This would be a useful interpretation if popes never imposed their wills prior to Vatican I.

Hans Urs von Balthasar

The older I get, the more I find I just have to accept that other people don't/won't share my way of thinking about things. I can't let it affect my own happiness with art/the things I love. This world is already miserable, I should try not to add my own unnecessary misery on top of it if possible.

There’s a generation of us in anglophone Catholic theology who often find ourselves defending Ratzinger precisely bc we were also some version of theologically conservative, but increasingly politically progressive as well.

Massimo Faggioli calls this the "Digital Magisterium" (or was it the Internet Magisterium? one of those; I won't be googling it). And it's one of the most enormous problems facing all bishops. They've been slow about it, tbh. Unfortunately. And Word on Fire is increasingly... a problem also. Sigh.

Furthermore, I am not particularly fond of the argument that "our faith was taught poorly." For it implies a refusal to engage in self-examination; it presupposes that our religious faith/doctrine or our religion is perfect, and that those who question it simply fail to understand it,...

Man. I grew up a trad. My undergrad institution protected a rapist priest. For spiritual-financial reasons. I’m out sympathy right now. I’m all for education, yeah no hate, but there are more Black Catholics OR queer Catholics than SSPX members so it’s tough to tell me who’s not powerful here.

(1) Schism is any separation of communion that’s public refusal to obey Rome. It can include doctrinal matters. (2) Genuinely the bizarre thing about the modern papacy compared to all its other eras is how hard they fight for obedience to a council. (3) That’s all I want to speculate on.

Vibes of vibes, saith the Prophet. Everything is vibes.

I know they claim it's theological, but it's just not. They don't have a vivid theological system or ranking theologians. It's really stupid to commit schism for an aesthetic.

(1) Cool. (2) I tend to run into two wildly different reactions anytime Franciscan comes up in (American) conversations: are you in the cool secret club, that place is crazy.

ther first two thirds of bioshock infinite

IMO it's insufficient to just be aghast at the anti-immigrant fear-mongering or the un-American constitutional revisionism. I hope folks will become calmly, vocally, & persistently pro-immigration. The baseline should be that more Americans is good & the rest is solving for making that work.

The only people more annoying than fake canon lawyers online are real canon lawyers online. I’ve seen them get in the weirdest fights about Catholicism with just about everybody.

Everyone on here like “I went to Catholic grade school, and…”

I did a lot of research on Imane Khelif (I had an essay idea that never quite came together — involving theatre!), what people were saying, and uhhh yeah —misogyny and racism made sure absolutely everyone but men lost? The thesis was that she can punch too hard and succeed too much to count??

Ugh. www.vaticannews.va/en/church/ne...

tbh, kind of needed the pat on the back because I was going through it re: my shady alma mater today. I wouldn’t say my work redeems that place, but I took what they handed me and slowly, relentlessly tried to follow Balthasar and co. beyond the narrow place I started from. That’s been good for me.

This is really a fantastic book and so much better than DBH’s book on tradition that came out around the same time.

Man I forgot how much I really fucking hated my time at Franciscan. It's hard to put me in that headspace, but describing the *spirituality* there is apparently my emotional kryptonite. First night there they tried to get me go to a Women's Integration Seminar. I said some real rude stuff instead.

"The standard by which Christians are measured is their love of God and neighbor and not the 'grade' they get in Religious Experience. Blessed are the poor in spirit, who are also the ones who 'do the will of my heavenly Father' in their daily encounters with their fellow man." Balthasar

Rather fitting reflections from @catholickungfu.bsky.social today as I ponder the coincidence of Canada Day (tomorrow) and the Anglican Consultative Council’s discernment of the Nairobi-Cairo Proposals.

God, that 7-part series on Franciscan U. It’s horrifying. Don’t know if y’all have seen it.

Some really unconscionable replies to this post.

striking down the birthright EO by 6-3 is like clearing the lowest bar possible but also tripping on the bar on your way over

I hate when SSPX is in the news because suddenly everyone is a canon lawyer. It’s annoying as hell.

Return of the Jedi has a priest character. I will take no questions about this thesis, thank you.

Gundam has a priest character. I will take no questions about this thesis, thank you.

I mean — I don’t do this super perfectly because right this second I’m more excited about Gundam than yet another conversation about everyone’s favorite American bishop… but being irenic and thoughtful is pretty important for public Catholicism. It’s good to try.

Catholics, the only people I know well, are all over the place about queerness, interpersonally. Lots of trauma to go around. Lots of ways of fitting it with faith. I don’t know most of the ways, and never will. I try to be open. I’m not sure there’s one perfect way to go through all that.

1.) Pete Buttigieg was born in South Bend, Indiana in 1982. This is how he is. 2.) he wished -- as in, in the past tense -- that he could be straight. which is a thing many, many, many LGBTQ people, including myself, have wished.

I believe the moral philosopher The Killers said “I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier”

Me, a good Aristotelian: duh, animals and plants HAVE souls. Angels do not, as they are angels and are made entirely of spirit. Angels are weird. Pretend I didn’t bring them up.

Not-vampiring makes sense in a more religious context, imho: I have a soul and I'd like to keep it. No thank you to surrendering it forever, whence I walk the night absent a conscience. "You're still you, but now you're hungry for BLOOD" isn't quite the full fear, mythologically speaking.

"Catholic enough," like almost any "enough" conversation, only ever signals that somebody is about to earn themselves a yellow or a red card in their chosen topic.

Why (Ancient) Christians would be terrified of capybaras in hot springs (seven hours)

Looking forward to a follow-up video, "Why St. Augustine Would Hate the Crying Babies in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island."

My brain has been consistently reminding me, every morning, extremely unhelpfully: “you have an article coming out against an important person.” And I don’t know what to do with myself. Now that it’s written/accepted, the nerd rage about protecting dead men has passed. I’m slightly bereft.

Sure, after you explained electricity to them. And video games. And Japan. But it doesn’t *really* claim to be Christian so I think they’d be like, “Ah, more Isis mystery cult shit. Well, that’s pagan error. And why is the cat talking?”

Huh. So I guess Popehat guy doubled down. He kind of annoyed me a lot so I didn’t follow him but uhhhh yikes.

Prayers for Venezuela. It’s really hard to read about and imagine. Can’t imagine what it feels like on the ground.

I think Eric is right that “the right response to all of this is…to figure out how to teach it from a non-sectarian position.” The only thing I’d add is that the effort to educate from a non-sectarian perspective isn’t neutral either but expresses the positive values of the state (& that’s good!)

A local church in McAllen announced on social media that one of its religious sisters has been detained by ICE while on her way to Sunday Mass. www.valleycentral.com/news/local-n...

Trump: can honor my MOU? Everyone: you can just stop conducting airstrikes. Trump, confused, lifts all of his airstrikes with his hands: please. My MOU.

People talk about US higher ed like it’s all blue haired gender majors but mostly it’s nursing and business students

Seeking recs of novels, shows, albums, etc., that are immersive and have a sort of purity, a strange independent solidity, worlds away from the news

This is not a dunk it’s a real puzzle… At some point, and I never know which point, we’re just pointing out that a lot of Protestant practices developed later. Which is kind of just neutral as far as facts go. And our thesis requires Catholics to perpetually fail to adapt… which can’t be true.

Algerian fans chanting THANK YOU LAWRENCE