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A final thought on undeserved mercy

St. John Paul The Great, in Veritas Splendor wrote:

It is possible that the evil done as the result of invincible ignorance or a non-culpable error of judgment may not be imputable to the agent; but even in this case it does not cease to be an evil, a disorder in relation to the truth about the good. Furthermore, a good act which is not recognized as such does not contribute to the moral growth of the person who performs it; it does not perfect him and it does not help to dispose him for the supreme good. Thus, before feeling easily justified in the name of our conscience, we should reflect on the words of the Psalm: “Who can discern his errors? Clear me from hidden faults” (Ps 19:12) (#63).

This to me is what is missing in the omission of repentance from Amoris Laetitia.  It does not matter if there was less culpability.  It does not matter if those divorced and remarried did not know that divorce and remarriage is always harmful.  Even the Forgiveness of Christ, does not entirely heal the temporal effects of sin.  We cannot use the internal forum to call divorce good and euthanasia mercy.  These misinterpretations of Chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia must end.  Mercy, to be mercy, needs to be based in Truth, not in the easy lies of those who avoid the dubia.

Truth and Repentance are necessary parts of Mercy.  Without them, Mercy becomes merely pardon, and forgiveness will only affect the life of the person doing the forgiving.  So says the Pope's own Ambassador of Mercy, and so I'm right in my interpretation of Amoris Laetitia.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 8:46 AM No comments: Labels: Amoris Laetitia


Odd things from the 2016 Men's Conference

Fr. Don Calloway is on fire for the Rosary and for our Lady, and told us some neat stories.  His book Champions of the Rosary sounds like it's worth getting to get Christopher fired up to using God's Lightsaber.

Need to look up this theory that Q, the missing source of the Synoptic Gospels, may have been interviews with St. Mary.

Satan is scared of a booming voice- a man should always pray loudly and without fear.

To avoid online pornography, try praying bfore logging in, every time.

Smoking pot shrinks your brain.   Or maybe a shrunken brain causes you to be stupid enough to smoke pot.  Prayer can help you grow your brain and avoid dementia.

St. Joseph was asleep every time the angel visited.  What a hardworking father he must have been!

Posted by Theodore Seeber at 12:19 PM No comments: Labels: #WhyIAmCatholic


Why I am against the Jesuits

In a post trying to explain the pastoral nature of Pope Francis, we find:

Imagine a businessman who owns a chain of department stores that specialises in affordable clothing. He is a practicing Catholic, and he wants to grow in his faith, but he is in clear breach of the Church’s moral law in one respect. All of his garment manufacture is done in a sweatshop in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where he is the only client, and the conditions there are egregiously bad. The workers put in six and a half days a week and are paid a pittance; they effectively live in the factory, eating, washing and even sleeping there, hardly ever getting back to their families and villages; the building is structurally unsound and poorly wired, making it a health hazard of the very worst kind; and there are lots of ten- and eleven-year-old children working there – the same long hours as the adult folk and without any education, playtime, healthcare or family life. It is a hell. It offends against every notion of human dignity and every principle of social justice enunciated by the magisterium since Rerum Novarum. No Catholic has any business supporting it – to say nothing of profiting from it. The case is cut and dried.
So if you have this businessman in your pastoral care, should you just throw the book at him? After all, so long as he knowingly benefits from this outrageous exploitation he is in a sustained state of serious sin – at least as serious as that of the divorced-and-remarried or of unmarried co-habiting couples. Would you tell him not to receive the Eucharist?
At times, perhaps, you might. If he showed complete indifference to the welfare of these workers and no inclination to improve things, you would probably have to confront him harshly with his sin. But – and this is the crux of the matter – you would have to take a good, hard look at the particulars of the case first. Did the man initiate this unjust arrangement himself, or did he merely inherit it? That might make a difference to his culpability. Maybe he’s already shown his willingness to set things right. What if he had already sent a team out to Bangladesh to investigate standards? Good. That suggests some kind of purpose of amendment.
But what if the team came back with a whole set of complications? A developed-world notion of a just wage is simply not a runner. It would upset the local economy and invite in corruption. In any case, paltry as the sweatshop wages are, they are substantially higher than the alternatives available to the poor of southern Bangladesh. And, yes, the conditions in the sweatshop are intolerable, but the manager is one of the better ones, and he has made an honest effort to improve things. He has carried out some structural repairs, has improved ventilation, and has organised more breaks for workers. He’s unable to do any more, however, as he doesn’t have funds to invest in the building, and his first priority has to be meeting the production quotas. As for the children on the payroll, they are mostly the children of women workers who are desperate for them to remain. These women have no-one to mind their kids while they’re at the factory, and besides they need the extra income.

If I were the businessman, I would bar myself from the Eucharist.  I would also take 25% of my after taxes profits as a bonus for the manager of the factory, directing him to use the money to modernize and start a daycare for the workers, then with whatever is left, hand out raises.  I would also cut my order to help with lowering the quota, which would make my goods more scarce, and allow me to raise prices (because supply/demand always has to be satisfied).

And I want to be in a church that is indeed that strict.  Mercy continues to destroy justice.  Jesuit mercy, doubly so.  If this is an example of Jesuit teaching, then it is little wonder that the words "I am Jesuit Trained" have become synonymous with heresy.  It threatens “existence of absolute moral norms that prohibit intrinsically evil acts and that are binding without exceptions”.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 8:08 PM No comments: Labels: #WhyIAmCatholic, catholicism, Economics


Catholic Teaching on Marriage and Communion is Unambiguous | ncregister.com

Monsignor Charles Pope comes down squarely between Group 2 and Group 3. Too bad, in the words of Crux Magazine, he's too late.

Catholic Teaching on Marriage and Communion is Unambiguous | ncregister.com:

Posted by Theodore Seeber at 12:28 PM No comments: Labels: #WhyIAmCatholic, Amoris Laetitia, catholicism, divorce

Pharisees like you can go to hell

This was originally a response on Public Catholic to the question, what changed to make you feel unworthy of the Mercy of God?

This is long. Because it is very complex and over a year of thinking that has led me to this point. It started, really, when I noticed that in his fight against Clericalism, Pope Francis was throwing out the baby with the bathwater- that many fine clerics were being censored, while clerics accused of clerical abuse were being promoted. That, in and of itself, was not enough,but it is what started me thinking this way. At first, I even looked on it as a big positive- Pope Francis's concentration on mercy for the marginalized, has been an awesome thing to watch, pulling people into that church. And certainly, promoting the accused clerics and demoting the faithful clerics, fit within that narrative. But then came Cardinal Kasper and his ilk. Promoting divorce and remarriage as something holier, something more deserving of mercy, than any other sin. The two synods were excruciating, especially since between the first and the second, many dissenting Cardinals and Archbishops were quietly removed from participating in the second Synod at all. Then came Amoris Laetitia Chapter 8. I was even fine with that for a time. In my parish we had used a word cloud to discern the movement of the spirit and what sort of pastor we needed, with truly awesome results; I did the same thing for Amoris Laetitia and came up with the major theme phrase that really needs to be preached more within the church: "Church Family Can Love Life!" I so wanted to see marriage groups formed to help both young and old couples avoid the devastation of divorce- which I still see as a major evil in our society. The trouble is, we're now seeing three different interpretations of Amoris Laetitia Chapter 8 emerge: 1. The Kasper interpretation, which due to who Pope Francis chooses to promote, seems to be the Pope's favored interpretation: That indissoluble marriage is no longer promoted as a Sacrament , and that lifelong marriage is no longer an ideal we can believe in. 2. The Orthodox Interpretation (which my own Archbishop Sample has recommended- he describes it far better than I do here: Archbishop Sample's Love Letter to the Married and Faithful) 3. The interpretation of the "Pharisee Cardinals", that Group #1 has gained far too much power in the church, and that Group #1's interpretation is a valid interpretation that deserves outright refuting. I don't think that groups #2 and #3 are far apart, despite group #2 utterly denying Group #1's interpretation as valid, and Group #3 accepting Group #1's interpretation as valid but heretical. We can't move forward in universal unity without the Dubia being answered, and Pope Francis picking one of these three interpretations. If the Dubia is answered in accordance to #2, Group #3 is reabsorbed back into the Church, and Group #1 needs to rethink the meaning of the word accompaniment. Unfortunately, instead of actually answering the Dubia, the Pope has decided that #2 and #3 are just unreasonable Pharisees not worthy of the mercy of actually answering their questions. And by extension, not worthy of the mercy of God. It's almost as if, at the end of the Story of the Prodigal Son, the Father had instead said to the Older Brother, "You're just hired labor, you cannot have a party for your friends, your brother is worthy because he was dead and is now alive, but you who are alive and who were never dead are not worthy of the feast". The preaching at the end of the Year of Mercy seems quite clear to me now. The one sheep- the marginalized- has been found and brought into the fold. But the gate was left open, and the other 99 sheep, neglected and starving, are lost without pastoral guidance, now wandering in a desert without the green grass of justice to sustain them. Accompaniment is for homosexuals and the divorced; there is no time left to accompany those whose lives are ordinary- no mercy left for the victims, only for the criminals.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 9:35 AM No comments: 


The Four Types of Mercy and my dispair

Next week I get to go to the Holy Name Society Men's Conference in Salem.  In preparation for my confession, and in an attempt to bring some organization to my despair, here is my problem with the Year of Mercy- that never got resolved, but may have a very simple solution indeed.

The problem, as I see it, is I'm educated enough to know that there are four competing definitions of mercy in this world, that they are mutually exclusive, and that they can be described as four mutually incompatible religions.

The issue arises with certain items like the current Divorce and Remarriage debate, which looks an awfully lot like a choice between 1, 2, and 4:

The trouble is, I'm having problems knowing the difference between accompaniment and enabling.  When does 4 devolve into 3,2, or 1?  At what level is the temptation there for a busy priest to just give absolution to everybody, or worse yet, be extremely harsh with everybody?

Posted by Theodore Seeber at 5:01 PM No comments: 


Amoris Laetitia, the Cardinals, and this missing word

Way back last April, on my 2nd reading of Amoris Laetitia, I had the idea to try to find out what the simple message of the document was, by using word frequency tables and generating a Word Cloud: Church Family Can Love Life. That simple phrase, I believe, sums up what Pope Francis was really trying to say with Amoris Laetitia. But as in any family, the devil lies in trying to communicate, communicate a Truth much larger than just our human love- the Truth of Christ. The Truth of Christ doesn't always feel good. It is not the easy way out.
Mercy can't be allowed to destroy justice.
And yet, today on Crisis Magazine, we have a Bishop from Kazakstan claiming that four Cardinals, four Prophets, are being ignored.
Four Prophets who claim that due to errornous interpretations of Amoris Laetitia, confusion has been created. Four Prophets who say that with Chapter 8 of Amoris Laetitia, in certain diocese and certain countries in the world, Mercy has been allowed to destroy Justice, and that Error has overcome Truth.
I do not know the answers to the Dubia. I do know that by refusing to answer the Dubia, Pope Francis is giving the impression that he *agrees with the error* rather than wishes to teach the Truth and bring Justice to those harmed by the sin of divorce and the scandal of remarriage.
I've been told I'm being a Pharisee to even question this. Yet question it I did last April, long before the Dubia. Last April is when I noticed tht the words Confession, Repentance, Absolution, and Penance were mising from this document.
They are somewhat replaced with the more liberal, post Vatican II words of Reconciliation, Sacrifice, Justice and Injustice. These concepts DO exist in Amoris Laetitia.
And that is why there is NO good reason for the Pope not to answer the Dubia, not to clear up the confustion. Amoris Laetitia may not use the traditional words. Amoris Laetitia may have even been intended, by this Jesuit Pope, to groom the world for a day when the liberal form of clerical abuse will be rampant. But the Holy Spirit is stronger than the Pope.
And in the end, Church Family Can Love Life- but only if we are honest about divorce being a sin. Only if we are honest that our sins, no matter how minor or venial, harm not only our relationship with God, but also our relationship with each other.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 8:23 AM No comments: Labels: #WhyIAmCatholic, Amoris Laetitia, catholicism, divorce, feminism, Pope Francis, sexual revolution


The smug style of American Liberalism

I've noticed this for years, that American intellectualism has a major blind spot.  Those ivory towers have become fortresses; people who don't know where their food comes from try to dictate to everybody else how to live.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 9:22 AM No comments: 

I'm shocked

Trump is President, but the real story is that rural and blue collar voters came out in record numbers.  May he live to be inaugurated.  Perhaps the Secret Service should contact the surviving police in Mexico to see how to protect him against MS-13.

Locally, anybody vote for Kate Brown AND Dennis Richardson?  Somebody must have.  This is a hole in my mercy I need to fill.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 5:39 AM No comments: 

The Information Age and US Politics

Pick your poison.  Vote for Hillary, Vote for ISIS.  Or Vote For Trump, Vote For Russia.  Or you could just do what I did, and do a vote for a third party like the American Solidarity Party
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 10:00 AM No comments: 

Just in time for Halloween

AIDS virus linked to New York City Promiscuous Culture, not just homosexual but also heterosexual.  Made the jump to San Francisco in 1976.

The same report traces it back further to Haiti and Africa in the 1960s, and the jump from apes to humans in Africa in the early 20th century.  But illicit sex and drug use has *always* been the primary transmission method, aberosexuality of any type is evil.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 11:12 AM No comments: Labels: AIDS, homosexuality, sexual orientation, sexual revolution


More proof that the media has been engineering the United States Political Process.

And now Harvard pol-sci students reveal that the media set Donald Trump up as a strawman candidate just to take him down.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 7:42 AM No comments: 

Been a busy month

New jobs always mean less blog postings from me.

But the Podestra e-mail dump from wikileaks proves two things:
1.  The Democratic party has become irredeemably anti-Catholic.
2.  The Republican party has been attacked by a mole, a Democrat, whose name is Donald Trump, specifically to destroy the moral base of the Republican Party, and Donald Trump was backed in the primary by the Clinton Campaign.

I cannot stay silent about either of these turns, which has produced what I now call the Satanic States of America.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 7:19 AM No comments: 

Hillary won the debate, but did Trump win the election?

I have never seen anything like this before.  A rather conservative Catholic Priest, Fr. Dwight Longenecker , and a person I consider to be a functional atheist, Scott Adams, both well schooled in human behavior from two extremely opposed philosophical viewpoints on the dignity of the human person (Fr. Longenecker, of course, is coming from the Catholic philosophical viewpoint of free will; where Scott Adams claims that, among other experiences he has had, this election proves his Moist Robot theory that no human being is truly rational and we're all just a collection of predetermined genetic actions) but come to the same conclusion on last night's debate:

While Hillary was winning the debate, Trump was losing on purpose to win the election.  Or at least so goes the theory.  Two totally different rationale for this behavior- from the Catholic standpoint, Trump was virtue signaling those men and women who do not buy into Clinton's radical feminism.  From the Persuader point of view, we were looking for Trump to show that he'd be a safe vote.  We got both.

As many of you know, I don't really have a dog left in this race; there are no good pro-life choices from a personhood standpoint.  But what do you think of the tactic of winning to lose?
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 12:25 PM No comments: Labels: Politics, sexual revolution


Are we entering the Anthropocene Epoch?

A curious article in The Guardian suggests that we are entering a new geologic age and that our own species (long known to archaeologists to be veritable litterbugs- in earlier ages leaving shards of pottery and glass everywhere, now leaving shards of plastic, and always, chicken bones) has now affected the environment so much with nuclear and carbon pollution, that we are causing a "sixth extinction" point.

Not so fast, says conservationist Stewart Brand- we are being arrogant and pessimistic to assume that this is an extinction level event.  What mankind messes up, mankind can clean up, and local efforts can make a huge difference for species such as the Giant Panda, who are limited in their range and were recently taken OFF the endangered species list.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 7:59 AM No comments: 

10 Surprising Facts About Purgatory That You Probably Didn't Know – EpicPew

I often shock people who call me an angel or a saint, by saying that I only hope that I can achieve Purgatory.  Here's why.

10 Surprising Facts About Purgatory That You Probably Didn't Know – EpicPew:

Posted by Theodore Seeber at 9:53 AM No comments: 

By Fulton Sheen's Standards, Clinton and Trump are Communists

"MOST LEGISLATIVE PROGRAMS, political slogans, and radical catchwords of our times are concerned with the satisfaction of material wants. The Communist catchword is “jobs” “jobs” “jobs”; the politician’s slogan is “work” “work” “work”; the legislator’s promise is “[more] material security.” Add to this the sad fact that millions of citizens, whose bodies and souls have been ravaged by a materialist civilization, have reached a point where they are willing to sacrifice the last crumb of liberty for a piece of the cake of security. Reformers [and community organizers] have not understood their cry. Because man make demands for security, our reformers have neglected to inquire what they really want. A starving man asks for bread, when he really wants life. “The body is more than the raiment, and life is more than the food.” The unemployed, the socially disinherited, the poor broken earthenware of humanity ask for “work,” but what they really want is independence. The normal man does not want to be fed either by a social agency or a state; he wants to be able to feed himself. In other words, he wants liberty. But, as we said in the last chapter, there is only one solid economic foundation for individual liberty and that is a wider distribution of property.
Property is here understood primarily as productive property, such as land, or a share in the profits, management or ownership of industry. Property does not mean a distribution of created wealth [past savings] such as bread, circuses, and jobs, but a redistribution of creative wealth [future earnings]; not rations handed out by an agency or an employer, but a shared ownership of productive goods. Liberty to be real, concrete, and practicable must have a foundation in the economic order; namely, independence."
~ Fulton J. Sheen, Freedom under God, Economic Guarantee of Human Liberty, 1940/2013, (page 49).
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 2:06 PM No comments: Labels: Papal Economics

Have not posted anything on autism in a long time

Funny, my friend Daniel Salomon and I were just talking about this.  How dependency does NOT help adults with autism, but instead, holds them back.   First Place Transition Academy, located in Phoenix, Arizona, is trying to change that.

These are mainly lower functioning, what used to be called Kanner's Autism kids.  But they're being taught the skills they need to learn to work and have a good life.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 12:37 PM No comments: Labels: autism


How to become a cat lady, or Woman Blames Birth Control for Debasing Love - henrymakow.com

Woman Blames Birth Control for Debasing Love - henrymakow.com:


This is a very interesting story.  Not sure how true it is, but this shows that not all women agree that the pill is a liberator.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 8:06 PM No comments: 

$1000 at the right time can save $20,000 when dealing with homelessness

Just $1000 to somebody who can otherwise pay for housing but is facing a non-recurring sudden expense, can and does save society $20,000 in welfare and shelters.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 2:07 PM No comments: 
I am the Unfit, updated

In light of some ugly rhetoric coming from the left about euthanasia and the Zika Virus, a slight rewrite of my classic anti-abortion poem is in order.

I am Unfit

My mother is a teenager, just starting out in Life
I am the Unfit
I am the Child of Poor Parents
I have a genetic disease
My mother was bit by a mosquito and I am in danger of microcephaly
I have a terminal illness
I signed up with the Military to feed my family
I am accused of treason
I am accused of murder
My parents were of two different races
I am the wrong race
My father raped my mother and I was conceived
I am the genius scientist that is face blind
I have a genetic defect
My parents abuse children
I will spend more over my lifetime than I will earn
I struggle with Same Sex Attraction
I am Ugly
I have a socially transmitted disease
I am a boy
I am a girl
I am a hermaphrodite
I have autism
I am the minimum wage worker working three jobs
I am the unionist
I am the little person
I am the obese
I have cancer due to pollution
We are infertile in our marriage due to synthetic estrogen in the drinking water
I am the son of an unwed mother- God knows the Future
You do not
Who are you to decide that
I am the Unfit?
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 11:04 AM No comments: Labels: abortion, death penalty, Environment, euthanasia

The economic data is in, and the United States is coming close to a crisis point.

The data is in.  The United States is now far below replacement rate on having children.  With a mere 59.6 births per 1,000 women for 2015, we are now seriously in decline.

This is a public health crisis, brought on by contraception, abortion, and materialism, and nobody cares.

Posted by Theodore Seeber at 10:22 AM No comments: Labels: abortion, Papal Economics, Parenthood


23 Reasons Why Scholars Know Jesus Is Not A Copy Of Pagan Religions. | James Bishop's Theology & Apologetics.


Mainly saving this link.  Next time I hear this myth, I'll point to this page.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 5:53 AM No comments: Labels: #WhyIAmCatholic, abortion, death penalty, euthanasia


I'm pro-life because I'm liberal

I don't often call myself a liberal these days; it seems I get more conservative as time goes on.  But my conservatism is born out of my earlier days as a liberal.

It is out of PTSD from being bullied as a child, that I recognize the bullying inherent in the pro-choice choice of who will live and who will die.

It is out of respect for nature and sustainability that I'm a conservation style environmentalist- and a sane one who recognizes the human need for agriculture and the role agriculture plays in preserving species.

I am not comfortable with libertines or libertarians.  But my conservatism comes from an understanding of systems, and how systems work.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 8:30 AM No comments: Labels: Politics, pro-life


6 Feminist Myths That Will Not Die | TIME

6 Feminist Myths That Will Not Die | TIME: "
Final verdict: If Mars needs to check his privilege, then so does Venus.

Why do these reckless claims have so much appeal and staying power? For one thing, there is a lot of statistical illiteracy among journalists, feminist academics and political leaders. There is also an admirable human tendency to be protective of women—stories of female exploitation are readily believed, and vocal skeptics risk appearing indifferent to women’s suffering. Finally, armies of advocates depend on “killer stats” to galvanize their cause. But killer stats obliterate distinctions between more and less serious problems and send scarce resources in the wrong directions. They also promote bigotry. The idea that American men are annually enslaving more than 100,000 girls, sending millions of women to emergency rooms, sustaining a rape culture and cheating women out of their rightful salary creates rancor in true believers and disdain in those who would otherwise "

Posted by Theodore Seeber at 11:58 AM No comments: 
Next Big Future: Solar Cells converts Co2 into hydrocarbon fuel

Next Big Future: Solar Cells converts Co2 into hydrocarbon fuel:


Now there's a game changer for global climate change.  Instead of millions of years for plants to turn atmospheric carbon into diesel, this artificial leaf can do it in hours.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 8:34 AM No comments: 

A leaked document.

I suppose it had to happen in the internet age:  A rebuttal to Amoris Laetitia has been leaked, a document from academic theologians to Cardinals.  I'm sure such letters have been written before, but I've never heard of one leaked publicly.  I notice none of the complaints are about what Pope Francis actually wrote, but rather, about how what he wrote might be interpreted, and how further instruction is necessary in 19 separate areas where there may be confusion among the faithful.

I think this may be a place where a Jesuit would use the Charitable Interpretation to lie and cover up the problem, where a more useful approach would be a full discussion of the issues raised.

Posted by Theodore Seeber at 10:35 AM No comments: 

So pick someone you'd rather see

When faced with the Ass and the Manchurian Ass, I cannot vote Democrat or Republican this year (again).  But I'm now switching my minor party affiliation as well: Posted by Theodore Seeber at 8:32 AM No comments: 

Police accidentally shot man in North Miami, union says - CNN.com

Police accidentally shot man in North Miami, union says - CNN.com: "The police shooting of an African-American caregiver, who was lying in the street trying to help an autism patient, was accidental, according to the local police union representing the North Miami officer.

The officer had intended to shoot the patient, whom he thought posed a danger, but accidentally shot the caregiver instead, said John Rivera, the President of the Dade County Police Benevolent Association."

Another case of police bigotry against autism.  The poor man had a toy truck, not a gun.  And the police were ready to kill him for it.

Kinsey told WSVN that his patient was holding a toy truck, not a firearm. He said he tried to explain the situation to officers.
Cell phone footage showed Kinsey lying in the street with his hands in the air.
"All he has is a toy truck," he shouted. "I am a behavior therapist at a group home."

When are we going to start training police to deal more appropriately with the mentally ill?
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 11:16 AM No comments: Labels: Asperger's, autism, blogging against disablism, bullying, guns

A beautiful but geeky analogy

Miracles are just God patching the Universal Source Code.

The difference between the Catholic God and the Islamic Allah is that God prefers Waterfall and Allah prefers Agile CI.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 8:00 AM No comments: Labels: #WhyIAmCatholic, SoftwareEngineering


The best thing I've seen yet, the pro-life case against Donald Trump

Original, click here

ONE WINTER a Farmer found a Snake stiff and frozen with cold.
The snake said to the Farmer:
"If you pick me up and hold me to your stomach, your body will make me warm."
The Farmer said:
"If I do that you will bite me."
The Snake answered:
"Why would I do that if you save me?"
The Farmer had compassion on the Snake, and taking it up, placed it in his bosom.
The Snake was quickly revived by the warmth, and resuming its natural instincts, bit its benefactor, inflicting on him a mortal wound.
"Oh," cried the Farmer, "Why did you bite me after I saved you?"
"You knew I was a snake when you picked me up," answered the Snake.
My reasons for distrusting Donald Trump:
1.  His voter registration record.
2.  His business ethics record.
3.  His wife and chief speechwriter are Democrats.
The coup was successful.  We have two democrats running.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 2:36 PM No comments: Labels: abortion

On Nazis and Inquisitions

Hate to put them together, but they do have one wonderful thing in common when defending the truth of history.

Both German Nazis and Catholic Inquisitors were excellent record keepers.  Most genocide numbers are estimates, because most genocidal maniacs do not care to keep such excellent records.

I wonder if one day the files of Planned Parenthood will serve a similar historical value, to get an accurate count of the dead.

In some cases, the number is damning.  In other cases, such as the Spanish Inquisition's rather progressive and liberal 98% acquittal rate, the numbers are liberating.  But in both cases, accuracy leads to a view of history not normally available even a few decades later.

Posted by Theodore Seeber at 12:20 PM No comments: 


Redefining Deviance: The Gay Assault on Franciscan University - Crisis Magazine

Redefining Deviance: The Gay Assault on Franciscan University - Crisis Magazine:


This article is old.  Really old.  4 years ago old.

But it makes an excellent point about the difference between diversity, which Catholicism supports, and deviancy- which Catholicism can NEVER support.

To me, the line between diversity and deviancy is the line between sin and virtue, between abuse and use.  Deviant behaviors are inherently abusive- the actor cares more for the behavior as an end unto itself, than the good of the people or things around him.  Diverse behaviors, while they can and often are upsetting in the short term, are ordered towards the common good; towards the good of self and others, and are thus use, rather than abuse.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 8:17 AM No comments: Labels: bullying, homosexuality


Anonymous reality check, found on the internet

These police deaths, as horrifying as they are to see, are well within the statistical normal. 2 Ambushes don't make a major trend and ambushing cops is not entirely new.
Being a police is a mildy dangerous job. It does not rank in the top 10 most dangerous jobs in America because MOST criminals don't actually shoot back at all. Only 42 officers died last year being shot.
I suspect suicide actually killed more than criminals. This is because as the Dallas Chief suggesting, we are 'Asking our cops to do too much'.
We are asking them to go out into the public under the false pretense than their job is WAY more dangerous and construction work, when it's just not. It's not more dangerous than being a Cabi or deliver truck driver. Being on the road all the time is more dangerous than being a police officer.
That's not by accident, police do have a lot of protection and ppl are scared of them, but police death stats go back a long time and I suspect they are accurate enough. We have stats on all professions, especially death stats because you know people tend to notice when someone dies and why they died. With just that data we can prove beyond any reasonable doubt that being a police officer is not in the top 10 most dangerous professions. I don't know where it ranks.
140 dead out of 1.1 million makes me suspect it ranks quite low in lethal professions. Police also get a ton more benefits than other professions. They have special funds, added support from the public if they die in the line of duty, they get lots of free stuff.
Why are police getting all these perks and acting like their profession is so dangerous when in reality they are getting paid quite well for a less dangerous position and perks that other comparable non education required careers don't tend to offer. On top of that they are given special privileges by the law to protect them from investigation as well as Police Unions. They have proportionally way more charities also.
We are treating police more than nice enough. It's they who are not treating the people, their customers, well. Police training sucks, the Police Union needs to shut it's mouth and listen to the public. 1.1 million workers don't get to tell 332 million citizens how things should be. Police are our public employees. They are going to do the job within the bounds of what citizens say or citizens will get mad and eventually over decades of built up anger or just some bad mental health luck, you have events like this.
When police deaths double from 140 to 280 we can call it a major uptick, but even then. We are talking about 240 people out of 1.1 million. It's not worth national attention and it doesn't represent any real danger or crisis.
The real crisis is the way Americans mindlessly react to things on the media, without double checking, without thinking first, withing considering the repercussions. We are not going to hold the position of the worlds most powerful nation for much longer like this. When words come out of your mouth and you state them as fact, you outta know if they are true. It's not asking too much.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 8:15 AM No comments: 
How Persuaders See the World | Scott Adams' Blog

How Persuaders See the World | Scott Adams' Blog:


Scott Adams has been doing a series on the use of hypnotism for presidential campaigns.

He claims the world is separated into rational thinkers, word thinkers, and persuaders.  I call these by different names:




Or maybe in a more capitalistic society:




I also disagree with his percentages.  I'd call it 10%, 85%,  5%.

Persuaders exist.  They are always bad.  And that includes our top two current ones.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 6:53 AM No comments: 

A speech I'm working on for Columbus Day Weekend

My dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Reverend Father Don,

Archbishop Sample told us last spring here at St. Clare's at Confirmation, that it will be much harder for our young Catholics to stay Catholic, than it was for the generation who memorized the Baltimore Catechism.

Your Knights of Columbus council knows this well; we have many men who have raised our families, only to find that some children are no longer Catholic.  We are offering the Return Video Class to older members of our parish as a way to learn how to talk to family members who have left the faith; but we must do more.

As Knights, we are Christian Soldiers, moving Onward and Upward Together, toward our God.  (hold up rosary) My sword is prayer, the Rosary of Mary, the Rosary of Charity.  Through my prayer, I become more aware of the needs around me, I become more generous in charity.  (Guesture to the left, at the Crucifix) My shield is the Cross of Christ, for which I am pledged to be a new Simon of Cyrene.  In Unity we Knights help each other carry our Cross.  (guesture at the Altar) On this table, less than 15 minutes ago, we celebrated the third sign of Formation for the Knights, the Holy Eucharist, through which all men and women become brothers and sisters in Christ and exemplify the virtue of Fraternity.

It is well known that when a man acts as a fully involved and informed Catholic father around the children that he encounters, the children are more likely to stay Catholic.  When Families volunteer together, they teach children to be more charitable. Whether your vocation is single, married, or the Holy Orders, having some formation and companionship as a Father will help the children around you.  A fully informed Catholic Father is one who uses Charity, Unity, and Fraternity to help the people he loves get to Heaven, for Heaven would not be Heaven for him without those people there!

Charity, Unity, Fraternity, these are the virtues of a fully formed Knight of Columbus.  Come join us on Sunday at noon for a family lunch, with sandwiches and chips and soda.  We will have the Lego Church Building project out for the kids, at one end of the room will be showing McGivney the Musical, a play about the last time our country was so divided against Catholicism, and we will have men there to talk to you about joining the Knights of Columbus for the children in your life. Membership in Council 15485 now counts for St. Clare School Volunteer hours.


Suggestions?  Use the comment box below.  I will keep editing this for at least the next two months before I start practicing it.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 6:52 AM No comments: Labels: Knights of Columbus


Proof that homosexuals are capable of understanding natural law

Proof at Crisis Magazine that at least one formerly homosexual man converted to Catholicism, and to heteronormativity, due to natural law arguments. That's been the strange thing about this debate for me all along, the insinuation that homosexuality is such a mental illness that it actively blocks the ability to understand natural law reasoning. It is a mental illness, but it isn't quite that much of a pervasive developmental disorder.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 9:34 AM No comments: 

Pope Francis wants the church to apologize to gay people. Here’s what that could look like. - Vox

Pope Francis wants the church to apologize to gay people. Here’s what that could look like. - Vox: "They've been the subject of degrading gossip in church, and when they've tried to receive spiritual guidance, they've been treated as if lust is their biggest and even only spiritual concern. They've been given guidance that focused solely on avoiding sin, never on expressing love: a catechism of "no.""

Eve Tushnet's entire focus is on the LGBT community, so it's understandible that she thinks they are unique in this.  I'd point out though that this is exactly the same treatment that heterosexuals got from 1950-1992, and is the reason behind Theology of the Body and the destruction of heterosexual marriage we've seen in that time.

The singleminded focus of the libertine left on sex- caused a reaction in the libertine right to be focused on sex (and not focused enough on their libertine sin of using fiscal matters to control everything), causing everything to be broken.

Perhaps instead of continuing in the "us vs them" mentality that sexual orientation myth presents us with, we need to take a step back and acknowledge first, that we are children of God, not gay or straight or whatever.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 9:06 AM No comments: 

2016 Presidential Election, Politics, Religion, and the Protestant Rebellion

This is going to be a rather long post, inspired by a comment somebody made in a discussion on Voting and politicians on Disqus. It's too long for a comment, and will get rather deep into what I'm beginning to see as a very scary 8th generation American post-Christian religion that is emerging among Libertarian minded people in the United States of America.

As this is a religious post, on this subject, I find it important to start with a prayer- The Novena for the Election from Priests for Life:

O God, we acknowledge you today as Lord,
Not only of individuals, but of nations and governments.
We thank you for the privilege
Of being able to organize ourselves politically
And of knowing that political loyalty
Does not have to mean disloyalty to you.
We thank you for your law,
Which our Founding Fathers acknowledged
And recognized as higher than any human law.
We thank you for the opportunity that this election
year puts before us,
To exercise our solemn duty not only to vote,
But to influence countless others to vote,
And to vote correctly.
Lord, we pray that your people may be awakened.
Let them realize that while politics is not their salvation,
Their response to you requires that they be politically active.
Awaken your people to know that they are
not called to be a sect fleeing the world
But rather a community of faith renewing the world.
Awaken them that the same hands lifted up to you in prayer
Are the hands that pull the lever in the voting booth;
That the same eyes that read your Word
Are the eyes that read the names on the ballot,
And that they do not cease to be Christians
When they enter the voting booth.
Awaken your people to a commitment to justice
To the sanctity of marriage and the family,
To the dignity of each individual human life,
And to the truth that human rights begin when human lives begin,
And not one moment later.
Lord, we rejoice today
That we are citizens of your kingdom.
May that make us all the more committed
To being faithful citizens on earth.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This prayer is the background for how I believe all human beings should live and act in the case of voting. Thus it is a fitting place to start this discussion. The comment chain in particular that spawned this post is the following:

Theodore Seeber - With the way Hillary and Trump practice their Christianity, we might as well have no Christianity at all. Protestant "Morally Therapeutic Deism" in which God always agrees with the narcissist and conversion or repentance are never required or dreamed of is not Christian.

Myself, I'm holding my nose and voting Castle/Bradley I may have problems with Article I Section 8, but at least they interpret the Constitution by the theology in the Declaration of Independence, which is more than I can say for *any* other group of American politicians.

Magister_militum_praesentalis - Were you particularly impressed with Ted Cruz's Dominionist fundamentalism?

Theodore Seeber - Only partially. The fatal flaw of American fundamentalism is Sola Scriptura; with that doctrine, Bible-Only fundamentalism quickly degrades to the knowledge level of the individual, and due to Original Sin, there is a significant tendency in individual Bible study to avoid reading about one's own sins. Thus, fundamentalism too will quickly become a generic MTD in which God looks an awfully lot like yourself.

Josh McCully - I am intrigued by this response. As an evangelical, I hear an emphasis placed on Sola Scriptura all the time. But there is something in your statement that seems to 'click' for me. Can you elaborate more?

(I also don't know what MTD stands for)

This post is my elaboration on this subject of Sola Scriptura, Morally Theistic Deism, and Protestantism. We're nearly to the end of the Introduction (I said it would be LONG!).

What started me on this train of thought was this article in the National Review describing a new post-Christian theology called Moral Therapeutic Deism, from here on out abreviated as MTD. MTD is an outgrowth of an attempt to merge the theologogy of the Sexual Libertines of the 1960s with Christianity, and has resulted in a dangerous new terrorist group taking over our government, one which threatens to, in the next presidency, create facism and even concentration camps in the United States.

For my part, I say the article doesn't go quite far enough. Yes, the Sexual Libertines who have taken over the Democratic and Republican parties are extremely dangerous- it is arguable that we now have Sexual Libertine MTD believers as the presumptive candidates of both parties, and there are NO politicians that are not MTD that are able to gain a nomination in even most third parties. The two exceptions that emerged from the discussion above are the American Solidarity Party on the left and the Constitution Party on the right, but neither are on the ballot in all 50 states, let alone able to overcome the MTD Jesuit Catholics currently on the Supreme Court, so while I would support both of these as a way to still vote, I see zero political help coming from that quarter. It's still worth voting for them though, in hopes that after the coming civil war they'll still be around.

Where the article doesn't go far enough is that it ignores the Fiscal Libertines, who are almost as dangerous as the Sexual Libertines. The Fiscal Libertines, also, are tempted towards MTD- towards building an image of God in which God converts to Man rather than Man converting his behavior towards God. Where the Sexual Libertines would eliminate any mention of sex being for procreation only, the Fiscal Libertines would edit the Bible to remove Matthew Chapter 25, and the books written by Luke, the Gospel of Luke and Acts. The common good means nothing to fiscal libertines, and their method of care for the poor is limited to providing work opportunities based on unjust wages that cannot even cover basic expenses.

So, how did we get here? I see the seeds of the destruction actually being 500 years ago in the Protestant Rebellion. As was admitted at the Council of Trent, the lack of adequate formation and education in the Catholic Priesthood caused the Protestant Reformation, but at this point in Christian philosophy, two radically different approaches to the problem took shape. The first, the Catholic way, was the invention of the seminary and formal theological training, which while it has not solved the problem entirely, at least gives a common orthodox interpretation and a standard by which truth can be measured. The second is the Protestant concept of Sola Scriptura- reducing all authority in the religion to "Scripture Alone", and measuring every preacher by the words of Scripture, cutting off all of the history and experience of Christianity from before the invention printing press.

The sins that caused the Protestant Reformation- charging money for sacraments and indulgences, pedastery, ordination of men that should never have been given the great power of being a priest, let alone a preacher- were indeed very serious. They required a serious and radical change in the religion. However, as a Catholic I've got to say I prefer the formation model to the Scripture model. The Scripture model throws out the baby with the bathwater, so to speak, and by cutting us off from the traditions and history of our religion, opens us up to repeating the mistakes of the past.

So now, in conclusion, I finally get around to answering Josh's comment above, which I repeat here because this article is getting so long:

In my admittedly limited (mainly TBN and attending church from time to time with Protestant family members in various congregational Protestant settings) experience with Sola Scriptura, three things have become quite apparent to me:

1. When a denomination, church, or parish abandons the Common English Lectionary used by mainline Protestant and Catholic Churches, preaching tends to center on the personal bible study and opinions of the preacher in charge. This is dangerous because without proper formation, a preacher is rather limited in his experience to only those parts of the Bible he is actually familiar with; few ever actually read beyond their prejudices they were taught as children.
2. Individual believers often claim to know the scriptures, but when tested, can rarely remember more than the 30 or so prooftexted verses that support their own worldview and theology, and are never exposed to verses that might contradict their own worldview and theology.
3. Due to the extreme narcissism baked into the political culture of the United States, where every man is an individual and is a moral island unto himself, Martin Luther's nightmare of "Ev'ry Scullery Maid is now Her Own Pope" has come true. This has resulted in theological and doctrinal chaos in modern American Christianity- 30,000 denominations and denominations split over the stupidest reasons.

Thus, from my observation, the primary philosophical issues that have caused the emergence of Morally Therapeutic Deism are in fact in the abuse of Sola Scriptura rampant in American Christianity of every stripe. As I said before, we are now also seeing it in the Jesuit Order in the United States, in the very seminaries which were supposed to define Orthodoxy, where now "Academic Freedom" has supplanted Orthodoxy as the order of the day, with the result that even with a Catholic Majority on the Supreme Court, we saw Sacramental Marriage labeled as bigotry from the highest court in the land on June 26, 2015; and we see continuing support for outright genocide of the unwanted in the form of euthanasia and abortion from the court.

We are to the point where any attempt to convert away from sexual or fiscal sin, any attempt to preach against sexual and fiscal sins, is seen as bigotry and intolerance, and is treated as if it was terrorism in and of itself. We are seeing this at a time when *real terrorists*, the type that shoot up a gay nightclub and kill 50 people to make a point, are actually attacking our civilization, so the temptation towards facism which is always born out of fear and which often picks a softer target for scapegoating has become extreme. And with doctrinal chaos infesting that which used to be Christianity, I for one no longer see any hope or way forward for any of us.

May God have Mercy on those of us men who are still of Good Will. It is damned sure that none of the MTD types now attacking our charities, hospitals, men and women of medicine, economic systems, and our very right to life will hesitate to o us harm.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 6:55 AM No comments: Labels: #WhyIAmCatholic, abortion, catholicism, euthanasia, feminism, homosexuality, Papal Economics, Politics, Pornography, Protestantism, sexual orientation, sexual revolution


On the Pulse of Pulse

What happened in Orlando was horrific.  It was also, very sadly, predictable, in hindsight.  We have a young man, who, due to the confusion and lies of the sexual revolution, experiments with homosexuality and same sex attraction.  He's also Islamic by family, and in keeping with being Islamic, is heterosexually married.  In addition, over many visits to this gay bar, he keeps getting rejected by the gay men there, because, as we all know, homosexuality is based on abuse of beauty and youth, and he was no longer beautiful or young.

Add to that ISIS, a radical mosque that should have been investigated, but wasn't due to White House intervention in the FBI, and you have a recipie for disaster.

Multiculturalism is a mistake.  It cannot be accomplished.  The result will always be violence.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 6:20 PM No comments: Labels: guns, homosexuality, Immigration, Islam, mental illness, Muwahiddun, Politics, sexual orientation, sexual revolution, violence, war


Abortion is genocide- on a horrific scale

Hitler killed 6 million Jews- and likely another 6 million non-Jews. Stalin killed his 14 million people. These are the genocides of our grandfathers, that we still deride today. Right now, the conflict in Syria has killed approximately 400,000 people. Planned Parenthood, in one year, kills 300,000 all by itself. Pick 7 of your best friends. Now imagine that there was an 8th friend- one you never met because of abortion. Worldwide, we've killed 1.2 billion people by abortion in the last 30 years. That is 1/7th the world's population. That we never got to meet. Because of abortion.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 6:14 AM No comments: Labels: abortion, Politics, pro-life, war


We Cannot Convert This Culture to Christ With Politics |Blogs | NCRegister.com

The Church Militant may one day become the Church Suffering, and eventually, the Church Suffering does become the Church Triumphant.

Fr. Paul Scalia has another group of Catholics, unique to America- the Church Billigerent.  The Church Billigerent has no hope at all of salvation, for they have put their faith in politics.

We Cannot Convert This Culture to Christ With Politics |Blogs | NCRegister.com:

Posted by Theodore Seeber at 7:28 AM No comments: 


What are sins that cry to heaven for vengeance and sins against the Holy Spirit? | Catholic Answers

What are sins that cry to heaven for vengeance and sins against the Holy Spirit? | Catholic Answers: "Full Question

Most Catholics are familiar with the term mortal sin. Mortal sins deprive the soul of grace. They are serious transgressions of God's law, done freely and deliberately with a clear understanding of what they are. Their result is to deny a soul entrance to heaven.

There are particular mortal sins that are so evil that they are said to be sins that cry to heaven for vengeance: murder (Gn 4:10), sodomy (Gn 17:20-21), oppression of the poor (Ex 2:23), and defrauding workers of their just wages (Jas 5:4).

Sins against the Holy Spirit are mortal sins that harden a soul by its rejection of the Holy Spirit. Six sins are in this category. They are despair, presumption, envy, obstinacy in sin, final impenitence, and deliberate resistance to the known truth."


Good things to remember in this age of political madness
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 10:16 AM No comments: 

Obama to make historic visit to Hiroshima - CNNPolitics.com

Obama to make historic visit to Hiroshima - CNNPolitics.com:


Nagasaki would be almost more fitting, given the Obama Administration's current issues with Catholicism.  But I guess I'm glad he's not visiting the site of the Catholic Holocaust done by the US Military (The Archdiocese of Nagasaki used to have a beautiul Cathedral.  Three days after Hiroshima, it was ground zero for a nuclear weapon).
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 6:37 AM No comments: 


A response to Restore-DC-Catholicism: Today's Political Developments Demand Rational Response, Not Knee-Jerk Rancor

This is an excellent argument for why good pro-life Catholics

in any contested state should fight their own conscience to vote for

Trump in November:

'via Blog this

Here is why I can't, and is my response to this argument:

In my case, quite literally, Cruz's exit from the race has stolen *all* meaning from my vote entirely, both now and in the general election.
The reason why has nothing to do with emotion and everything to do with the demographics of Oregon, where liberal Democrats in four cities (Portland, Salem, Eugene, and Bend) run this state. They have a majority, nobody else has a voice at all.
The ONE exception to that is our May 1-May 18 Republican Primary. Yes, we get three weeks to vote in Oregon. And what happens FOUR DAYS IN to those three weeks? The other two decide suddenly that Trump is unbeatable, and drop out.
Thanks loads Cruz and Kasich. I now have zero meaningful vote.
Also, due to the tone of politics from both sides, I consider the train wreck of the sexual and fiscal revolutions to be finished. Catholicism lost. It will be 200 years before we have any chance of restoring Catholicism as a meaningful voice in America. It will take a massive change in the urban/rural divide to do so

That is why I'll be voting Constitution party. Because I will not vote with the majoirty, and because the Republicans have abandoned this state- once again. Just like every time a Republican pro-lifer gets in office, suddenly tax cuts for the rich and cutting welfare for the poor is more important than the unborn.

And in races where the Constitution Party is not available, well, there is always: Posted by Theodore Seeber at 5:52 PM No comments: Labels: blogging against disablism, bullying, catholicism, Politics, Pornography, pro-life

Anyone Is More Qualified For President Than Trump Or Clinton

Anyone Is More Qualified For President Than Trump Or Clinton:


This argument in the federalist is right on. But I've got another suggestion: 

The Distributist Disunited States of America

When I was in college, I was introduced to a park architecture technique used to create sidewalks. What you do is first you plant a lawn, then let people walk on the lawn. After six months, dirt paths will appear, and that's where you put the sidewalks.

I've been aware of these Maps Drawn from AT&T Cell Phones and Where's George Data for some time now, and have been pondering what they mean. Dirk Brockman, who created this map, has the full story of how he got into this research on his web page. I am often asked, by people skeptical of distributism, how we might get from one large market dominated by New York City Banks and Stockbrokers, to several small markets. While this does not approach my personal ideal of no market greater than 100,000 human beings, it does show that for our nearly 400 million human beings in the United States, there are some natural limits to the free market. I would sure like to see an alternative community currency experiment in which 15 new currency issuing banks were set up, one for each of these regions. ----Edited because I can't count when I am tired.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 11:25 PM No comments: Labels: Papal Economics, Politics


Northern Oregon Hotsprings Review- Austin and Bagby Labels: Austin, Austin Hot Springs, Bagby, Bagby Hot Springs, Roadtrip


The Divorce Gap - The Atlantic

Don't get divorced.

The Divorce Gap - The Atlantic:

Posted by Theodore Seeber at 3:29 AM No comments: Labels: #WhyIAmCatholic, Amoris Laetitia, sexual revolution


Amoris Laetitia and the Missing Word

The Exhortation Amoris Laetitia has been out for a few weeks now. I've done several hours of reading and analysis on it, including a word cloud: Which gives us a phrase that I'd call the central message of this Exhortation: Family Can Love Life.

But what nags me isn't what is in this most excellent description of the state of marriage in the world. Even the "problematic" Chapter 8 is at least talking about the real experience some people have with irregular, less than ideal marriage. No, what bugs me is one word that was left out:


It occurs to me though that there are two possible explanations for this word being missing, one of which is mildly irritating, and the second of which is downright frightening:

1. Mildly irritating to those of us in North America and Europe who are serious about our marriages and faith is that our small-t traditional language of sin and repentance is a foreign concept to Pope Francis. Not that he doesn't have the concept, but that he doesn't have the language. Sin and repentance in Latin America are considered private- the seal of the confessional inviolate in a way that does not occur in the United States. People don't talk about their sin, let alone repentance for sin- it's all hidden away behind the door of the confessional. So charitably, it was left out of the exhortation simply because people don't talk about it. Which leads us to the more frightening conclusion, at least to me.

2. This is a Synodal Exhortation- which means a small representative of Bishops met to discuss these issues *as they see them in their ministry*. They had non-Bishops speak as well, but even then, we're talking an extremely small representative sample. Still, hundreds of people spoke. But it is possible, that in all those people, we did not have a single one who understood the great role repentance plays in marriage- especially in the ideal form of marriage where divorce isn't a possibility.

Oddly enough, it is in those communities and cultures in the global north- in North America, in Europe and Asia- where the lack of repentance is exactly what has gone wrong with marriage. Thanks to no-fault divorce laws- which are completely unthinkable in Latin America and Africa, though sadly Australia joins in with the north on this topic- experiences of repentance in family are dying. Individualism, the individualism Pope Francis rightly says destroys marriage, destroys repentance first. It is the inability of the individual spouses to repent that destroys a family.

I fear that #2 is more true than #1- one doesn't get to be a priest, let alone a Pope, without learning to speak of repentance. And if #2 is the real reason- what a sad state of the family we live in today.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 1:42 PM No comments: Labels: Amoris Laetitia, catholicism, Pope Francis


A cloistered Nun writes a webcomic

Truly, I say unto you, The Last Shall Be First is fullfilled on the Internet.
Posted by Theodore Seeber at 8:19 AM No comments: 

Caritas In Veritate- the Truth behind the document in a word cloud

It seems that even Pope Benedict can be clarified with this study method in interesting ways. Labels: #WhyIAmCatholic, Papal Economics, Pope Benedict

Evangelii Gaudium as a Word Cloud

I really like this shortcut for understanding Pope Francis. Will it also work for this document that was partially written by Pope Benedict? Posted by Theodore Seeber at 6:31 AM No comments: Labels: Evangelii Gaudium, Papal Economics, Pope Benedict, Pope Francis Theodore Seeber
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