De Omnibus Dubitandum Est.

Inspired by Heresy Corner , and in celebration of Pope Benedict XVI's 85th birthday & the 7th anniversary of his pontificate this week, here are ten, not all together serious reasons why you should break with secular orthodoxy and love the Pope: 1. Julie Burchill hates him. So does Claire Rayner, who is quoted as saying that "in all my years as a campaigner I have never felt such animus against any individual as I do against this creature." Silly woman. That pompous ass Geoffrey Robertson QC has written an entire book about how much he wants to arrest him. And did I mention Peter Tatchell? Anyone who manages  to collect such an impressive roll-call of humourless, self-important and tedious enemies must be doing something right. 2. His shoes. Got to love those ruby slippers. They even have their own Facebook page . None of your Prada rubbish, either, as was once inaccurately reported: these are unique, handmade pumps created by a leading traditional craftsman, for ...

Irish? Catholic? Have Irish Catholic family? Heard about this ? At a time when so many are moving closer to Rome; SSPX , Anglo Catholics , Orthodox, and despite the well documented problems in the Church in Ireland, which some have postulated, is a direct result of the fact that the rule of Canon Law has ceased on the Emerald Isle, the ACP- Association of Catholic Priests (820 of the country’s 3,400 priests are ACP members) have commissioned a survey demonstrating once again, for all the world to see, their incredibly blinkered  parochial attitude as to what should constitute the Catholic faith.  This poll,  the result of result of 40 years brainwashing for Liberal Catholicism from RTE & the newspapers, combined with a total absence of catechesis, authentic dialogue and proper philosophical grounding, tells us one thing more than any other: that most Irish Catholics don't know their faith. 87% of Irish Catholics say priests should be allowed to ma...

The Church has always extolled fertility as a good of marriage despite this being somewhat contrary to the modern secular understanding of fertility as either a nuisance, some sort of disease to be treated with medication, or alternatively as a ‘right’. Today it sometimes appears that we spend the first half our lives desperately trying to avoid pregnancy, and the second half trying desperately to conceive. The perspective offered by the Catholic Church may be one you actually find refreshing, surprising, relevant and clear, especially when explained through the lens of modern teaching. The ‘good’ of fertility consistently upheld and taught by the Church speaks to our physical reality, without making excuses, acknowledging the complimentarity of our bodies and the good of the sexual inclination we experience. Through these realities, a husband and wife, as sexually differentiated beings, are able to unite themselves to one another in the deepest way possible in the conjugal act...

Wednesday 18th April 2012- On The Prospect of Having a Daughter Again So Louise is pregnant, didn't you know? We are going to be parents for the fifth time, though we'll only have four children (a fact that causes all kinds of problems when meeting new people). We have been trying to conceive for a long time without success, there will be a nine year gap between John and the new baby. We had left it in the hands of the Lord, but a new desperation entered into the venture after we lost Ruthie. All this was to no avail, despite the fact that, as Catholics, we've used natural fertility to plan our family and thus are rather good at knowing the important parts of the fertility cycle. To be honest, we had all but given up and decided that it was not in God's plan that we should have another child. I have to say that I took this really quite badly, rightly or wrongly, I considered it some kind of judgement on what had happened, or on me as a parent. The desire to be ...