Post

More from @catholiccom

Catholic Answers

@catholiccom

May 8

We have a pope!

Here are the basics on Leo XIV, the Catholic Church's new pontiff: 🧵

1. Augustinian spirituality

Robert Provost professed his solemn vows with the Augustinian order in 1981

In his first papal address, he quoted the great saint:

"I am a son of Saint Augustine, an Augustinian. He said, 'With you I am a Christian, for you a bishop.'"

2. High education

He holds:

-A Bachelor of Science in Mathematics (Villanova)
-A Master of Divinity degree (Catholic Theological Union)
-A licentiate and doctorate in canon law (the Angelicum, below)

Read 9 tweets

Catholic Answers

@catholiccom

May 6

The LDS missionaries are at your door, and you don't know what to say to them.

...unless you've prepared beforehand.

Here's a calm, effective three-step approach:🧵

Longtime Catholic apologist Tim Staples says he has found that "this approach does at least two things: It fosters a conversation without causing an abrupt end to it, and it has never resulted in anything close to a cogent response"

FIRST: Begin by praising the good

LDS and Catholics agree on belief in an authoritative, hierarchical Church that speaks with apostolic authority.

Staples says he will "usually bring up the Protestant tradition of sola scriptura in this context, showing that it is unbiblical and affirming that Catholics agree with the LDS on this point. The missionary in my living room will nod his approval"

Read 8 tweets

Catholic Answers

@catholiccom

Apr 23

Cardinals are gathering in Rome to prepare to elect the next pope.

You might be wondering exactly what a papal conclave is, and how it works.

Here are the answers.🧵

A papal conclave is the election process by which a new pope, the visible head of the Catholic Church, is selected.

After a pope dies or resigns, a papal conclave commences within three weeks to elect his successor.

A conclave is the gathering of the College of Cardinals in which these papal electors choose the next pope.

The word “conclave” derives from the Latin words cum clavis, meaning “with key.”

After the death of Pope Clement IV in November 1268, the interregnum dragged on for almost three years.

The lay faithful of Viterbo, Italy, aided the selection process by locking the cardinal electors in the city’s episcopal palace, and also limiting their food supply (!), until they elected a new pope:

Read 9 tweets

Catholic Answers

@catholiccom

Feb 5

This point can't be overstated.

In paragraph 17 of Humanae Vitae, Pope St. Paul VI prophesied—yes, prophesied—three catastrophic social consequences of widespread contraception.

It's chilling to read today:🧵

1. "[F]irst consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards."

There is much we could say here, but just the divorce rate alone—compared to where we were in 1968—is staggering. (Graph via allianceformarriage.org)

Its sharp rise began in the late sixties, when the development and legalization of modern contraceptives joined with the Sexual Revolution to create a perfect environment for easy, seemingly-consequence-free adultery and the accompanying rise in marital unhappiness and breakdown.

Then “a general lowering of moral standards”?? We don’t have enough space here even to scratch the surface.

2. “[Men] may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires.”

How many in the #MeToo movement realized that a pope saw it coming half a century ago?

Despite the talk of contraception “liberating” women sexually by freeing them from the “burden” of childbearing, in reality it has made them prey to male desire by promising to make them sexually available, without consequence or attachment, at all times.

No wonder that modern men, having “gro[wn] accustomed” to this arrangement as Paul VI foresaw, should lose respect for women’s spiritual, emotional, and physical dignity.

Then of course there’s pornography, no longer relegated to magazines in dark corners but right onto a screen in your hand, on demand and inexhaustible.

There’s the rise in human trafficking, the objectification of women’s bodies to sell everything from football to hamburgers, the decline of marriage and stunning rise in out-of-wedlock birth and childrearing (usually left to the woman). Take your pick.

Read 6 tweets

Catholic Answers

@catholiccom

Jul 11, 2024

"How can I believe that Jesus even existed when
the only evidence for him comes from the Bible?"

Here are three ways to approach this question:🧵

Many skeptics doubt the Gospels because its authors were believers.

Since these Christians had an investment in Jesus’s life, they argue, they probably used those writings to push an agenda rather than relate accurate history.

But is this true? Should we discount the Gospels’ accounts about Jesus’ existence because their authors were Christians?

In his book Prepare the Way, Catholic apologist Dr. Karlo Broussard argues no.

Read 18 tweets

Catholic Answers

@catholiccom

Oct 26, 2023

When the Church is rocked by scandals and immorality, remember that she has been here before, and God always leads his people into light.

In the late eleventh century, the evils of clerical corruption and sexual immorality plagued the Church extensively, weakening the influence of the Gospel and obstructing the Church’s salvific mission.

But God brought forth a stalwart defender of purity and truth, St. Peter Damian, who exhorted the pope to reform the clergy. The monastic reform produced holy men later elected to the papacy such as Pope St. Leo IX, who initiated one of the most comprehensive ecclesial reforms in history.

In his Liber Gomorrhianus (Book of Gomorrah), Peter Damian shed light on the rampant sexual sins of the clergy, calling them a “diabolical tyranny” that produced a “cancer of sodomitic impurity.”

He remarked that these sins were “raging like a cruel beast within the sheepfold of Christ” and believed that unless the pope “opposes it as quickly as possible, there is no doubt that when [he] finally wishes for the unbridled evil to be restrained, [he] may not be able to halt the fury of its advance.”

He also penned his Liber Gratissimus (Most Gracious Book) against simony, in which he remarked “the custom of simony was so widespread that hardly anyone knew it was a sin.”

The abuse was of grave concern because it rooted priestly ordination in greed and made clerics susceptible to secular control. Peter was so incensed at the sin he discussed it in frank language: “hardly any festering wound causes a more intolerable stench for the nose of God than the excrement that is greed.”

When Leo IX assumed the papal office, he launched one of the most comprehensive reforms in Church history.

He began with a synod in Rome in the year 1049, only six weeks after his consecration wherein the evil vices of simony and violations of clerical celibacy were condemned. Notorious prelates guilty of simony were placed on trial. One guilty cleric, the bishop of Sutri, dropped dead of a heart attack at Leo’s feet while arguing his innocence!

A year later at another synod in Rome, Leo issued an excommunication for all clerics publicly living in violation of their promise of celibacy. Leo recognized that authentic reform could not be simply mandated from afar but must be implemented locally, so he traveled throughout Italy, German territories, and France holding twelve total reform synods.

Leo’s focus on reform and renewal was so intense that he spent only six months of his five-and-a-half-year pontificate in Rome due to traveling to and from various synods. Wherever he went, Pope Leo IX deposed immoral bishops and punished clerics engaged in simony, infidelity, and violations of chastity.

Read 5 tweets

Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

Catholic Answers

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

More from @catholiccom

Catholic Answers

Catholic Answers

Catholic Answers

Catholic Answers

Catholic Answers

Catholic Answers

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Send Email!