A Reminder: The Teaching of the Catholic Church on Marital Obedience

Second only to the Church’s teachings on usury and the duties of the state to the Catholic faith, the Church’s teaching on obedience in marriage is one of the most maligned and ignored by those tasked with defending it. When you encounter the modern view on this question, as with the others, simply quote the Church’s teaching and demand that the defender of the modern view produce a verbatim retraction (which of course will not be forthcoming):

“On the other hand, the duties of a wife are thus summed up by the Prince of the Apostles: Let wives be subject to their husbands. that if any believe not the word, they may be won without the word by the conversation of the wives, considering your chaste conversation with fear. Let not their adorning be the outward plaiting of the hair, or the wearing of gold, or the putting on of apparel: but the hidden man of the heart in the incorruptibility of a quiet and meek spirit, which is rich in the sight of God. For after this manner heretofore the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling hint lord.

To train their children in the practice of virtue and to pay particular attention to their domestic concerns should also be especial objects of their attention. The wife should love to remain at home, unless compelled by necessity to go out; and she should never presume to leave home without her husband’s consent.

Again, and in this the conjugal union chiefly consists, let wives never forget that next to God they are to love their husbands, to esteem them above all others, yielding to them in all things not inconsistent with Christian piety, a willing and ready obedience.” [i]Catechism of the Council of Trent: The Sacrament of Matrimony[/i]

Prescription Anti-Psychotics Take Another Life

Edit: It seems pretty clear that James Fields is innocent (of murder at least). As such, this post is retracted.

A Donald for a Caesar

I don’t approve of having a republic as a form of government. That said, it’s certainly true that some republican systems are better than others. For example, the ancient Romans wisely had a practice whereby, in a situation of national crisis, a dictator would be appointed on a temporary basis. While the emergency continued, the dictator’s rule was absolute.

It should be clear at this point, that on January 6th, after the electoral votes were officially counted, Trump should have stated something to this effect:

“Much like us, the ancient Romans had a republic, and it was a wonderful republic, believe me. Now, in order to keep things on track, they would in times of serious national crisis appoint one man to be a temporary absolute ruler, whose word was law. Now, it’s apparent that draining the swamp will not be possible if I have to work within the current legal apparatus, therefore I will take my election as such a mandate. So, upon taking office, I will unilaterally promulgate any law, budget, or executive order that I deem necessary to Make America Great Again, and I will not allow for any judicial or other review.

Now, I’m not for true dictatorship of course, so I’ll allow a little bit of oversight in this: if Congress finds this unacceptable, either now or in the future, they can impeach me, and I’ll step down voluntarily. I’m even giving them two weeks fair warning, in case they want to preempt me entirely. Personally, given a choice between career suicide and an eight-year paid vacation, I’d take the latter, but it’s up to them.”

Twitter

I’m now on Twitter.

@AR_Reactionary

A note on the CIA

Just a note:

The CIA is, by virtue of its publicly acknowledged purposes, a group of dishonest execrable liars who encourage people to commit treason against their countries. If the government were just, its members would be executed from the top down for espionage.

Carry on.

Advice for bishops: how to get men back in the Church

The next time one of your priests does something completely outrageous (i.e. clearly articulated the Church’s moral doctrine) and catches a ton of media flak for it, call a press conference to discuss the matter, and then denounce the “crooked media” to their faces, call them liars, dishonest, etc.

That will make people interested in what you have to say.

While America’s “magisterium” is having its credibility and moral authority questioned and mocked, would be a great time for the real one to assert itself. Sadly, most bishops will probably try to ally themselves (to no avail of course) with the crooked media, because they believe in its authority and not in their own.

The Great Comission and hatred of one’s hosts

There is a bad tendency among many of the clergy today, to want to make America* Catholic not by means of conversion, but by way of immigration (this will fail for a number of reasons, but the sort of people who think like this generally aren’t sufficiently reflective to see that). This inverts Christ’s command to convert all nations, and replaces it with a desire to abolish any nation that does not convert, i.e. hatred.

If you want a sane and charitable approach to evangelizing America, it has to go like this:

1. America is in fact, and always has been, a secular-Protestant country.
2. America, as in the actual population thereof, must convert.

*Our clergy have the excuse of being able to pretend that that’s what they’re up to. The ones in Europe have no excuse.

In which I take up the prophetic prose

Woe to you journalists! You take up the air of righteousness, while you yourselves are children of Hell. You make the rest of the people both great and small alike to fear your wrath. You make opponents of homosexual perversion to fear the loss of their jobs, you make police officers fear being railroaded, and you make even the politicians to cower before your wrath. Now you shall fear! You shall dread the terror of the libel suit when you defame the innocent, and civil incarceration when you abet traitors. Your plans have been confounded, and now the evil which you visited upon the meek shall return to you tenfold.

Woe to you who hire illegals! You take jobs from hard working Americans, and give them to foreigners who work on starvation wages. You build up immense profit while giving none of it to your employees. You sell products to those who are well paid, while you starve your own. Now you shall be made to regret it! Your workers shall be deported to a land you know not, and you yourselves shall be taken before the judge, who will hand you over to the guard, who will cast you into prison.

Woe to you who ship jobs to China! You employ dirt poor Asians while becoming rich. You make money off of Americans while you provide them no livelihood. Thus you shall do no more! A tariff shall be placed on your goods, and they shall not be allowed in until you have paid the last penny.

A reasoned analysis of bullying in schools

First of all, in discussing bullying, a distinction needs to be made between physical bullying and kids making fun of each other.

As for the latter, it’s not something that should be a serious concern to any reasonable person. Kids have always made fun of each other, and they always will. It’s venially sinful, and teachers should correct it if they witness individual instances of it, but it’s not something to be worried about, and certainly not something to mount massive campaigns over.

The former sort of bullying (physically abusing one’s classmates) is a bit more concerning, and should warrant corporal punishment, but it again is not a matter which should warrant existential concern. Kids (particularly young boys) always have gotten into fights and always will.

The parable of the tolerant man and the promethean neopelagian

Tradition, Authority, Reason

He then addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else.

“Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a tolerant man and the other was a promethean neopelagian.

The tolerant man took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—racist, homophobic, xenophobic—or even like this promethean neopelagian.

I’m #NeverTrump, and I give communion to adulterers.’

But the promethean neopelagian stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’

I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

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