Doctrine
Catechism, sacred theology, philosophy, canon law, liturgy, sacraments, ..
Some time ago Professor L. M. Larson, the distinguished head of the department of history at the University of Illinois, called upon the writer and thus stated the object of his visit. "Father," he said, "I am writing a history of England. I have encountered so many different and conflicting...
The Week
The grouping of days into weeks is a practice we meet very early in human history. The moon, as well as the sun, has been used as a measure of time. Indeed, as the changes in the appearance of the moon are so striking, the moon was employed much earlier than the sun for computing dates...
Introduction
One day a pious brother, advanced in years, entered my study and said: "Father, I wish you would write something about holy water. It is such a good, simple medicine for body and soul; and so many people do not know this."
To this pious suggestion the present little book is due...
The only-begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, who will come at the end of time to judge the Living and the dead, and to reward each according to their deeds both the reprobate and the elect; all of whom will rise with their own proper bodies which they now bear, so that they may receive according...
The central, the most important fact about the Catholic Church, that which primarily differentiates it from every other religious organization on the face of the earth, is the living presence of Jesus Christ Our Lord within it. This actual indwelling of Our Blessed Lord within the society which...
The first and most important point to be noted in regard to the Catholic dogma of the worship of the Saints is that both dulia, i. e. the worship we render to the Saints in general, and hyper-dulia, i. e. that specific worship which we give to the Blessed Virgin in particular, differ formally...
Is baptism necessary for our salvation?
It is doubtless the most necessary of all the sacraments, because without it we are incapable of receiving any other sacrament, and because it is ordained by Jesus Christ as the only means of receiving the first grace of justification, by which alone we...
There are two ways in which a Sacrament may be necessary for salvation. It may be necessary as a means, or it may be necessary as the fulfilment of a precept only. Now, in saying that baptism is necessary for salvation, we mean that it is necessary as a means of salvation; so that, without it...
The term “Communion of Saints” seems to have been first inserted in the baptismal creeds in the South of Gaul; and it is to be understood as the South Gallic writers of the fifth and sixth centuries understood it; giving the word “Saints” the normal meaning which it still holds today: the Elect...
261. What aids have we for the more ready observance of the moral order?
The passions.
262. But are not the passions evil? Are they not always spoken of as incentives to wrong-doing, in fact, as bad passions but never as good passions ?
These questions show that there is a great...
Has Jesus Christ left us a rule by which we may know the truths He has revealed?
He has, and it is only by following this rule that we are preserved in that one true faith, of which the Scripture says, there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism,” (Ephesians 4:5), and “without which faith it is...
A Strange Doctrine
A very large class of people calling themselves Christians in the North of Europe, and indeed in the South of Europe — but there is no use of mentioning countries and names — believe that the soul is predestined to be lost or saved independently of its own liberty. It is a...
As must surely be the case with many readers of The Remnant, I have followed the series of articles on the Dialogue Mass under the title ”Debating The Relevant Issues” with increasing bemusement.
In what sense is the question of the Dialogue Mass relevant to us and where is this debate going...
To the man who reads twentieth-century theological literature at all perceptively, it becomes more and more apparent that the central area of interest to the writers of our time is and has been the science of ecclesiology. And, within the area of the tractatus de ecclesia, there is one essential...
During the past couple of years the American press has reported an unusually large number of attacks and charges against the Catholic Church. Taken individually, a great many of these charges are not serious enough to warrant any particular attention. Far too frequently they manifest themselves...
What we may call a methodology of Catholic polemic is a badly needed article in our country today. We have come to expect that after every war in which the United States takes part movements and writings against the true Church of God in this country will increase in number and in intensity. The...
Monsignor Vaughan recently treated this subject before the Liverpool Branch of the English Truth Society. He sums up the teaching of the Church on the subject in the following four propositions:
“Whether it be a man’s own personal fault or not, it was still true to say there was no greater...
It is a dogma of divine faith that the Catholic Church is requisite for salvation. It is also perfectly certain that a man who dies as a non-member of the Church can attain to the beatific vision. Theologians have had to keep both these facts in mind in explaining the axiom extra Ecclesiam nulla...
In a previous article it was pointed out that Catholics are in great need of a correct knowledge of the meaning of faith, and an attempt was made to explain exactly the nature of the first of the three theological virtues as the Catholic Church understands it. 1 It is very evident that the...
One can sometimes hear propounded the unfortunate thesis that opposite errors are equally dangerous. It is assumed that because something is false or exaggerated, because one renounces it as “extremists,” that its opposite must be just as false and dangerous. It is forgotten that there is a...