Category Archives: Apologetics

The Latin Mass and the Orthodox

17 Thursday Dec 2009

Posted by in Apologetics, Articles Published in Other Venues, Liturgy, Theology

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Under the headline “Russian Orthodox prelate welcomes return of Latin Mass,” Catholic World News ran a report on Patriarch Alexei II’s positive reception on Pope Benedict’s motu proprio giving more freedom to the ceremonies of the Classical Roman Rite. Summorum Pontificum goes into effect as law on September 14, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Continue reading →

Mary Ever Virgin

30 Thursday Jul 2009

Posted by in Apologetics, Articles Published in Other Venues, Mariology

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“The friends of Christ do not tolerate hearing that the Mother of God ever ceased to be a virgin.” -St. Basil the Great

Introduction

“The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35)[1]

In God’s plan for our salvation, the only-begotten son of the Father was also to be the son of Mary. This is simply a fact of history. Continue reading →

A Better Testament

11 Thursday Jun 2009

Posted by in Apologetics, Articles Published in Other Venues, Sacred Scripture and Tradition: Sources of Revelation, Theology

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“But now [Christ] hath obtained a better ministry, by how much also he is a mediator of a better testament which is established on better promises.” (Heb. 8:6)

The terms “supersessionism” and “replacement theology” are used by Jews and heterodox Christians alike to signify the traditional teaching that the Old Covenant is no longer in effect, but has been surpassed by a superior Covenant, the New Testament in Christ’s Precious Blood. Continue reading →

The Ark of the New Covenant

28 Thursday May 2009

Posted by in Apologetics, Fr. Leonard Feeney, St. Benedict Center, and Friends, Grace, Magisterium, Mariology, Sacred Scripture and Tradition: Sources of Revelation, Theology

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In his Epistle to the Hebrews, St. Paul calls Our Lord the “high Priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle” (9:11). Greater than the Israelite priests — those who “serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things” —Christ Our Lord has “obtained a better ministry, by how much also he is a mediator of a better testament which is established on better promises” (8:5-6). To St. Paul — and to all other Catholics — the Old Law was both finished and surpassed by the New Law of the Gospel. Continue reading →

Left Behind

06 Wednesday May 2009

Posted by in Apologetics

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Left Behind is a popular series of books written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Evangelical Protestants brilliantly capitalizing on their “pre-trib” version of the “rapture theory.” This article is not about those books, but about the Catholic custom of venerating relics.

“Then why name the article that way?” you may ask. There are three reasons for doing so. The first is based on strategy: to get Protestants who like those books to read an article in a Catholic magazine. The second is based on etymology, and that explanation will come in the next paragraph. The third is a doctrinal reason and is related to the plot of the original Left Behind book. It will not be given until the end of the article. Continue reading →