-19-vaccines-came-from-carefully-planned-abortions-not-miscarriages/

Bishops Schneider, Strickland, et al, “COVID Vaccines: ‘The Ends Cannot Justify the Means’” https://www.crisismagazine.com/2020/covid-vaccines-the-ends-cannot-justify-the-means

Ethics & Public Policy Center, “Statement from Pro-Life Catholic Scholars on the Moral Acceptability of Receiving COVID-19 Vaccines” https://eppc.org/news/statement-from-pro-life-catholic-scholars-on-the-moral-acceptability-of-receiving-covid-19-vaccines/

Roberto de Mattei, On the Moral Liceity of the Vaccination https://libri.edizionifiducia.it/on-the-moral-liceity-of-the-vaccination/

Richards, Briggs, and Axe; The Price of Panic: How the Tyranny of Experts Turned a Pandemic into a Catastrophe https://www.regnery.com/9781684511419/the-price-of-panic/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Catholic Culture's own Phil Lawler has written a new book addressing what he sees as flaws in the response of Catholic leaders and laity to the pandemic and advocating a different approach - Contagious Faith: Why the Church Must Spread Hope, Not Fear, in a Pandemic.

Topics covered in this interview include:

• How the Church's behavior in this pandemic differs from the oft-cited response of St. Charles Borromeo to plague
• Why a confrontation with civil authorities must be forced to ameliorate the evil precedent set for future actions against the Church
• How the laity can encourage their priests and bishops to defy illegitimate restrictions on the Mass
• Is there a moral obligation to take extraordinary measures to protect one's neighbor from even the slightest risk of catching a disease?
• Catholics must be a witness to hope in the power of prayer and in eternal life

Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/aFxgWqp1J80

Links

Phil Lawler, Contagious Faith https://www.sophiainstitute.com/products/item/contagious-faith

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Michael Pakaluk joins the show to discuss his new translation and commentary on St. John's gospel, making the case that this loftiest of gospels echoes the voice of the Blessed Virgin Mary (the evangelist's adopted mother) in subtle but profound ways.

Watch discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/G0PDD5Qyfh0

Links

Mary's Voice in the Gospel According to John https://www.regnery.com/9781684511198/marys-voice-in-the-gospel-according-to-john/

Episode 34 on Michael Pakaluk's translation of Mark's Gospel https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-34-memoirs-st-peter-michael-pakaluk/

Donate to support the show: www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio

This episode features highlight clips from episodes 26-30 of the Catholic Culture Podcast.

Links

Online Great Books opens a new enrollment period approximately once a month. Get in there using discount code “catholicculture” for 25% off your first three months! Or use this referral link: https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/

Tolkien: Maker of Middle-Earth exhibition book https://www.amazon.com/Tolkien-Maker-Middle-earth-Catherine-McIlwaine/dp/1851244859/

29 - Catholic Feminism: Should We? - Abigail Rine Favale https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-29-catholic-feminism-should-we-abigail-rine-favale/

28 - An Introduction to Maritain's Poetic Philosophy - Samuel Hazo https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-28-introduction-to-maritains-poetic-philosophy-samuel-hazo/

26 - The Arts, Contemplation and Virtue - Basil Cole, OP https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-26-arts-contemplation-and-virtue-basil-cole-op/

27 - Always Wanted to Study the Great Books? Here's How You'll Actually Follow Through - Scott Hambrick https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-27-always-wanted-to-study-great-books-heres-how-youll-actually-follow-through-scott-hambrick/

30 - What Tolkien's Visual Art Tells Us About His Creative Mind - John McQuillen, Holly Ordway https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-30-what-tolkiens-visual-art-tells-us-about-his-creative-mind-john-mcquillen-and-holly-ordway/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Did you know there's a hotel in NYC named after Pope Leo XIII? The Leo House was founded in the 1880s as a boarding house for German Catholic immigrants, at the behest of the Holy Father, and is still operating today as a Catholic hotel providing charitable hospitality at a discount.

In this episode you'll learn from the Leo House's chairman and president, Michael Coneys, about the hotel's fascinating history. The story involves Pope Leo's special care for the Catholic Church in Germany as it was struggling under Protestant Prussian rule; as well as the St. Raphael Society, which helped political dissidents to escape Nazi Germany. It also involves a very providential visit from Mother Teresa! But this is also a very contemporary story story of one of many Catholic nonprofits struggling to survive the past year's lockdowns.

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8888Qu0oonc

Links

Learn more: https://leohousenyc.com/

Donate to the Leo House: https://leohousenyc.com/donate/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, a liturgical historian and priest of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in London, is the author of the new book A Short History of the Roman Mass, from Ignatius Press.

Topics discussed in this episode include:

• The origins of the Roman Rite and development of the Roman Eucharistic Prayer
• Problems with liturgical antiquarianism (trying to revive practices allegedly from the early Church in preference to what has been handed down continuously)
• The value of ad orientem worship
• Our current predicament of being cut off from the past/tradition

Links

Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, A Short History of the Roman Mass https://ignatius.com/a-short-history-of-the-roman-mass-shrmp/

Pope Pius XII against liturgical antiquarianism (par. 61-64) https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_20111947_mediator-dei.html

DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters

Poet-philosopher James Matthew Wilson returns to the show to read poems from his new collection, The Strangeness of the Good, including his "Quarantine Notebook" series, and to discuss the decay and renewal of Catholic intellectual life.

Topics discussed include:

• The present narrowing of Catholic intellectual life in conservative/traditional circles

• How do you become cultured, in an authentic and non-pretentious way, when you’re not participating in a culture?

• His ideal approach to reciting poetry

• The poets we most need to be reading now

• What needs to be done to build on the work in Catholic aesthetics done by figures like Maritain, Hildebrand, and Gilson

• What it's like to be an orthodox Catholic teaching at a merely nominally Catholic university
• Trying to get through to college freshmen who think they already know that there’s no value in the Western patrimony, there’s no truth, and life is meaningless

Watch this interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Ip02uvHlvck

Note: This interview was recorded before James Matthew Wilson announced his appointment as founding director of a new MFA in Creative Writing, at the University of St. Thomas, Houston (in collaboration with multiple past Catholic Culture Podcast guests, particularly Joshua Hren of Wiseblood Books). Learn about the program here: https://www.stthom.edu/public/index.asp?AQ_Action=getPageByURL&AQ_URL=/Academics/School-of-Arts-and-Sciences/Division-of-Liberal-Studies/Graduate/Master-of-Fine-Arts-in-Creative-Writing/Index.aqf

Links

The Strangeness of the Good https://www.amazon.com/Strangeness-Good-Including-Quarantine-Notebook/dp/1621386325/

All interviews with James Matthew Wilson https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-tePYzIXOsQ2OgM0Bh-Nq1LUpYF2877q

J.R.R. Tolkien is commonly perceived as a reactionary who totally rejected the modern world, and whose literary influences began and ended with the Middle Ages. Holly Ordway's new book, Tolkien's Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages, debunks that view of Tolkien's life and work.

Ordway begins with an invaluable critique of the sources of this misconception, especially the official biography written by Humphrey Carpenter, who admitted his own bias and desire to portray Tolkien as an uptight fuddy-duddy.

She then proceeds to examine the works of modern literature we know Tolkien read, gleaning insights about how he may have been influenced either by acceptance or rejection of what he found in those works. In this interview we focus on Tolkien's reading of the father of modern fantasy, William Morris, the adventure writer H. Rider Haggard, the now-unknown religious romance John Inglesant, and even literary modernists like James Joyce and Roy Campbell, and realists like Sinclair Lewis.

Watch this conversation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/0_J46A7QhhQ

Links

Tolkien’s Modern Reading https://store.wordonfire.org/products/tmr

Daphne Castell interview with Tolkien https://fantasticmetropolis.com/i/tolkien

Diana Glyer’s books on the Inklings:

The Company They Keep https://www.amazon.com/Company-They-Keep-Tolkien-Community/dp/0873389913

Bandersnatch https://www.amazon.com/Bandersnatch-Tolkien-Creative-Collaboration-Inklings/dp/1606352768

 

Some of the many books enjoyed by Tolkien mentioned in this episode:

William Morris, The House of the Wolfings and The Roots of the Mountains

H. Rider Haggard, She

Joseph Henry Shorthouse, John Inglesant

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Andrew Lang’s fairy tale collections

Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit books

E.A. Wyke-Smith, The Marvellous Land of Snergs

John Buchan, The Thirty-Nine Steps and the other Richard Hannay books

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

We celebrate our 100th episode with the return of a favorite Catholic Culture Podcast guest, former Pennsylvania Poet Laureate Samuel Hazo. At 92, Sam is still writing books, most recently a new collection of poems and a novel, published by Wiseblood Books.

In this episode Sam reads and discusses poems from his new collection, The Next Time We Saw Paris, a recurring theme of which is how each experience in time passes away, yet in passing away it becomes a singular whole which remains present as such in memory.

He discusses his founding of the International Poetry Forum in Pittsburgh, which hosted public readings by many of the greatest contemporary poets, including W.H. Auden, Seamus Heaney, and Czeslaw Milosz. Other topics include the importance of hearing poetry read aloud, the development of Sam's poetic voice into something very like natural speech, and the hidden power of women.

Watch this discussion on YouTube: https://youtu.be/mg4Ao-eTIwI

Links

The Next Time We Saw Paris https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/store/p108/The-Next-Time-We-Saw-Paris.html

If Nobody Calls, I'm Not Home https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/store/p98/If_Nobody_Calls%2C_I%27m_Not_Home%3A_The_Open_Letters_of_Bim_Nakely%2C_by_Samuel_Hazo.html

Sam Hazo's website https://www.samhazopoet.com

Catholic Culture Podcast interview with Hazo on Maritain https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-28-introduction-to-maritains-poetic-philosophy-samuel-hazo/

The Daily Poem podcast https://shows.acast.com/the-daily-poem

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

To celebrate the approach of Episode 100 of the Catholic Culture Podcast, here is the interview that started it all. Originally published on August 4, 2017, this interview turned out so well that we decided to launch a whole series of interviews on Catholic arts and culture. The podcast launched several months later, on May 1, 2018.

Catholic composer and pianist Mark Christopher Brandt joined Thomas Mirus to discuss his classical album and suite The Nightingale, inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's story "The Emperor and the Nightingale". The discussion was a double delight as it covered not only the album itself, but also an extended exploration of the spiritual themes of Andersen's classic fairy tale, especially what it conveys about the true meaning of freedom.

Mark has been a guest on the Catholic Culture Podcast twice since this first interview. (Since then, too, Thomas has played on Mark's classical album The Butterfly, along with Katherine Colburn, the cellist whose skills are so highly praised in the Nightingale interview.)

All music used with permission from Mark Christopher Brandt and Lionheart Music East.

Links

Read: Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale “The Nightingale” http://hca.gilead.org.il/nighting.html

Mark Christopher Brandt’s The Nightingale:

• Physical CD https://markchristopherbrandt.com/the-nightingale-album.html
• iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-nightingale/id1253776983
• Amazon MP3 https://www.amazon.com/Nightingale-Katherine-Colburn-Christopher-Brandt/dp/B073LJ96LV/

Score: The Nightingale sheet music https://markchristopherbrandt.com/the-nightingale-scores-and-parts-store.html

The artists:

• Pianist and composer Mark Christopher Brandt http://markchristopherbrandt.com/
• Flutist Yana Nikol http://yananikol.com/
• Cellist Katherine Colburn at Prince William String Academy https://pwstringacademy.com/
• Engineer Bill McElroy at Slipped Disc Audio https://www.slippeddiscaudio.com/billbio.htm

More: Round Trip: The Making of an Artist documentary https://markchristopherbrandt.com/round-trip-the-making-of-an-artist-dvd---store.html

Mark's appearances on the Catholic Culture Podcast:

33 - Structure and Freedom in Music and in Christ https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-33-structure-and-freedom-in-music-and-in-christ-mark-christopher-brandt/

68 - What I Learned From Making Music with Mark Christopher Brandt https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-68-what-i-learned-from-making-music-with-mark-christopher-brandt/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

This Ash Wednesday, following a note from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, many American parishes did not distribute ashes in the customary way of smudging a cross on the forehead and saying one of two possible formulas to each recipient. Instead, as an ostensible anti-COVID precaution, they sprinkled ashes on the top of the head and said the formula once to the whole congregation.

Today’s guest, Gail Finke, wrote a thought-provoking article, not so much on the appropriateness of changing the usual practice this year because of the pandemic, but on an attitude so often taken in discussing Ash Wednesday every year.

There is a certain spiritual elitism which regards concern for the external rite, including the rare opportunity to explicitly witness to the faith in a public way, as the province of those of little or superficial faith, or even of the vain. If someone objects to a seemingly unnecessary change, he is said to be overly concerned with the inessential. Yet the experience of the past several decades has shown us definitively that the elimination of “inessential” devotions has had catastrophic effects on the faith of Catholics.

External expressions of devotion are important. The little things which set Catholics apart are important. Constant change and disorientation are not good for the people of God. The assumption that those who object to it must have little faith is arrogant. The indifference to the reality that the large number who do have weak faith will easily fall away when denied the rites of the Church—“you don’t need to go to Mass, just make a spiritual communion”—is callous and legalistic.

Links

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/LYkXheSxHXs

Gail Finke, “Are We Going to Throw Out Ash Wednesday Too?” https://www.crisismagazine.com/2021/are-we-going-to-throw-out-ash-wednesday-too

Thomas Humphries, “The Case of the Great Pandemic Liturgical Flip-Flop” https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/the-case-of-the-great-pandemic-liturgical-flip-flop/

Driving Home the Faith radio show produced by Gail www.sacredheartradio.com

Ep. 84, Disobey Lockdown Now w/ Douglas Farrow and Andrew Busch https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/84-disobey-lockdown-now-douglas-farrow-andrew-busch/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Famous for his chanted performances of Beowulf in the original Old English, Benjamin Bagby is the closest thing you'll find today to an Anglo-Saxon bard. Bagby joins the show to describe how he reconstructed Beowulf as a sung tale, giving a demonstration of his Anglo-Saxon harp which is modeled on harps found in burial sites from over a millennium ago. He also discusses the recordings of the complete works of St. Hildegard of Bingen made by his ensemble, Sequentia.

All music and video by Bagby and Sequentia used with permission.    Watch this interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/uZLEM75RO_w   LINKS   Bagby's Beowulf site and DVD https://www.bagbybeowulf.com   Video of Bagby's full performance at 92Y https://youtu.be/2WcIK_8f7oQ    Sequentia https://www.sequentia.org   Featured piece by St. Hildegard, O Vis Aeternitatis, recorded by Sequentia from their album Canticles of Ecstasy https://youtu.be/_Vcv2HdApcs   This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/BatWN05pP1I

Catholic geneticist Daniel Toma is the author of Vestige of Eden, Image of Eternity: Common Experience, the Hierarchy of Being, and Modern Science. He joins the podcast to discuss what natural science, including the fossil record, can teach us about the hierarchy of being and the liturgical structure of all creation, with deified man as rational head of the physical cosmos bringing all material creation into union with God.

Links

Daniel Toma, Vestige of Eden, Image of Eternity https://www.hfsbooks.com/books/vestige-of-eden-image-of-eternity-toma/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4Uv7MvEHixg

The Hillbilly Thomists, a bluegrass group entirely composed of Dominican friars, have just released their second album, Living for the Other Side. Percussionist Fr. Joseph Hagan, who happens to be a priest at Thomas's parish, joins the show to talk about the new album, the connections between bluegrass and the Apocalypse, and music as an expression of the Dominican mission of preaching.

All songs used with permission.

Links

https://www.hillbillythomists.com/

Music video, "Our Help Is in the Name of the Lord" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKDG9DF7mhA

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/zkfJ-gSMdUg

Today’s Catholic culture is marked by a profound and settled religious indifferentism. Among many Catholics, to say what the Church has always taught—that Jesus Christ is the one way to salvation—is considered offensive, or at best, rash. In certain countries, the bishops’ conferences have practically made a policy against seeking converts from other religions (or lack thereof). Catholics, ruled by fear of human respect and compromised by their own private sins, are finding more and more reasons not to proclaim Christ’s moral teachings as well.

Ralph Martin, whose new book A Church in Crisis: Pathways Forward is a comprehensive spiritual diagnosis of our present situation, joins the show to discuss the many factors contributing to religious indifferentism. These include theological doubts about whether anyone really goes to hell (thanks, Balthasar), the therapeutic culture which has lost any sense of sin and justice, the focus on legalistic analysis of culpability rather than the need to change, and fear of human respect.

Links

A Church in Crisis https://stpaulcenter.com/product/a-church-in-crisis-pathways-forward/

Jeff Mirus’s review of A Church in Crisis https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/mapping-crisis-ralph-martins-blockbuster-book/

Renewal Ministries https://www.renewalministries.net/

 The Fulfillment of All Desire https://stpaulcenter.com/product/the-fulfillment-of-all-desire/

Newman sermon, “Christian Reverence” on Catholic Culture Audiobooks https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-john-henry-newman-christian-reverence/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3Czyd0XSEso

The alarmists were right: ideas that were only a few years ago complacently dismissed as the perennial agitation of a few campus loonies are now pervasive in the corporate world, mass media and pop culture.

Critical race theory, transgender ideology, the obsessive search for oppressive power relations in every aspect of life and every feature of language, the demand for all to be activists, shutting down of dissenting speech as violence: common sense or the gift of a solid Catholic formation will suffice for most who reject these ideologies.

But some will want a more rigorous critique or a deeper understanding of the philosophical roots of radical leftist activism. To that end, Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay have written Cynical Theories, a very helpful primer on the development of modern activism from 1960s postmodernist philosophy.

In this episode, Thomas and political philosopher Darel Paul discuss the book, which tracks how postcolonial theory, queer theory, women’s/gender studies, critical race theory, and other activist fields have instantiated or adapted the following central principles and themes of postmodernism:

Postmodern principles:

1. Radical skepticism about the ability to know anything, cultural constructivism
2. Society is formed of systems of power and hierarchies which decide what and how things can be known

Postmodern themes: The blurring of boundaries, the power of language, cultural relativism, loss of the individual and the universal

The episode concludes with a critique of Pluckrose and Lindsay’s prescription of a return to Enlightenment liberalism as a corrective to postmodernism.

Contents

[1:41] Reasons for discussing Cynical Theories

[4:36] Evidence of postmodernist activist movements reaching the mainstream

[10:58] What the book contributes to the discourse on woke ideology

[15:00] Similarities and differences between postmodernism and Marxism

[26:25] The core postmodern principles and themes

[38:53] Policing speech as a tool of power rather than a rational means of communicating truth

[47:58] The proliferation of postmodern principles into a number of activist fields

[49:47] Defining one’s identity in terms of suffering and oppression

[55:07] Tension between postmodern rejection of categories and the need to have categories to critique power relations; the emergence of queer theory; deliberate incoherence as liberation

[1:01:06] Conundrum for LGBTQ activists: gain “normal” status or destroy idea of normality?

[1:06:40] Gender theory vs. critical race theory on categories

[1:18:50] Postmodernism as a class ideology?

[1:24:17] The postcolonial critique of science; epistemic relativism

[1:27:30] Critique of Pluckrose and Lindsay’s advocacy of a return to Enlightenment liberalism

[1:32:51] Liberalism as an inherently negative and deconstructive philosophy

[1:40:04] Postmodernism as an extension and/or consequence of liberalism

[2:04:33] How to communicate truth to someone who believes language is merely power?

 Links

Pluckrose and Lindsay, Cynical Theories https://www.amazon.com/Cynical-Theories-Scholarship-Everything-Identity_and/dp/1634312023

Darel Paul, “Against Racialism” https://www.firstthings.com/article/2020/10/against-racialism

Darel Paul, “Listening at the Great Awokening” https://areomagazine.com/2019/04/17/listening-at-the-great-awokening/

Darel Paul, “The Global Community Is a Fantasy” https://americanmind.org/salvo/the-global-community-is-a-fantasy/

Darel Paul, From Tolerance to Equality https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481306959/from-tolerance-to-equality/

Ep. 61 on liberalism as an anti-culture with James Matthew Wilson https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/ep-61-liberal-anti-culture-vs-western-vision-soul-pt-i-james-matthew-wilson/

Ep. 18 on the vice of acedia manifested in our refusal to accept our given nature https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-18-acedia-forgotten-capital-sin-rj-snell/

Christmas episodes:

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) film discussion w/ Patrick Coffin https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/its-wonderful-life-1946-w-patrick-coffin/

CCP 59 – The Glorious English Carol https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-59-glorious-english-carol/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

De Maria numquam satis: Of Mary never enough. This saying of St. Bernard is echoed by many other saints. St. Anselm, for instance, says that it is impossible to determine the limits of God’s grace in elevating Mary’s human nature. St. Alphonsus says that if there is anything good we can say about Mary, not contrary to the teaching of the Church and having some legitimate theological basis, then we ought to say it. But some Catholics, to say nothing of Protestants, would object to this kind of Mariology. Are these mere overflows of sentimental piety, or can they be sustained as a rational approach to theology?

Fr. Charles Anthony Mary, a Franciscan Friar of the Immaculate, joins the podcast to argue for why “Marian Maximalism” is a sound theological position. The Franciscan tradition has always been particularly strong on our Lady: St. Francis, St. Bonaventure, Bl. John Duns Scotus, St. Maximilian Kolbe… Fr. Charles makes the case for “Mary-Maxing”, explains some of the doctrinal and ecumenical stakes involved, and takes us through the Franciscan tradition, culminating in the cutting-edge (and controversial) Mariology of St. Maximilian Maria Kolbe.

Links

Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner, The Theologian of Auschwitz: St. Maximilian M. Kolbe on the Immaculate Conception in the Life of the Church https://www.lectiopublishing.com/books.php?b=16

Video of Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner and Mother Angelica, “Blessed Virgin Mary: Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix, and Advocate” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-p2D8Mfrqg

SIGN UP for Catholic Culture's newsletter: https://www.catholicculture.org/newsletters

All music by Thomas Tallis used with permission of the artists and labels listed below.

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/i-oMO9qqzKA

As a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal, Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) composed sacred music for four successive English monarchs, starting with Henry VIII and ending with Elizabeth. Those were turbulent times in England, especially for a church musician.

Those were turbulent times in England, especially for a church musician. Like his colleague (and probable pupil) William Byrd, Tallis was able to adapt his compositional style to meet the constantly shifting ideological demands of the regimes under which he served. Unlike the combative Byrd, who in his later years removed himself from court life and made a point of his loyalty to Rome, Tallis may have simply gone with the flow.  We don’t know for sure, because there is very little information about his life.

Here to tell us what we do know is singer and scholar Kerry McCarthy, author of a concise new book on Tallis’s life and music in Oxford University Press’s Master Musicians Series (which also includes her book on Byrd previously discussed on this podcast). She enthusiastically discusses his music, his times, the foundation of polyphony in plainchant which was obliterated by the Reformation, the various compositional techniques of the time, and the nature of the medieval modes with which these composers worked.

Links

Kerry McCarthy, Tallis https://global.oup.com/academic/product/tallis-9780190635213

Hear Kerry sing with Capella Romana in a groundbreaking recreation of the acoustics of a sixth-century Byzantine cathedral! Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia: Medieval Byzantine Chant https://cappellaromana.org/product/lost-voices-of-hagia-sophia-medieval-byzantine-chant/

Kerry McCarthy discusses Byrd on this podcast:

Pt. 1 https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-49-catholic-composer-in-queen-elizabeths-court-pt-i-kerry-mccarthy/

Pt. 2 https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-50a-catholic-composer-in-queen-elizabeths-court-pt-iikerry-mccarthy/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Music heard in this episode

Thomas Tallis:

“If ye love me” performed by The Gesualdo Six, c/o Hyperion https://www.amazon.com/English-Motets-Gesualdo-Six/dp/B078X98G4B/

Video from their YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/yHe2FDlHHa8

“Lesson Two Parts in One” performed by Matthieu Latreille https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EsptIeArHI

“Miserere nostri” (Tallis/Byrd), “In jejunio et fletu” performed by Alamire, c/o Obsidian https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004H4OHXG/ref=dm_ws_sp_ps_dp

“Puer natus est nobis: Agnus Dei”, “Psalm Tunes from Archbishop Parker’s Psalter”, “Spem in alium” performed by Chapelle Du Roi, from their Complete Works of Tallis c/o Signum Records UK https://signumrecords.com

Chapelle’s Du Roi’s Complete Works of Tallis available affordably in the US here https://www.amazon.com/Tallis-Complete-Chapelle-Du-Roi/dp/B005JWXA1K/

Ralph Vaughan Williams: “Fantasia on a Theme from Thomas Tallis” performed by Academy of Saint-Martin-in-the-Fields, dir. Neville Mariner https://www.amazon.com/Williams-Greensleeves-Tallis-Neville-Marriner/dp/B000004CVM/

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Z5jrU3JYnv0

In his Five Great Odes, the great French Catholic poet Paul Claudel (1868-1955) offers a cosmic vision in which man, in his contemplative and poetic capacity, stands as mediator between God and all creation.

Man, in the image of God and even more in the headship of Christ, names all creatures, unites them in his heart, speaks for them and offers them back to God as unified whole of which man himself is a part: "I extend my hands to left and to right/so that by me not one gap should exist in the perfect circle of your creations."

Poet James Matthew Wilson compares Claudel's cosmic and Catholic vision to that of Tolkien, and startlingly, to one of Tolkien's characters: "Claudel's Odes show him to be a new Tom Bombadil, who moves through the world without irony because he has already transcended the jaded and impoverished vision typical of the modern age and entered with joy into an experience of the universal and the eternal."

This is an interview with Jonathan Geltner, translator of a new English edition of Claudel's Odes.

Links

Five Great Odes https://www.angelicopress.org/five-great-odes

Episode mentioned: "Structure and Freedom" with Mark Christopher Brandt https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-33-structure-and-freedom-in-music-and-in-christ-mark-christopher-brandt/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/H1_78eLjaB8

The trials of St. Anthony the Great (251-356 AD), as described in St. Athanasius's Life and the medieval Golden Legend, have been a favorite subject of Western artists since the Middle Ages. Anthony, a desert monk, was frequently assaulted by Satan, who when he could not win by normal temptations, sent his demons in the form of wild beasts, beautiful women, soldiers and even monks to torment and distract the Desert Father.

Artists have long been fascinated with these episodes, finding in them an opportunity for the most outlandish feats of imagination. In this episode, Catholic art historian Elizabeth Lev traces the development of this artistic subject from the Middle Ages on, with special attention to the phantasmagorical work of Hieronymous Bosch. From Bosch we proceed through the intervening centuries to the modern era, where this theme was taken up again but perhaps not in the most edifying spirit.

In this podcast (the YouTube version of which includes images of the paintings), the first 40 minutes or so are spent introducing the story of St. Anthony and examining some early medieval depictions as well as later ones which focus heavily on his traditional attributes. Then we take off with the increasingly complex depictions of Anthony's demonic trials, starting with Bosch, examine various early modern variations, and conclude with the nightmarish (yet spiritually distinct) visions of Max Ernst and Salvador Dali. 

Links

Zip file with all paintings shown in video https://www.catholicculture.org/images/commentary/anthonypaintings.zip

Elizabeth Lev, How Catholic Art Saved the Faith https://www.sophiainstitute.com/products/item/how-catholic-art-saved-the-faith

Our audiobook of St. Athanasius's Life of St. Anthony https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-athanasius-life-st-anthony-full/

St. Anthony's life and legacy as one of the Church Fathers https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/anthony-desert-solitary-celebrity/

Elizabeth Lev https://www.elizabeth-lev.com

Koin - Catholic event planning app http://www.meetkoin.com

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Vatican II’s Declaration on Religious Freedom, Humanis Dignitatae, begins by noting that its discussion of religious liberty “has to do with immunity from coercion in civil society” and so “leaves untouched traditional Catholic doctrine on the moral duty of men and societies toward the true religion and toward the one Church of Christ.” This episode is about discovering what that traditional doctrine was and is.

Our main source will be Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Immortale Dei, which is available in audiobook form on CatholicCulture.org. Thomas Pink guides us through a close reading of this document (with supplementary material from Libertas and Longuinqua). Here, and in the magisterium of other 19th-century Popes, we find a number of teachings on Church and State that have gone largely unmentioned since the Council, and which are sadly forgotten or even rejected by the majority of self-described conservative Catholics.

The core point is that the State, like the Church, receives its authority from God. Therefore the State has a duty of obedience to God, obedience which cannot be arbitrarily limited to what can be known by reason, excluding revelation. So, Leo says, the State has duties to profess, protect and foster religion, and not just any religion, but the true Faith:

“The Church, indeed, deems it unlawful to place the various forms of divine worship on the same footing as the true religion, but does not, on that account, condemn those rulers who, for the sake of securing some great good or of hindering some great evil, allow patiently custom or usage to be a kind of sanction for each kind of religion having its place in the State.”

Other points discussed are these: Leo’s analogy comparing the relationship between Church and State to the harmony between soul and body. The evil consequences of the State’s indifference toward God and true religion. The authority of the Church to coerce the baptized in fulfilling their religious duties, and to have the State act as its agent (all the while remembering that the State has no authority of its own to regulate the supernatural good of religion). Leo’s condemnation of freedom of speech and opinion as commonly understood.

It is clear that a docile and orthodox reading of Vatican II cannot lead us to dismiss prior teachings on Church and State. Yet this works both ways: Church teaching is is a unity, so when discussing these older teachings, we must also ask what is the nature Vatican II’s teaching on religious liberty and how all of these teachings can be understood in light of one another. The key lies in the limited scope of Dignitatis Humanae, which from the outset intends only to address religious coercion by the State, and leaves the duties of the State towards religion untouched in both senses of the word.

Though the Church’s teaching on religious liberty is much further from the ideals of the American Founding than many careless readers of Dignitatis Humanae have assumed, American Catholics can and must love their country. Therefore we close with Pope Leo’s friendly and encouraging words to the Church in America.

Contents

[3:09] The historical and theological context of Immortale Dei

[7:52] True and false liberty

[10:38] The two powers of Church and State; their directive and coercive functions

[18:40] The State’s duty to profess, protect and foster the one true religion

[24:06] Reasons for toleration of other religions; coercion of the baptized

[34:15] Leo’s analogy of Church and State with soul and body

[43:36] Separate sovereignties of Church and State interact; State can act as the “secular arm”

[49:41] Obligations twd. religion of the State properly speaking, not just rulers as individuals

[55:23] Consequences of the State neglecting God and religion

[1:03:00] Dignitatis Humanae: drafting, intended scope, legacy, compatibility with tradition

[1:20:50] Papal condemnations of freedom of speech and opinion

[1:31:30] The Church’s move away from coercing baptized heretics

[1:36:33] The importance of docility in accepting difficult teachings

[1:41:49] Need for a synthesis of the whole magisterium on Church, State and religious liberty

Links

Audiobook of Immortale Dei https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/pope-leo-xiii-immortale-dei-on-christian-constitution-states/

Text of Immortale Dei (On the Christian Constitution of States) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=4916

Libertas (On the Nature of Human Liberty) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=4885

Longuinqua (On Catholicism in the United States) http://catholic.net/op/articles/286/cat/1198/longuinqua.html

Thomas Pink on Twitter https://twitter.com/thomaspink1

Thomas Pink, “Conscience and Coercion” https://www.firstthings.com/article/2012/08/conscience-and-coercion

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

In addition to being the host of Catholic Culture’s Way of the Fathers podcast and the author of dozens of books on the early Church, Mike Aquilina is a poet who has written songs performed by the likes of Dion, Paul Simon, and Bruce Springsteen.

Mike joins the show to discuss his collaboration with legendary singer Dion, early Christian beliefs about Mary, and other topics in early Church history. You’ll hear songs from Dion’s new album Blues with Friends, and readings from Mike’s new poetry collection The Invention of Zero.

All songs and music videos used with permission from Dion.

Contents

[3:31] Mike’s prolific 2020 in books, poetry and music

[5:49] Working with Dion on his album Blues with Friends

[9:28] “Song for Sam Cooke (Here in America)” by Dion

[17:40] Dion's influence on the greats of rock’n’roll

[20:12] “Told You Once in August” by Dion

[29:55] Early Jewish and pagan attacks on Mary

[34:16] What we can learn from apocryphal texts

[38:52] Evidence for early belief in Mary’s Assumption

[45:31] “New York is My Home” by Dion and Paul Simon

[53:16] What was the agape meal and why did it disappear after the early years of Christianity?

[58:51] Mike reads poems from The Invention of Zero

[1:04:06] Making the Way of the Fathers podcast

[1:08:36] “Hymn to Him” by Dion

[1:14:31] Dion's return to Catholicism via St. Augustine

Links

Mike’s recent projects:

Dion, Blues With Friends https://www.amazon.com/Blues-Friends-Dion/dp/B086XCX576

Dion, New York Is My Home https://www.amazon.com/New-York-My-Home-Dion/dp/B017WK8NX6

History's Queen https://www.avemariapress.com/products/historys-queen

The Invention of Zero https://catholicbooksdirect.com/product/the-invention-of-zero-an-accumulation-of-poems/

Work Play Love https://paracletepress.com/products/work-play-love

The Holy Mass (Sayings of the Fathers of the Church) https://www.hfsbooks.com/books/the-holy-mass-aquilina-weinandy/

Way of the Fathers podcast https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/category/way-fathers/

 

Dion https://diondimucci.com/music/

Mike Aquilina https://fathersofthechurch.com/

Podcasts mentioned:

Patrick Coffin interview with Dion https://www.patrickcoffin.media/music-legend-hits-well-timed-homer/

Square Notes: The Sacred Music Podcast https://sacredmusicpodcast.com/

Crisis: Clergy Abuse in the Catholic Church https://catholicproject.catholic.edu/podcast/

Books on the Assumption mentioned by Mike:

Stephen Shoemaker, The Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Traditions-Dormition-Assumption-Christian/dp/0199210748

Richard Bauckham, The Fate of the Dead: Studies on the Jewish and Christian Apocalypses https://www.amazon.com/Fate-Dead-Apocalypses-Supplements-Testamentum/dp/1589832884

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8zPXC9KscGs

The debate over Christopher Columbus’s legacy tends to go back and forth from cartoonish demonization to glossing over the man’s real faults. Robert Royal, in his book Columbus and the Crisis of the West, does neither of those things, instead giving a nuanced picture of Columbus’s motives, worldview, faults and achievements.

The book goes beyond Columbus himself, however, examining the overall significance of the encounters between cultures that occurred in the Age of Exploration, how we do history, and how the West idealizes and instrumentalizes native peoples for its own purposes of self-hatred.

Columbus was neither a genocidal maniac nor a saint; while he did not “discover” America, he did discover the world—as much for Native Americans as for Europeans.

Contents

[2:42] Reason for a new edition

[7:11] The evolution of Columbus's legacy before recent decades

[13:16] Columbus’s motives: God, glory and gold, and their misrepresentation

[16:25] A breakdown of Columbus' unprecedented achievements

[20:56] Did Columbus discover America?

[25:38] Relations with the natives on Columbus’s first visit to America

[33:26] Did Columbus intend to be a conqueror? His failures as a governor

[41:25] Columbus did not establish the Atlantic slave trade; slavery in every culture

[45:40] No institutional structure by which Columbus could fight abuse of natives

[49:17] Spain’s role in the development of international law and universal human rights

[53:38] How we celebrate complicated historical figures

Links

Columbus and the Crisis of the West https://www.sophiainstitute.com/products/item/columbus-and-the-crisis-of-the-west

Free Columbus Day seminar with Robert Royal, Christopher Check and Wilfred McClay https://engage.thomasmorecollege.edu/rediscovering-columbus43042020

The Catholic Thing https://www.thecatholicthing.org/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Watch on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ve9oqQpCrI

Jeremy McLellan is a Catholic stand-up comedian who, strangely, is huge is Pakistan. He joins the show to discuss the woke takeover of comedy, the nihilistic dogmas of many comedians, the relationship between comedy and suffering, and the ethics of the word “retarded”. Thomas describes his past experience doing open mics and Jeremy gives him some pointers.

Contents

[1:07] “Do CHILDREN Belong in Church?”

[3:24] The woke takeover of comedy; contrarianism and nihilism; comedy and truth

[11:18] The dogma of comedians: anything goes to get a laugh

[17:35] Jeremy and Thomas compare notes on open mics

[24:08] The comic must draw the audience into his world

[27:26] Jeremy's conversion to Catholicism and relationship with his large Muslim audience

[36:03] The best joke Jeremy has ever heard

[40:17] The ethics of the word 'retarded'

[48:13] Comedy and trauma; processing pain through humor

[51:42] The dangers of identifying with our sins and pathologies

Links

Jeremy McLellan’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/underthefigtree

Online Great Books opens a new enrollment period on October 13th. Join the waiting list via this referral link to get 25% off your first three months! https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/

Episode 27 with Online Great Books’ Scott Hambrick https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-27-always-wanted-to-study-great-books-heres-how-youll-actually-follow-through-scott-hambrick/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

The Catholic Culture Podcast is now in video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBwqvyZyc2bpzI-kOYhwrkw

While the Catholic Church has condemned Marxism, Communism and socialism from their beginning, an alarming number of those calling themselves Catholic display a sympathy for these ideas: think of America magazine’s 2019 essay on “The Catholic Case of Communism”. Even some orthodox Catholic intellectuals seem to think we should mine the writings of Marx for whatever truth might be contained among the rubbish.

Aside from the fact that Marx’s philosophy represents a war on being itself (in his words, “the ruthless criticism of all that exists”), making it rather difficult to find untainted morsels of truth in his writings, there are other reasons to steer clear. If philosophy is truly the pursuit of wisdom, we should care about the personal lives of philosophers. Marx was a deeply vicious man. He displayed complete contempt for his fellow man, was a virulent racist, despised God and religion, and was an utter hypocrite when it came to money, constantly sponging off his family and acquaintances.

Beyond all that, there is the distinct sense of something demonic in Marx’s personal life. Those who knew him most intimately consistently described him in demonic terms: His son wrote to him as “my dear devil”, his father suggested that he was “governed by a demon”, and Engels referred to him as a “monster of ten thousand devils”.

Marx himself was obsessed with the Devil, writing poems and plays about characters who make pacts with Satan and are resigned to their own damnation. He even told his children an ongoing bedtime story about a man who sold his soul to the devil. (Marx’s two daughters would die in suicide pacts with their husbands, who were atheistic revolutionaries like their father-in-law.)

In this episode, Paul Kengor, author of The Devil and Karl Marx, discusses this (exhaustively footnoted) evidence of the demonic in Marx’s life. What inspired this man with so much hatred that he called for the “ruthless criticism of all that exists”, beginning with religion?

Contents

 [3:03] The scope of The Devil and Karl Marx

[10:36] A picture of Marx from those closest to him

[15:23] Marx’s lifelong “ruthless criticism of all that exists”, beginning with religion

[26:33] Satanic themes in Marx's early literary output

[30:57] Suicide pacts in Marx’s literature and in his children’s lives

[37:56] Walter Duranty and Aleister Crowley

[41:55] Marx's personal behavior around money, family, and friends

[47:41] The error of separating philosophy from personal life

[52:29] “Just a phase”?: Why Marx’s youthful writings are relevant to his later work

[55:18] The pedants’ denial that Marxism is present in contemporary movements

Links

Paul Kengor, The Devil and Karl Marx https://www.tanbooks.com/the-devil-and-karl-marx.html

Online Great Books opens a new enrollment period on October 13th. Join the waiting list via this referral link to get 25% off your first three months! https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/

Episode 27 with Online Great Books’ Scott Hambrick https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-27-always-wanted-to-study-great-books-heres-how-youll-actually-follow-through-scott-hambrick/

Support the show! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

There are many strange stories in rock history. But Luxury is surely the only band in which three out of five members ended up becoming Orthodox priests.

Combining a hard-edged instrumental texture with sweet, melodious vocals and literary lyrics, Luxury has continued to record and perform sporadically since their beginning in the mid-1990s Christian punk scene. They have retained a loyal following and their latest album, Trophies, was released last year to much acclaim.

Fr. David Lee Bozeman—singer, songwriter and guitarist—joins the show to tell the band’s story, discuss the relationship between liturgy and modern culture, and comment on his lyrics, which deal with themes like ordination, marriage real and counterfeit, the scourge of pornography, and the sanctification of the body.

Contents

[2:36] “The Majesty of the Flesh”

[9:39] The complicated sanctity of the Christian body; deification/theosis

[14:58] Fr. David’s songwriting process

[15:53] The story of Luxury, three of its members’ path from Protestantism to sacramental faith

[25:06] “Courage, Courage”, a song about Fr. David’s ordination

[35:48] “To Conquer and Destroy”

[39:29] The band's early influences and Fr. David's reference points from the 80s and 90s

[44:19] Fr. David’s experience of the Christian rock scene

[46:27] Orthodoxy and modern culture: liturgy is brought into secular life, not vice versa

[52:02] “The War on Women” and the hold of pornography on the modern world

[1:02:00] The compact experience of T.S. Eliot’s poetry and its influence on Fr. David’s lyrics

[1:05:46] “Museums in Decline”

[1:11:58] “Trophies” and the Orthodox understanding of marriage and second marriages

[1:20:35] Provocation in Luxury’s early lyrics

[1:23:16] “Queer Logic”, a lament over the Supreme Court’s decision on gay marriage

[1:27:37] “Perpetua Simone”

 

All music in this episode used with permission from Luxury and Lee Bozeman.

“The War on Women”, “Museums in Decline”, “Trophies”, “Courage, Courage” from Luxury, Trophies. https://luxury.bandcamp.com/album/trophies

“To Conquer and Destroy”, “Perpetua Simone” from Luxury, Luxury. https://luxury.bandcamp.com/album/luxury

“The Majesty of the Flesh” from Lee Bozeman, The Majesty of the Flesh. https://leebozeman.bandcamp.com/album/the-majesty-of-the-flesh

“Queer Logic” from Lee Bozeman, Queer Logic. https://leebozeman.bandcamp.com/album/queer-logic

Links

Lee Bozeman http://www.leebozeman.com/

Lee Bozeman on Bandcamp https://leebozeman.bandcamp.com/

Luxury on Bandcamp https://luxury.bandcamp.com/

Luxury on Twitter https://twitter.com/thebandLuxury

Luxury on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/LuxuryBand

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Catholic theologian Douglas Farrow and Lutheran political scholar Andrew Busch join the show to discuss their recent essays on the coronavirus lockdown, and assess the reasons and prospects for civil disobedience.

In “The Health-First Heresy,” Farrow examines the responses of Catholic and other Christian leaders to the state’s orders to cease corporate worship. Whatever concessions the Church may make to the state as to the circumstances under which worship is held, she may not simply suspend her proper activities indefinitely until the state gives the word.

In “The Limits of Expertise,” Busch assesses where “following the experts” (which ones? in what fields?) has gotten us so far and points out the dangers of pretending to replace statesmanship with expertise.

Contents

[8:30] The “health-first heresy”; the priority of the soul over the body

[17:29] Making prudential judgments vs. suspending corporate worship indefinitely; how much can the Church concede to the state in matters of worship?

[23:37] We have to realize the world is run by people who have contempt for religious worship

[32:09] Areas of overlap between Church and state authority

[40:08] The modern desire to be in complete control surpasses the desire to avoid suffering

[42:58] Religious leaders need to plan for the next pretext to shut down worship

[49:56] Listen to—Which scientists? In what fields?

[56:30] The track record of the experts

[58:56] The legal fallout of accepting lockdowns

[62:47] Shifting the goalposts from “flattening the curve” to eliminating all cases

[1:04:13] Rule by experts is incompatible with the consent of the governed

[1:07:47] Other motives behind lockdown

[1:10:29] Why coordinated civil disobedience needs to begin NOW—no waiting for a vaccine

[1:21:06] Striking a balance between resisting irrational fear and taking appropriate precautions

Links

Douglas Farrow, “The Health-First Heresy” https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/08/07/the-health-first-heresy/

Andrew Busch, “The Limits of Expertise” https://americanmind.org/essays/the-limits-of-expertise/

Douglas Farrow at Catholic World Report https://www.catholicworldreport.com/author/farrow-douglas/

Andrew Busch at The American Mind https://americanmind.org/author/andrew-busch/ and Claremont Review of Books https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/author/andrew-e-busch/

Episode 56 on Yves Simon’s General Theory of Authority https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-56-vindicating-authority-aquinas-guilbeau-op/

Episode 27 with Online Great Books’ Scott Hambrick https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-27-always-wanted-to-study-great-books-heres-how-youll-actually-follow-through-scott-hambrick/

Online Great Books opens a new enrollment period on October 13th. Join the waiting list via this referral link to get 25% off your first three months! https://hj424.isrefer.com/go/ogbmemberships/tmirus/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

In his new book, The Stigmatists: Their Gifts, Their Revelations, Their Warnings, Paul Kengor gives a historical overview of the phenomenon of the stigmata, focusing especially on one thing many stigmatists have in common: they receive visions, often prophetic ones.

The book devotes individual chapters to seven canonized or beatified stigmatists: St. Francis of Assisi, St. Catherine of Siena, Bl. Anne Catherine Emmerich, St. Pius of Pietrelcina, St. Faustina, Bl. Elena Aiello, and St. Gemma Galgani.

Kengor joins the podcast to discuss the skepticism and attacks many stigmatists (such as Padre Pio) faced from within the Church, the prophecies of Bl. Elena Aiello about Mussolini's fate, whether St. Francis was the first stigmatist in history, and what we ordinary Catholics can learn from the visions and experiences of the stigmatists. 

Links

Paul Kengor, The Stigmatists: Their Gifts, Their Revelations, Their Warnings https://tanbooks.com/products/books/the-stigmatists-their-gifts-their-revelations-their-warnings/

DONATE to make this show possible! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

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While the left continues crudely to paint America’s founding as a mere expression of white supremacy, certain thinkers on the right have been making their own attack on American principles. They argue that America’s founding principles are fundamentally a product of an Enlightenment liberalism incompatible with natural law and faith. They find in the Constitution seeds of moral relativism, leading inevitably to Obergefell and gender ideology.

To this position Robert Reilly’s new book America on Trial: A Defense of the Founding is a powerful rejoinder, arguing that the Founding’s roots lie a few millennia further back than the Enlightenment.

With superb scholarship, he examines the whole history of Western culture up to the Founding, beginning with the Greeks, Hebrews and early Christians, proceeding through the Middle Ages to the Protestant Revolt and the debate over the divine right of kings. It becomes clear that the American Founding was part of a millennium-long debate over the question of which is supreme, reason or will.

This interview focuses primarily on the original explication of several important American constitutional principles in medieval ecclesiastical and secular law. At the end, Thomas poses some tough questions about the compatibility of the First Amendment with the teachings of Leo XIII about Church-state relations and free speech in Immortale Dei.

This is a listener-supported show! To help produce more episodes, please go to http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio.

Contents

[2:09] The stakes of the debate over America’s founding

[10:38] Christianity diminished the role of the state…

[17:15] …while granting legitimacy to the state within its own secular sphere

[22:38] The two swords; separation of temporal and spiritual authority

[25:36] The king must respect the ancient customs of the land

[29:02] Developments in canon law: consent of the governed, the right to representation

[39:08] The Coronation Charter and the Magna Carta, right to revolution

[42:56] Natural and divine law trump human positive law, both secular and ecclesiastical

[46:14] The importance of England's role in the formation of the American colonies

[48:57] Political implications of the debate over God’s Intellect vs. pure arbitrary Will

[53:43] How consent works: the basis of a democratic majority and minority

[57:54] The dependence of a democratic republic on the virtue of its people

[1:06:15] Revolution against US govt. justified during slavery and today? Role of prudence

[1:13:40] Does the Constitution conflict with Catholic teaching on Church and state?

[1:28:34] Is Constitutional freedom of speech correct from a Catholic POV?

[1:36:47] Modern-day barbarism: the re-tribalization of Man with identity politics

[1:39:39] Does the Constitution mandate free speech on the state level?

Links

Robert Reilly, America on Trial: A Defense of the Founding https://www.ignatius.com/America-on-Trial-P3479.aspx

Pope Leo XIII, Immortale Dei (On the Christian Constitution of States) https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=4916

Pope Leo XIII, Longuinqua (On Catholicism in the United States) http://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_06011895_longinqua.html

Phil Lawler’s review of America on Trial https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/answer-to-catholic-critics-american-founding/

David Upham’s critique of America on Trial https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/07/03/how-americanism-put-baby-in-the-corner/ 

Book mentioned: The Ancient City by Fustel de Coulanges https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-City-Religion-Institutions-Greece/dp/0801823048

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

This episode revisits some great moments from past Catholic Culture Podcast episodes:

18 - Acedia, the Forgotten Capital Sin - R.J. Snell https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-18-acedia-forgotten-capital-sin-rj-snell/

19 - Understanding the Church's Abuse Crisis - Fr. Roger Landry https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-19-understanding-churchs-abuse-crisis-fr-roger-landry/

21 - Gosnell, the Abortion Story No One Wanted Told - Ann McElhinney https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-21-gosnell-abortion-story-no-one-wanted-told-ann-mcelhinney/

22 - Newman's Idea of a University https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-22-newmans-idea-university-paul-shrimpton/

23 - How the Laity Must Respond to the Abuse Crisis - Fr. Roger Landry https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-23-how-laity-must-respond-to-abuse-crisis-fr-roger-landry/

24 - Talking A Capella with VOCES8's Barnaby Smith https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/episode-24-talking-capella-with-voces8s-barnaby-smith/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

In this episode originally from Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast, Thomas asks attorney and scholar Louis Karlin whether Robert Bolt’s play and film A Man for All Seasons accurately depict St. Thomas More’s views on the rights of conscience, and his motives for martyrdom.

More’s involvement in the prosecution of heretics is also examined: even if More was a martyr of conscience, is it accurate to call him a champion of religious freedom? One thing is certain: the portrayal by Hilary Mantel and others of More as a torturer of heretics is false.

Links

The Center for Thomas More Studies https://thomasmorestudies.org/

Lecture by Richard Rex critiquing the historical fiction of Hilary Mantel, “More the villain and Cromwell the hero?” https://ionainstitute.ie/thomas-more-thomas-cromwell-and-wolf-hall/

William Marshner, “Dignitatis Humanae and Traditional Teaching on Church and State” https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=8778

Thomas Pink, “Conscience and Coercion” https://www.firstthings.com/article/2012/08/conscience-and-coercion

Louis W. Karlin and David R. Oakley, Inside the Mind of Thomas More: The Witness of His Writings https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Mind-Thomas-More-Writings/dp/1594173133

Karlin, Wegemer and Kelly, Thomas More’s Trial by Jury: A Procedural Legal Review with a Collection of Documents https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Mores-Trial-Jury-Procedural/dp/1843838737/

Stephen Smith (ed.), For All Seasons: Selected Letters of Thomas More https://www.amazon.com/All-Seasons-Selected-Letters-Thomas/dp/1594171637

Wegemer and Smith (ed.), The Essential Works of Thomas More https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Works-Thomas-More/dp/0300223374/

St. Thomas More, The Sadness of Christ https://www.amazon.com/Sadness-Christ-Thomas-More/dp/1849020558

The Yale Edition of the Complete Works of St. Thomas More, Vol. 14, De Tristitia Christi https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Works-Thomas-Tristitia-Christi/dp/0300017936

Other podcasts on St. Thomas More

Criteria film discussion https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/man-for-all-seasons-1966/

Audiobook of More’s Dialogue on Conscience https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/st-thomas-more-dialogue-on-conscience/

This podcast is a production of CatholicCulture.org. If you like the show, please consider supporting us! http://catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission.